Property price can be this expensive? A few millions for less than 160 sq ft?
Micro-units as affordable homes
A typical car park size is 8ft x 18ft. That’s a size of 144 sq ft. Can this 144 sq ft fit in a bathroom (small one), a single bed, a writing desk and even a closet? Actually, yes. In fact it’s already proven in micro units in Hong Kong and it’s the only way property could be made affordable enough for the people. Here’s one article about the micro units in the Bloomberg.
A classmate of mine from Hong Kong told me that when her family plays mah jong, one person has to sit very close to the toilet because of the size of the flat. With micro units, there’s no space for a mah jong session unless the whole unit is empty of things.
What’s the size?
Typical single bed size is 3ft x 6ft and that’s 18 sq ft. Small bathroom is 6ft x 6ft. Standing shower lah, please don’t tell me you expect a bathtub… . A writing desk (5ft x 2ft). A closet (5ft x 2ft).
That’s 18 sqft + 36 sq ft + 10 sq ft + 10 sq ft = 74 sq ft. There’s another 70 sq ft of living space in the 144 sq ft space. In some countries, this is all the space one gets when they want an affordable place to stay. I am always grateful that I continue to have choices and all the choices I could afford are still way above most of the countries below.
How much real estate could you buy for US$1 million (RM4.21 million)
One can only buy 229 sq ft for RM4.21 million in HK while in New York, you can buy 358 sq ft. This is then followed by a city I have visited before, Paris at 455 sq ft. Even in Tokyo, for the same amount one can get almost 700 sq ft which is pretty okay! By the way, there’s no need to stay inside Tokyo because of extensive bullet train networks in Japan yeah. It could be a 200km distance away and the total journey is just 45 minutes or so.
The other places which are within the top 20 list
Please refer to the list below. Monaco beats Hong Kong but that’s also because Monaco is a very tiny little dot. I have been to Monaco before. Really a small place indeed.
Will Kuala Lumpur be like these expensive cities?
Frankly I do not think it will ever be. However, please do remember that once upon a time, these cities used to be much more affordable than today. If we were to ask the people there at the time, they would have also said it’s impossible for the prices to be like today. When their prices keep going up, all other cities in the world will just follow. Kuala Lumpur definitely included.
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