INTERNATIONAL
TRENDING
SMALL
Is bigger always better? Not always – and especially not if you want the convenience
of living close to your workplace, and you happen to work in one of the world’s
increasingly congested cities.
T
he international trend towards small and micro-
apartments – for those who choose to live in these
confined spaces – provides an increasing range of
opportunities for investors.
Micro doesn’t mean tiny
It’s probably as well to begin, though, by understanding the
difference between micro-apartments and tiny houses, to know
where the concept of shared living features in the equation, and
above all to understand that these movements are defined by desire
rather than by need: for millions of people in South Africa and
around the world, small, cramped living spaces are anything but
a choice.
The market
In most cities where they’ve sprung up, micro-apartments seem
to be aimed at younger buyers who want to live close to their
workplaces, and who’re keenly conscious of their carbon footprints.
Many of them see car ownership, for example, as a negative thing
– in contrast to their parents and grandparents, who would’ve
considered two, three or even four cars in the family a sign of status.
And the trend has hit South Africa, too, of course: at one end of the
market, The Rockefeller at Harbour Place (launched March 2018)
on Christiaan Barnard Street on Cape Town’s Foreshore, boasts
278 apartments of between 23 and 44 square metres spread out
over 13 floors – and the latest price list on the property’s web site
showed just 78 units unsold – with prices ranging from R1.4 million
for a 25-square-metre flat on the ninth floor, to R2.6 million for a
44-square-metre unit on the 10 th . Communal facilities include a
restaurant, a bar, laundry service, a clubhouse, a gym, a bike room,
a roof-top pool, and a hotel rental pool – although the site doesn’t
say how many of the units are available to rent, or how many are
permanently occupied. But the shortage of stock in the city centre
means that the prices and speed of sales come as no surprise.
By contrast, Drivelines Studios (launched in 2014), on Albertina
Sisulu Street in Johannesburg’s Maboneng Precinct, offers rentals
from R4,900 a month. This exciting, edgy, seven-storey, mixed-use
building was made from upcycled ISO shipping containers erected
over an existing single-storey structure that once did duty as a motor
repair shop. The building includes 104 studio apartments (from 37
to 45 square metres in size), and three retail spaces ranging from
62 to 196 square metres.
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