My afternoon tea break.

Packed some yummy bread from home for my tea break:

Had it with some strawberry jam:

Which brand of jam? My favourite, of course:

Total cost? Er, less than $1.00 probably.

Related post:
1. How much will my tea break and lunch cost tomorrow?
2. AK71 shows you how to have an extra $1,200 a year.

Smaller apartments' prices more resilient.

Predictions such as the recent one by Barclays for a significant correction in housing prices in Singapore by 2015 are getting rather common.

"We believe the risk of a residential property market correction in the next two years is rising, as expected higher interest rates look set to coincide with a large increase in housing supply over 2014-15," Tricia Song, analyst at Barclays wrote in a report on Friday, 27 Sep 13.

In such a situation, can we expect certain segments of the housing market to weather the decline better than others?

In The Business Times today, I read that "prices of small completed private apartments (up to 506 sq ft) climbed for the second month in a row to hit a new peak in August."



SkyVue

CapitaLand's latest project "SkyVue" in Bishan saw 410 of the 505 units released for sale snapped up on the first day with smaller formats being the most popular. One bedroom units at 484 sq ft in size averaged $750,000 in price (or $1,550 psf).

It is all a matter of affordability now. How many buyers questioned if it is value for money? How many have questioned the risks involved?

Almost 95,000 private units are expected to come on stream over the next five years, alongside 25,000-27,000 public housing flats per annum, according to the Urban Redevelopment Authority.

"Total housing supply could average 40,000 units per annum and peak at 47,000 in 2015 - significantly above the historical average annual supply of 12,300 units," Song said.

"Assuming occupier demand of 15,500 units of private housing per annum, we expect the private vacancy rate to rise from 5.6 percent currently to 9.9 percent in 2016," she added, noting that historically when vacancy rates hit 8 percent, rents and prices start declining.
(Source: CNBC)

Bearing this in mind, in a situation where overall housing prices experience significant declines, smaller size apartments' prices could remain more resilient. This is because of their relatively smaller price tags and, usually, higher rental yields.

For people who are adamant about buying a condo as an investment property, shoebox apartments or mickey mouse apartments would, therefore, seem like safer choices. Right or wrong? Time will tell.

Related posts:
1. How big is a 452 sq ft apartment?
2. Will CapitaLand build "almost inhuman" size apartments?