CLOSING ONE EYE
A landlord who only wanted to be known as Ms Lay said she owns three apartment units, all managed by operators, though they seek her approval on tenant profiles.
One operator tried to subdivide her apartment but stopped after neighbours complained, opting instead to fit bunk beds to house more tenants. Ms Lay believes another operator once rented out her bomb shelter, after she found a portable air-conditioner inside it.
“Mostly, I close one eye as long as they don’t flout the law,” she said of her approach to managing the units.
Co-living operator Bespoke Habitat, which manages more than 600 units in Singapore, said small rooms are a “relatively niche” part of its inventory. Most of its rooms are conventional bedrooms of varying sizes, said founder Ernee Ong.
Smaller rooms tend to appeal to students, young professionals and international tenants who prioritise affordability and location, he added.
Whether a utility room can be rented out depends on several factors, Mr Ong said. “It depends on the landlord and the property. Bespoke considers factors such as property layout, tenant demand and suitability before deciding whether a particular room can be offered separately.”
PropertyGuru, Singapore’s biggest property listings platform, said listings for rooms of 100 sq ft or smaller have grown by more than half in the past five years, while the proportion of rooms priced above S$1,000 has nearly doubled to around 70 per cent.
As of mid-August, the platform carried around 9,000 listings for room rentals across public housing, private apartments and landed homes.
“This suggests that as rents increased across the market, affordability became a bigger consideration for renters,” said managing director Yao Lu. “Rather than moving further out, some are opting for smaller spaces to remain in well-connected locations.”
KEEPING EXPENSES LOW
That trade-off was exactly the calculation for a tenant who wanted to be known only as Ms S.
Wanting to stay close to her workplace, she found a room in a condominium near Great World City MRT station for S$600 a month, including utilities, down from the S$4,000 she used to pay for an entire unit.
She made the move as her lease came up for renewal and her health and wellness business lost clients, leaving her worried about cashflow. Keeping expenses low, she decided, would buy her time to resolve her business issues.
Her room measures around 1.8m by 1m, and her bed is 1.6m long.
When CNA visited shortly after she moved in, some of her belongings were stored on the bed itself, leaving her only about half of it to sleep on. She has since given away a set of golf clubs and plans to part with other items, including wine glasses and a safe.