No more shoebox homes of less than 377sqft soon?

The Urban Redevelopment Authority seems to be encouraging developers of shoebox units to increase the size of their apartments. The minimum apartment size that URA is likely to approve these days, especially in projects with many micro apartments, seems to be 35sq m (=377sqft), up from 28sq m (=301sqft) a couple of years ago, developers told BT recently.

Analysts say that promoting an increase in the size of shoebox units may help to cool the property market since these micro apartments have been blamed for fuelling increases in per square foot prices at some property launches.

A URA spokeswoman stressed that the planning authority does not stipulate a minimum size for apartments to give developers flexibility to build apartments of varying sizes to cater to home buyers’ needs. Rather, it adopts a consultative approach, working closely with developers and architects in a negotiated process to enhance the quality of new developments in Singapore.

BT understands that since around Q3 last year, developers planning to build projects with a substantial number of smallish apartments have been given “verbal advice” by URA that apartments should be no smaller than 35sq m in gross floor area excluding balconies and air-con ledges.

This “verbal advice” seems to have been issued to developers and their architects when they made enquiries after their applications had been turned down, according to some market players.

Industry participants suggest that URA has thus effectively increased the minimum apartment size it would allow, which was previously understood to be 28sq m, as reported by BT in October 2009.

It was reported then that URA had turned down some applications involving apartments below 28sq m. In that year, the market had seen what was believed to be Singapore’s smallest ever apartment – at 258sqft – at the Suites@Guillemard.

In URA’s response to BT last week, its spokeswoman said that in processing development proposals, it assesses, among other things, the overall building design, site configuration, unit layout as well as the localised traffic situation to ensure that a proposed development involving small units can provide a good living environment for home buyers. “In general, residential units should be self-contained with basic amenities such as a living area, bedroom, kitchen and bathroom.”

A developer estimates that an apartment with gross floor area of 35sq m (excluding balcony and air-con ledge) may have saleable area of about 40.5sq m (=436sqft) including the balcony and air-con ledge. He reckons that URA is more likely to be stringent about ensuring that apartment sizes are not too small for projects with a large proportion of one-bedders and one-bedroom-plus-study units.

“But if one-bedders make up a relatively small proportion of units in a large development, which also has bigger units like two, three and four-bedroom apartments, URA’s planners may allow a few units even if they’re under 35sq m. A lot will also depend on the layout of these units,” said the developer.

UOL Group president (property) Liam Wee Sin, said: “Ultimately, what is important is that buyers are made fully aware of the size of apartments they’re purchasing and the new requirement for showflats to accurately reflect the actual size and layout of units will help in this aspect.”

Another developer who declined to be named said that URA’s approach to encourage bigger units may have an impact on developers who specialize in shoebox apartments. “Very often they have been able to achieve relatively high psf prices on these small apartments since they’ve been able to keep the lumpsum price affordable, at below $500,000. They can price say a 320sqft unit at around $1,400psf and it would cost $448,000. If they now charge the same psf price rate for say a 435sqft, the absolute price would be $609,000.”

Source: The Business Times

The wife and I must admit that we do not pay much attention to shoebox homes, given our extremely low level of interest on such units. As such, we are ignorant of any completed development with units of less than 300sqft (are there any, anyone?). So we will probably have to wait for developments such as Suites@Guillemard to TOP in 2014 to get some first-hand insights of what life is like living in such “mickey mouse” units.

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