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Thread: * DEVELOPER ALERT * - who has balls to create such well-endowed 344sf mickey mouse?

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    Default * DEVELOPER ALERT * - who has balls to create such well-endowed 344sf mickey mouse?

    (c) Gary Chang apartment in HK costing HKD1.3mio


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    Quote Originally Posted by mcmlxxvi
    (c) Gary Chang apartment in HK costing HKD1.3mio

    For those who like to laugh at Mickey Mouse condos, the following articles shall serve as a wake up call.

    The Observer

    Sunday 16 March 2003

    Imagine paying more than £100,000 for a 300 sq ft flat and having to throw out half your clothes to fit into it.

    This was reality for 23-year-old sales negotiator Francesca Osborne when she bought her flat in London's Islington 18 months ago. She paid £108,000, and at last count the flat was worth £155,000, despite its diminutive dimensions.

    She is not alone in paying prices that, to many, will seem silly for tiny homes. Agents say that there are more buyers chasing small flats than properties available. This is just as well because the Microflat - a trademarked blueprint of a super-svelte living space, which is big on design and small on expense - is being hailed as one solution to Britain's inner city housing crisis.



    Since the early 1980s property merchants have been exploiting the premium on land, turning anything from large rooms and small glory holes into self-contained shoe boxes. These 'feature' beds suspended from the ceiling, kitchenettes on castors that disappear behind a wall, and shower trays that fold down over the lavatory.

    One of the first of its kind was, literally, a converted broom cupboard in a mansion block opposite Harrods. Eyebrows rose when, in 1986, it sold for £35,000. Today, experts have no trouble keeping a straight face when they value it £110,000.

    A quick survey of estate agents' shop windows reveals how serious such silly street valuations have become. Stern Studio is advertising a 10ft by 11ft apartment in Earls Court for £125,000.It also has a 15ft by 8ft apartment in Chelsea for £145,000. Director Tom Trudgeon says: 'Half of London seems to want to buy them.'

    Equally upbeat is Gordon Blausten, senior partner at Bruten & Co. He has a 13.2ft by 9.9ft apartment in Kensington on his books for £150,000. Thompson Cur rie just sold a 200 sq ft apartment in Clerkenwell for £155,000. Sales manager Ben Burston says: 'I could have sold it 40 times over.'

    Here’s an apartment to beat all of the other little boxes out there. Welcome to London, home of possibly the smallest apartment in the world. This 62 square foot flat has all the necessities that $247 a week can buy: a platform bed, bath, wardrobe, and kitchenette (if you can call it that).


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    Singapore has really seen nothing of MM units yet. From 6xxsf to 5xxsf to 4xxsf....and very soon to sub 100sf when our population hit 10 million...

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    Quote Originally Posted by Regulators
    Singapore has really seen nothing of MM units yet. From 6xxsf to 5xxsf to 4xxsf....and very soon to sub 100sf when our population hit 10 million...

    the more reasons to buy big ones ...

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    Quote Originally Posted by proud owner
    the more reasons to buy big ones ...
    If you're banking on exclusivity and scarcity ... sure.... while the mass chase after MM units which are easier to digest and dispose of and obtain capital gains.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Regulators
    Singapore has really seen nothing of MM units yet. From 6xxsf to 5xxsf to 4xxsf....and very soon to sub 100sf when our population hit 10 million...
    Yeah, there is a reason surely why 344sf is now the new standard size for studios.

    Mountbatten Lodge sure had a vision going 335-355sf back in 2000 a decade ago.

    Address Tenure PSF Area Sqft Price Contract Date
    735 Mountbatten Road #02-12 Freehold $1337 334 $446k 18 Sep 09
    735 Mountbatten Road #02-10 Freehold $1304 334 $435k 18 Aug 09
    735 Mountbatten Road #02-10 Freehold $899 334 $300k 19 Feb 09
    735 Mountbatten Road #02-04 Freehold $1188 398 $473k 02 Nov 08
    735 Mountbatten Road #01-05 Freehold $1126 355 $400k Feb 08
    Last edited by mcmlxxvi; 09-02-10 at 10:07.

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    I am not totally against MM units, but I think studies have yet to come out on how a unit of 300sf can affect the lifestyle of someone. If you some couples in a tiny unit, there will be a greater likelihood for quarrels as freedom of movement is limited. If a couple qurrels in a tiny unit, there is nowhere private corner for them to go to for cooling off and they may just end up throwing furniture at each other. This is just my thought on the matter. Dont get me wrong coz my wife and I are very loving...

    Quote Originally Posted by mcmlxxvi
    Yeah, there is a reason surely why 344sf is now the new standard size for studios.

    Mountbatten Lodge sure had a vision going 335-355sf back in 2000 a decade ago.

