3-bedroom condo unit at 635 sq ft: A new low?

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#1
Clap! Clap! Honey, I shrunk the house! Tongue

The Straits Times
Mar 21, 2012
3-bedroom condo unit at 635 sq ft: A new low?


By Gan Yu Jia

'HONEY, I shrunk the house,' could well be the tagline for a new, swanky condominium in Bukit Batok. A three-bedder at Natura at Hillview Terrace, a joint venture between Roxy-Pacific Holdings and Macly Group, measures just 635 sq ft.

That is smaller than a squash court and slightly bigger than five HDB carpark spaces. Real estate consultants said a typical three-bedroom apartment occupies 1,000 to 1,500 sq ft of space.

Market watchers said Roxy-Pacific appears to be setting a trend as far as shrinking three-bedroom units is concerned.

They noted that another of the company's projects, Treescape in Telok Kurau, also features micro three-bedders which start from 603 sq ft. All 32 units have been sold since the project was launched, of which 25 units were sold last month at a median price of $1,401 per sq ft.

But unlike Treescape, which is a boutique development, Natura is a full facilities condominium with 193 units.

It is unheard-of for a mass market project here to have three-bedroom units of such a compact size.

Mr Ken Yeo, projects director of Macly Group, has defended the size of the apartments.

'We've designed the building in such a way that the wall can be taken out, so that you can open up the living room to be of a bigger space. That's what we mean by 'efficiently designed',' he said.

Noting that all of Macly's previous shoebox projects were sold out within one month of their official launches, Mr Yeo added that Macly has not received any complaints that 'Mickey Mouse apartments are not liveable'.

He predicts that owner occupiers who opt for such units are likely to be singles or childless couples who prefer a smaller living space.

Mr Tan Kok Keong, OrangeTee's head of research and consultancy, said that it is difficult to predict if such units will be well-received by the public.

'If you use Hong Kong as an example, yes it's liveable, but whether it's the kind of quality of life that people can get used to is something we actually won't know until the project is completed,' he said, referring to small flat sizes in Hong Kong.

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#2
Got place to put bed but hv to crawl over to get to other side of room.
Plus one toilet only. Okay that is until two ppl are having a bad tummy ache.

Ok ok. That one toilet is speculative but I dun knw how to get 3 bedders under 650sqft.

$1400++sqft?! Well done..

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#3
Singapore is setting the benchmark for claustrophobic housing! Tongue
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#4
$1,410 psf... impressive indeed! :O
1) Try NOT to LOSE money!
2) Do NOT SELL in BEAR, BUY-BUY-BUY! invest in managements/companies that does the same!
3) CASH in hand is KING in BEAR! 
4) In BULL, SELL-SELL-SELL! 
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#5
Crazy! A studio apartment use to be 600-700 sq ft. Now it becomes a 3 bedders flat. If it is not built for people who buy to rent out, i wonder who(Singaporeans)would buy? Crazy like mad horse.
WB:-

1) Rule # 1, do not lose money.
2) Rule # 2, refer to # 1.
3) Not until you can manage your emotions, you can manage your money.

Truism of Investments.
A) Buying a security is buying RISK not Return
B) You can control RISK (to a certain level, hopefully only.) But definitely not the outcome of the Return.

NB:-
My signature is meant for psychoing myself. No offence to anyone. i am trying not to lose money unnecessary anymore.
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#6
KBW has already warned on shoebox units once. But it may become a "self fulfiling prophecy" as more n more developers get onto the bandwagon if the initial trendsetters make the pot of gold. The tipping pt wld be the buyers themselves, believing that such small units r still liveable by buying into the "hk is an example" argument.

Maybe in future, we ll all go hm n plug our brains into some virtual machine n it brings us to lala land, so there is no need for so much space..
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