Saturday, April 13, 2013
Case of the 缩水 (shrinking) condo
Developers are downsizing their apartments in order to keep
prices within the reach of buyers.
After the widespread proliferation of shoebox apartments,
some as tiny as 258sqft - equivalent of just 2.5 carpark spaces - the shrinking
of two- and three-bedroom apartments are gaining prominence too.
A three-bedder at 193-unit Natura at Hillview Terrace, for
instance, measures just 635sqft. The home - smaller than a squash court and
slightly bigger that five HDB carpark spaces - caused an uproar when it was
launched last year.
The 32-unit Treescape in Telok Kuarau also has micro
three-bedders starting from 603sqft.
Go back a few years and a three-bedroom unit would more likely
be 1,500sqft in size, while most are now around 1,000sqft to 1,200sqft.
But sizes are changing fast as developers grapple with the
opposing pulls of higher land costs and demand for affordable homes to fit
buyers' tight budgets. The easiest solution is to build more compact homes, it
seems.
A Knight Frank analysis of 40 private suburban condominium
projects with at least 200 units launched since 2008 found average sizes
shrinking by as much as 34% for certain types of apartments.
For example, one-bedroom units in developments launched in
2008 averaged 678 to 947sqft, or 21 to 28% bigger on average than the 538 to
678sqft units launched in 2010.
The squeeze intensified only in the past year with recently
launched one-bedders averaging just 492 to 624sqft, about 27 to 34% smaller
than in 2008.
Two-bedroom units launched in 2008 averaged 851 to 1,208sqft
but those hitting the market in the past year measure 734 to 1,069sqft.
Similarly, average sizes of three-bedroom units are down by
about 20% - from 1,208 to 1,620sqft in 2008 to 963 to 1,338sqft in the 2012 -
2013 period, Knight Frank noted.
Those flats look large compared with the offerings at Urban
Vista, next to Tanah Merah MRT station. The launch last month featured
two-bedroom units of 549sqft and three-bedders of 850sqft.
Developers are downsizing amid price pressure from buyers.
Experts say overall prices of up to $1.5 million are the
most popular among first-time buyers and second-time investors in the light of
property cooling measures that have tightened loan limits. While the Government
has clamped down on developers building shoebox units, the more worrying trend
could be the size crunch in the two- and three-bedroom apartment types instead.
"It's actually reasonable for one person to live in a
shoebox unit. There should be more concern over three-bedroom units shrinking to
as small as 600 to 700sqft instead," said an industry player.
Mr Teo Hong Lim, executive chairman of Roxy-Pacific, pointed
out that homes in the past were probably larger as they included bay windows,
planter boxes and household shelters in the total strata area, yet the actual
livable area could have been less.
"Our homes are modular and flexible. The household
shelter is now centralized at the fire escape staircase, so there is a more
efficient use of space in the apartments," he added.
"Buyers are not shortchanged with compact units. they
are given better value instead, with the option of having a three-bedroom unit
or two-bedroom unit instead if they opt to remove the partition wall between
the rooms."
Source: Our de facto English newspaper
Maybe homeowners should just remove all the partition walls
between the rooms and convert their micro 2- or 3-bedders into a huge studio apartment instead? Having said that, if the wife and I really want a 2-bedroom apartment, we will be out there looking for a 2-bedder unit that's
of adequate size for our needs, rather than having to pay for a 3-bedder and then sacrificing
a room for more space. However, we belong to the old school and are probably too pampered by our 1600+sqft 3-bedroom apartment with no bay windows, planter boxes and household
shelter.
And to Mr Teo, who claimed that buyers of compact units are
given better value instead of being shortchanged, we have this to say: Are you
serious..?
1 comments:
This is so true and so sad. We looked at so many showrooms of new launches and every sales person are selling that the living room is "spacious" when it is half the size of that from a 900+sqf 4room HDB flat.
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