How 'affordability crunch' urged homebuyers to opt for smaller sized units

Demand for big units has been gradually shrinking.

Savills analysis of the caveats lodged from Q1/2012 to Q3/2013 shows that in the new sale segment, home
buyers are now favouring smaller private non-landed homes islandwide, with sizes from >60 sq m to 80 sq m.

Savills noted that the demand for these types of units has risen for three consecutive quarters from 17.7% in Q4/2012 to 28.2% in Q3/2013, registering almost 1 percentage point more than units sized ≤60 sq m, which include one-bedroom apartments and “shoe-box” units.

At the same time, the percentages of relatively big units (>100 sq m) have been gradually shrinking since early this year.

Here's more from Savills:

Our analysis also reveals that the average price quantum for the units sized >60 sq m to 80 sq m was about S$1,100,000, while that of the bigger units of >100 sq m to 120 sqm was about S$1,490,000.

These findings suggest that there were a number of buyers who entered the market, had their budgets crimped by the cooling measures and TDSR, and have been compelled to trade size for affordability.