Second-time
buyers with an existing housing loan, for instance, will be subject to a 50 per
cent loan-to-value ratio and must fork out a minimum cash down-payment of 25
per cent under the most recent January curbs.
Some experts add
that 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 of 500 sq ft. There should be more concern over
three-bedroom units shrinking to as small as 600 to 700 sq ft instead.
With the high
cost of land, it is "hard to fight the situation" of smaller homes as
many Singaporean might not be able to afford the large sizes of previous
three-bedroom units at current prices.
In the past, a three-bedroom unit would more likely be 1,500 sq ft in size, while
most are now around 1,000 to 1,200 sq ft. However these flats look
large compared with the offerings at Urban Vista, next to Tanah Merah MRT
station. The two-bedroom units of 549 sq
ft and three-bedders of 850 sq ft. The 32-unit
Treescape in Telok Kurau also has micro three-bedders starting from 603 sq ft.
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. Sorry folks that's the trend now!!!
