Condo sizes shrank in past 15 years as developers sought to keep prices manageable

Measures implemented over the years to ensure private homes do not get too small

- Grace Leong

Event organiser Jane Seet bought a 678 sq ft two-bedder in Emerald of Katong in November 2024 for $1.84 million, but has no plans to live in it because it is too small.

Instead, Ms Seet, 39, who is residing in a 1,700 sq ft terraced house with her husband, a 42-year-old tech trainer, intends to either flip the condominium unit once it receives its temporary occupation permit or rent it out.

"The long-term goal is for us to own one property each. Ideally, I would have wanted to buy a three-bedder. But that would have cost $2.5 million. I chose the two-bedder because I am not living in it," she said. The couple have no children.

New condos have become smaller in the past 15 years, a trend that analysts attributed to developers turning to "bite-sized" units following loan curbs, several rounds of property cooling measures and changing demographic needs.

Analysts say this effectively meant that developers would push out smaller units to keep the absolute price quantums at levels that buyers could stomach, as private residential property prices surged 76.9 per cent cumulatively from 2010 to 2024. This has resulted in higher per sq ft (psf) prices.

Islandwide, the median size of non-landed new condos has dropped 10.6 per cent to 904 sq ft in 2024 from 1,012 sq ft in 2010, according to Cushman & Wakefield, which collated data for The Straits Times based on the median size of new home transactions in the past 15 years.

In this period, the decrease in the median floor areas of new condos in the prime district outpaced that in the suburban and city fringe sub-markets. The median floor areas of new prime condos dropped 20.6 per cent to 829 sq ft in 2024 from 1,044 sq ft in 2010.

In comparison, the median floor areas of new suburban condos shed 13.4 per cent to 904 sq ft from 1,044 sq ft, while new city fringe condos saw a 4.5 per cent drop in median unit sizes to 904 sq ft from 947 sq ft.