Why Older Leasehold Condos Have Higher Rental Yields

Rental yields for two- and three-bedroom 99-year leasehold condos rise with a project's age, driven by prices cooling faster than rents, while freehold condos show no such pattern, based on a lifespan-wide analysis of Singapore's private housing data.

By Hailey Khoo

Published 28 July 2026, 8:38 PM SGT · 12 min read · 23

There was one trend that we left unexplained in our article last week, the first in our series of Pro articles covering the rental market. In that article, we shared how District 25's oldest three-bedroom condos kept beating their newer neighbours on rental yield, and lease decay looked like the obvious explanation.

But a shrinking lease is normally bad news for a property, not something that works in a landlord's favour.

To uncover the factors behind this trend, we narrowed last week's dataset to 99-year leasehold condominiums only, so a project's tenure doesn't complicate the comparison, and grouped every qualifying project by completion year into 10-year bands: up to 1990, 1991-2000, 2001-2010, 2011-2020, and 2021 onwards.

We maintain the eligibility rule which we also used in last week’s article: at least 10 registered rental contracts, at least five resale transactions, and a Temporary Occupation Permit (TOP) of at least 24 months, all within the same 12-month window.

We’ll also use the year that the development was completed, rather than its Temporary Occupation Period (TOP), to define each band, since it is a more direct measure of how much a project's lease has run down.

With that narrower dataset, let's start with whether the pattern in age holds up beyond District 25's three-bedroom cluster.

Frequently asked questions

Do older leasehold condos tend to have higher rental yields than newer ones?

Yes, rental yields tend to increase with the age of leasehold condos, especially for two- and three-bedroom units, as older projects often have lower purchase prices while rents do not decline proportionally.

Does the age of a leasehold condo affect its purchase price and rent?

Older condos generally have lower purchase prices and larger unit sizes, which can lead to higher median prices but not necessarily higher rents, resulting in lower yields compared to newer developments.

Is the trend of higher rental yields in older leasehold condos consistent across different regions?

Yes, the pattern is most clear in the Outside Central Region (OCR), where older condos show higher yields due to rising $PSF prices without a proportional increase in rents.

Do freehold condos show the same age-related rental yield trend as leasehold condos?

The article suggests that freehold condos do not show the same age effect, indicating that the trend is specific to leasehold projects.

What factors influence the rental yield of a specific condo project?

A project's individual price-to-rent ratio, location, size, and market conditions influence its rental yield, beyond just the age of the development.

Join 16,000+ readers on Telegram for new launches, price movements, and our analysis as we publish them. Subscribe on Telegram

Hailey Khoo

Writer

Hailey has spent the past six years in Singapore’s property trenches, from showflat tours to real negotiations. Armed with a diploma and degree in real estate, she pairs formal training with real-world experience across developers and agency practice. Having worked with both numbers-first investors and emotion-led homebuyers, she’s particularly intrigued by the psychology behind property decisions.

At Stacked, Hailey brings a licensed practitioner’s perspective, unpacking the nuances behind each purchase while keeping things thoughtful, practical, and just a little bit curious.