A two-bedroom condominium rents for $5,200 a month in the CCR, $4,300 in the RCR and $3,600 in the OCR. The gap between the regions has narrowed every year since 2019.

A two-bedroom condominium rented for a median $5,200 a month in the core central region (CCR) in 2025, $4,300 in the rest of central region (RCR) and $3,600 outside central (OCR). Per square foot that is $5.33, $4.78 and $4.21.

The ordering has not changed in nine years, but the distances have. In 2017 a CCR two-bedroom cost 74% more a month than an OCR one; in 2025 it costs 44% more. The RCR's premium over the OCR narrowed from 26% to 19%, and the CCR's over the RCR from 38% to 21%. Rents rose fastest where they were lowest, 57% in the OCR against 30% in the CCR, and the regions moved closer together on every measure of rent.

Every region peaked in 2023, when the CCR reached $5,650, the RCR $4,500 and the OCR $3,800, and each has eased since by between four and eight percent. Contract volumes tell a different story, peaking in 2021 and dipping in 2022 and 2023, the two years rents rose fastest, before recovering in 2025.

Key takeaways

• Median monthly rent for a two-bedroom in 2025: $5,200 in the CCR, $4,300 in the RCR, $3,600 in the OCR. Median monthly rent
• From 2017 to 2025 monthly rents rose 30% in the CCR, 48% in the RCR and 57% in the OCR, so the CCR's premium over the OCR narrowed from 74% to 44%. Median monthly rent
• Per square foot, $5.33, $4.78 and $4.21 in 2025; the CCR's per-square-foot premium over the OCR narrowed from 46% to 27%. Rent per square foot
• Around 28,300 two-bedroom leases were signed in 2025, four in ten in the OCR; the total peaked at 29,300 in 2021 and each region's share has barely moved. Contracts signed

Median monthly rent

Median across all two-bedroom contracts signed in the year, by region, with the CCR's premium over the OCR.

• CCR
• RCR
• OCR

Year	CCR	RCR	OCR	CCR over OCR
2017	$4,000	$2,900	$2,300	74%
2018	$4,000	$2,900	$2,300	74%
2019	$4,000	$2,900	$2,300	74%
2020	$3,900	$2,900	$2,350	66%
2021	$4,000	$3,000	$2,500	60%
2022	$4,800	$3,700	$3,100	55%
2023	$5,650	$4,500	$3,800	49%
2024	$5,200	$4,250	$3,600	44%
2025	$5,200	$4,300	$3,600	44%

For five years nothing moved. The CCR held at or within $100 of $4,000 from 2017 to 2021, the RCR within $100 of $2,900, and the OCR crept from $2,300 to $2,500. Then 2022 and 2023 did the work of a decade: the CCR rose 41% in two years, the RCR 50% and the OCR 52%. Since the 2023 peak the CCR has given back eight percent, the RCR four and the OCR five, and 2025 holds level with or a shade above 2024.

The gap narrowed throughout. The CCR's premium over the OCR fell in every year from 2019 to 2024, from 74% to 44%, and held there in 2025, and in dollars it barely changed, $1,700 a month in 2017 against $1,600 in 2025, because a smaller percentage of a larger rent comes to much the same sum. The RCR's premium over the OCR fell from 26% to 19% while its dollar gap grew from $600 to $700. Whether the regions are converging depends on the unit: in ratio they are, sharply; in dollars a month the distances are roughly where they were.

Rents are usually agreed in round figures, $2,300 or $2,900 rather than $2,317. The median is the middle contract, so it only moves when enough rents shift for that middle contract to land on the next round figure. That is why the OCR shows $2,300 three years running: rents did move in those years, but not enough to carry the middle contract off $2,300. It also means a rise of $50 or $100 in the median tells you the middle contract stepped up to the next round figure, not that every rent in the region rose by that amount.

Rent per square foot

Median rent per square foot, staged by project, by region, with the CCR's premium over the OCR.

