A netizen, who happens to be the Chief Executive Officer of International Property Advisor, shared on Facebook about a newly-build flat that he recently visited.
In a Facebook post on Monday (19 Oct), Ku Swee Yong posted a photo of the two-bedroom deluxe unit floor plan which he claimed is quoted at around S$2,800 per sqft. He noted that the total price of the unit is S$1,959,048 with a strata area of 65.0 sqm.
The unit comprises of a small kitchen, living room, dining room, two bathrooms and two bedrooms. In total, they take up 54.4 sqm of the floor space, which accounts for the S$1,639,572 of the total price.
“As a comparison, 54.4 sqm of internal livable area is roughly 586 sqft and smaller than a HDB 3-room flat,” said Mr Ku, describing the air-con ledge of a three-bedroom HDB flat as “luxurious”.
The deluxe unit also has a 7.0 sqm of balcony area that accounts for the S$210,974 of the total price.
On top of that, Mr Ku said it is built with an air-con ledge that takes up 3.6 sqm, or 5.5 per cent, of the total floor space.
This means that the buyer will be charged S$108,501 for “a horizontal slab of concrete” that holds one air-con compressor for a multi-split unit, he said.
“Do buyers know that 10.8% of the 65 sqm is balcony space and 5.5% is aircon ledge space and they all cost the same $2800 per sqft?” Mr Ku questioned.
While he noted that one air-con compressor is enough to cool a small space, Mr Ku questioned the footprint of an air-con compressor that is needed to cool an internal space of 586 sqft floor space.
“Under what planning guidelines are developers allowed to sell more than 5.5% of strata area as aircon ledge (also classified as ancillary area)?” he added.
Meanwhile, Mr Ku highlighted in the comment section of his post that the issue of developers profiting from air-con ledges has actually been ongoing for years.
He cited The Straits Times’ (ST) article which was published in 2017, where he revealed to the news outlet that Singapore’s private property owners have to pay an estimate of S$780 million for air-con ledges every year.
“Fewer buyers would feel cheated if they were not charged for it,” Mr Ku told ST, adding that ledges should be re-classified as non-strata areas.