    Address Tenure PSF Area Sqft Price Contract Date
    735 Mountbatten Road #02-12 Freehold $1337 334 $446k 18 Sep 09
    735 Mountbatten Road #02-10 Freehold $1304 334 $435k 18 Aug 09
    735 Mountbatten Road #02-10 Freehold $899 334 $300k 19 Feb 09
    735 Mountbatten Road #02-04 Freehold $1188 398 $473k 02 Nov 08
    735 Mountbatten Road #01-05 Freehold $1126 355 $400k Feb 08

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    Quote Originally Posted by Regulators
    I am not totally against MM units, but I think studies have yet to come out on how a unit of 300sf can affect the lifestyle of someone. If you some couples in a tiny unit, there will be a greater likelihood for quarrels as freedom of movement is limited. If a couple qurrels in a tiny unit, there is nowhere private corner for them to go to for cooling off and they may just end up throwing furniture at each other. This is just my thought on the matter. Dont get me wrong coz my wife and I are very loving...
    Aiyo, but you and wifey not staying in MM rite?

    Me and partner can fight anywhere and everywhere, no diiff whether in MM or outside in restaurants or shopping centre or on the street.

    If talking just about the size, I think its not so much the size per se but the configuration and layout. The point is probably whether it is a studio or 1BR that makes all the diff. 1BR at least hubby can sleep in living room if fight. Studio - haha better find nice corner in gym or sleep on the tanning chair at pool deck. :P

    A studio at 344sf vs a 1BR at 344sf makes all the difference.

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    http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/sub/...71833,00.html?

    Published February 9, 2010


    Architect reinvents flat to solve space crunch


    (HONG KONG) As a youngster living in a tiny flat with six others in one of the world's most densely populated cities, Hong Kong architect Gary Chang has been obsessed by living space, or rather a chronic lack of it.

    After three decades in the same boxy, 32-square-metre dwelling he grew up in, Mr Chang has come up with an innovative answer to the increasingly cramped lives of many urban dwellers - the science fiction-like 'domestic transformer'.

    'The idea is everything is moving. This is my laundry space,' Mr Chang said, sliding away a wall filled with CDs to reveal a washing machine and dryer.
    By sliding another track-mounted metal wall that bears a plasma TV, a kitchen materialised. Beside that, there is a luxurious 1.9-metre bathtub that itself turns into a guest bed.

    While people in other teeming cities such as Tokyo resort to drop-down beds and foldable futons, the award-winning Mr Chang has taken the concept of space-saving to the extreme.

    His tiny rectangular apartment, tucked into the bowels of an old, nondescript tenement building, has polished chrome walls that bear 24 configurations, each suiting a specific need.

    The space available becomes a home theatre, spa, kitchen, bedroom, chill-out zone rigged up with a hammock, depending on what Mr Chang needs at any moment.

    'The high intensity of use makes (it) more like a large home appliance than a dwelling,' wrote Mr Chang in his book 32 metre square apartment - a 30-year transformation that chronicles the origins of his innovative abode, which has undergone numerous facelifts through the years.

    Mr Chang, who runs his own design and architectural firm, describes an empty space as a 'luxury' and once built a 'Suitcase House' in Beijing blurring the boundaries between public and private space.

    'The only enclosed space is the toilet, and again, it's bigger than usual,' said Mr Chang, whose flat is surrounded by the highways and skyscrapers that embody Hong Kong's rampant urban development that have made spacious flats a pipedream for many.

    At a cost of HK$1.8 million (S$329,600), Mr Chang hopes his dwelling offers a viable, life-enhancing alternative for Hong Kongers who can't afford anything bigger.

    'The idea is to tune your home closer to what you really want instead of being dictated by the market or by the space allocated,' said the designer who says he's now in talks with property developers to replicate his flat in other space-starved, costly cities across Asia and Europe, including Paris. -- Reuters

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    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lg9qnWg9kak

    Watch how Gary Chang's apartment transforms - live.

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    SG got HDB flats....so dun tink 100sqft doghole will appear in our lifetime.

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    Actually the Gary Chang's apartment is only S$680psf.
    Seems like Singapore house price may have caught up with HK (at least in some aspects).

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    I think it's more of a changing perception of what a home is to young adults.

    Last time, it was about creating a family.
    Nowadays, there are lots more singles and DINK couples(Double-income, No Kids) who realised there is more to life than an apartment that takes you 30years to pay off.

    So, paying the minimum they can get away with and yet have a place to live is desirable as they are paying rental to themselves instead of renting a big apartment and paying rental to landlord.

    The money saved could be used to fund their retirement or build up their nest egg as they realised no employment is permanent especially in singapore with retrenchment becoming commonplace at 40-45yrs old.

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    Quote Originally Posted by focus
    I think it's more of a changing perception of what a home is to young adults.

    Last time, it was about creating a family.
    Nowadays, there are lots more singles and DINK couples(Double-income, No Kids) who realised there is more to life than an apartment that takes you 30years to pay off.

    So, paying the minimum they can get away with and yet have a place to live is desirable as they are paying rental to themselves instead of renting a big apartment and paying rental to landlord.

    The money saved could be used to fund their retirement or build up their nest egg as they realised no employment is permanent especially in singapore with retrenchment becoming commonplace at 40-45yrs old.

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