• CCR
• RCR
• OCR

Year	CCR	RCR	OCR	CCR over OCR
2017	$3.93	$3.19	$2.69	46%
2018	$3.93	$3.17	$2.62	50%
2019	$3.91	$3.15	$2.65	48%
2020	$3.77	$3.10	$2.65	42%
2021	$3.87	$3.28	$2.79	39%
2022	$4.46	$4.00	$3.42	30%
2023	$5.41	$4.86	$4.26	27%
2024	$5.25	$4.72	$4.09	28%
2025	$5.33	$4.78	$4.21	27%

Per square foot the picture is the monthly one with the round-figure effect removed: the column moves smoothly because it divides by area, and it is the better guide to small changes. The same shape appears, flat to 2021, a steep rise in rents through 2023, a small easing since. Growth over the full period was 35% in the CCR, 50% in the RCR and 57% in the OCR.

The premium gaps are narrower per square foot than per month, 27% for the CCR over the OCR in 2025 against 44% monthly, because CCR two-bedrooms are larger units on average: the same address premium spread over more floor. They narrowed by more as well, the CCR's per-square-foot premium falling from 46% to 27% and the RCR's from 19% to 14%. The two years of steep rent increases compressed the regions: between 2021 and 2023 the CCR's per-square-foot premium dropped twelve points, more than in the previous four years combined.

Contracts signed

Two-bedroom rental contracts signed in the year, by region.

• CCR
• RCR
• OCR

Year	CCR	RCR	OCR	Total
2017	6,030	7,534	9,633	23,197
2018	6,559	8,379	10,802	25,740
2019	6,973	8,934	11,685	27,592
2020	6,576	8,866	11,839	27,281
2021	7,627	9,372	12,327	29,326
2022	6,877	8,621	11,046	26,544
2023	6,602	9,634	11,023	27,259
2024	6,740	8,863	10,982	26,585
2025	7,497	9,388	11,429	28,314

Volumes rose steadily to a peak of 29,300 in 2021, dipped in 2022 as rents jumped, and recovered to 28,300 in 2025. The OCR signs the most contracts in every year, the RCR next, the CCR fewest, and the shares have hardly moved: the OCR took 41.5% of two-bedroom leases in 2017 and 40.4% in 2025. Over the full period volumes grew 24% in the CCR, 25% in the RCR and 19% in the OCR, the one measure on which the OCR did not grow fastest. The CCR's 7,497 contracts in 2025 is its highest of the series.

Taken together

Three metrics, one shape. The CCR has the highest rent on every measure and the slowest growth on every measure of rent; the OCR has the lowest rent, the fastest rent growth and the most contracts; the RCR sits between them on level and close to the OCR on growth. The regional ordering has not changed in nine years, but the distances between the regions have closed in ratio terms on both rent measures, most steeply in 2022 and 2023, when rents rose fastest, while in dollars a month they have held roughly steady. Volumes peaked in 2021, before rents rose sharply, not after, and each region's share of the two-bedroom rental market is where it was in 2017. Rents moved; the map did not.

What this does not tell you

• These are medians across every contract signed in the year. Floor, age, furnishing, lease length and the specific project move an individual rent more than region does.
• Monthly medians sit on the round figures tenants and landlords agree on; the per-square-foot column is the better guide to small changes.
• Nothing here is a yield. The next article divides these rents by prices; this one reports the rent alone.
• 2026 is not in the tables. Seven months of contracts exist and a partial year is not comparable to nine full ones.

Method

URA non-landed rental contracts, 2017 to 2025, using the bedroom count URA records on each contract. Monthly rent is the median across all two-bedroom contracts signed in that market segment and year, pooled at the contract level, so contract counts are counts of signings; no floor-area filter is applied. Rent per square foot uses the midpoint of each 10 sqm floor-area band and is staged by project, the construction shared with the yield article that follows; the two columns are built differently and are not meant to divide into one another. Premiums are ratios of the stated medians. 2026 is excluded. Rental data to July 2026.