Cassandra Macdonald grew up in a large family home on Sydney’s northern beaches. Now she lives in a 28-square-metre inner-city apartment and wouldn’t swap it.
While buying a studio in Sydney’s cosmopolitan Potts Point was a financial decision, Macdonald, a high school woodwork teacher, was also inspired by her time living in a campervan during a stint working regionally.
Cassandra Macdonald, a high school woodwork teacher, was inspired to try studio living after living in a campervan during a regional work stint.Credit: James Brickwood
“It was just very interesting to see how few possessions I needed,” she said of that time.
Some experts say that living smaller could be a salve for the housing crisis, particularly as younger people try to enter the highly competitive housing market.
“People’s expectations and ways of living are changing,” said Angus Gilfillan, a former major bank executive and now chief executive of mortgage broker Finspo. “And I think there is a bigger part to play for small apartments in this market.”
Macdonald, 34, prizes her Potts Point location for its walkability, with studio apartment living encouraging community.
Macdonald prizes Potts Point for its walkability.Credit: James Brickwood
“In a funny way, it almost forces you to go out in society,” she said. “You might go and get a coffee and sit somewhere, and you end up talking to people.”
“In a funny way, it almost forces you to go out in society,” Macdonald says of studio living.Credit: James Brickwood
Cost-consciousness was an appeal for Macdonald. She did the sums on buying a one-bedroom unit or something further afield, but felt that a studio represented better value for her needs.
She has become a serial studio buyer too. After refurbishing her first, she bought another, renovated it, put it on the market and recently sold it.
The apartment that Macdonald recently sold, before its redesign.Credit: Cassandra Macdonald
Now the apartment is full of creative design tweaks that create extra bench space and storage.
Macdonald put her design and woodwork skills to use when she renovated her recently sold Potts Point studio apartment. It was her second studio purchase.Credit: James Brickwood
Macdonald has bought a third Potts Point unit, which she plans to live in with her partner and reconfigure into a one-bedroom unit.
“We both feel confident that there will actually be more storage for us to put our items,” she said.
Adam Haddow, a partner at SJB Architects, who swapped a 200-square-metre apartment for a 67-square-metre two-bedroom house that he designed on a 30-square-metre block, said a smaller home made him more conscious of what he was bringing in.
Adam Haddow at the front of his Surry Hills home. Credit: Nick Moir
“If you’re walking down the street, you think, ‘oh, I’d love to buy that jacket’. You have to really think, ‘Well, do I really need it’,” he said.
Haddow said people had been “seduced into this idea that bigger is better”, but smaller footprint living was finding its supporters.
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“You do go and use the parks. You do go to the library. You do join a local gym. And from that point of view, it means meeting more people, and you become more connected.”
The value of small apartments is that they cost less, he said.
“By designing things smarter and more efficient and with a smaller footprint, it makes them more affordable, which is really one of our big ambitions. How do we make great architecture affordable?”
Still, uncertainty over the property’s future selling price and whether there would be a potential buyer if it needed to be sold was a consideration for mortgages on smaller apartments, Gilfillan said.
Adam Haddow, a partner at SJB Architects, says living in a smaller home has made him more conscious of what he brings into it.Credit: Nick Moir
“It is harder for Australians to get a loan for a smaller apartment, and even more difficult for studio apartments,” he said.
Lenders tend to assess home loan applications on a case-by-case basis, considering the size of the property, for example, alongside standard lending policies, said Canstar data insights director Sally Tindall.
”Some banks and some lenders might say ‘no’ and others might say ‘yes’. But, ultimately, what the bank is trying to assess is whether it’s a sound purchase.”
The country’s largest retail lender, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, said smaller apartments were “often a practical and more affordable way for first home buyers to enter the property market”.
“A minimum size of 30 square metres applies where the loan involves lenders mortgage insurance or a low deposit premium. However, for customers who don’t need LMI or LDP, smaller properties may still be considered if they meet our standard lending criteria and building codes,” a CBA spokesperson said.
Macdonald has been able to use equity from a property she bought earlier in Perth, in addition to bank loans and her salary, to purchase her Sydney studios over eight years.
Macdonald at her latest studio renovation project. She’s planning to turn it into a one-bedder.Credit: James Brickwood
“The majority of the time I do definitely reinvest all of my money into my apartments,” she said of the studios she designs and renovates herself. This is something she hopes to assist others do in future via her Palm Court Studios venture.
Angelo Bouras, an agent from Richardson & Wrench and Macdonald’s selling agent, said that buying a studio gives owner-occupiers a “chance to get into a marketplace that they might not have thought they could get into”.
“They’re loving the fact that basically a good studio for the same price is generally a better apartment side-by-side to a one-bedroom of a similar value.”
