Under pressure to optimise floor space

Knight Frank's Ms Tan says: “Despite structural shifts towards smaller units, a substantial market segment prefers larger, more comfortable homes where supply allows.”

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Mr Jon Phua's bedroom includes a bedside ledge which functions as a table and storage space. ST PHOTO: JASEL POH

(ST PHOTO: JASEL POH)

And 18 per cent of the 1,000 respondents polled as part of the Knight Frank-Ipsos Quality of Life report indicated that they preferred an older development with a larger living space over newer, compact ones.

Dr Lee adds: “This reinforces the intergenerational and wealth divide, especially in our ownership-based housing systems.

“A lot of older condos and landed housing are freehold. These homes will never be available to laypeople. That’s one kind of inequality or equity concern I have.”

Small-home dweller Mr Foo, who declined to give his full name, bought his newly developed one-bedroom condo unit in Guillemard in 2023.

Living in just 41 sq m of space, the 36-year-old has adopted many space-maximising measures.

His shoebox unit has no din ing table. The human resources worker eats at a coffee table that can be converted into a work desk. The space beneath his bed doubles as storage, and much of his furniture - like an expand able desk — hangs off the wall to conserve floor space.

To Mr Foo, such a unit made sense for a bachelor in his 30s looking to strike out on his own and move out of the family home.