One-bedroom condos have long been the investor's entry ticket into private property: a lower price, a steady tenant, a decent yield. The Business Times reported this week that the picture is splitting in two. Renting one out is as easy as ever. Selling one is getting harder, as developers build fewer of them and the pool of buyers narrows.
Roov checked both halves against URA's own transaction records. Both hold up, and the numbers say a lot about what kind of asset a one-bedder really is.
Developers are building fewer one-bedders
Since 2019, URA has capped the number of small units in new condos outside the city centre, and since 2023 projects in the Central Area must make at least a fifth of their homes 70 sq m or bigger. The 2023 change in how floor area is measured made very small units harder to design efficiently too; our guide to GFA harmonisation explains why. Higher stamp duties have also thinned out the investors who used to buy them.
The result shows up in the launches. Figures from PropNex cited by The Business Times put one-bedroom new-launch sales at about 1,800 a year in 2010 to 2015, and about 520 a year in 2021 to 2025. Three projects on the market now, including Thomson Reserve, have no one-bedders at all.
Roov's records tell the same story. Homes under 500 sq ft made up 2.1 per cent of new-launch sales so far in 2026, against 4 to 5.6 per cent in each year from 2022 to 2025.
Easy to rent
Tenant demand has not slowed. URA recorded 10,240 one-bedroom condo rental contracts in the first half of 2026, up 8 per cent on 9,461 a year earlier. One-bedders are about a quarter of all condo rentals, a share that has barely moved in two years.
Median one-bedroom rents so far in 2026:
• Prime (CCR): $4,000 a month • City fringe (RCR): $3,300 a month • Suburbs (OCR): $2,950 a month
Set against the price of a small resale unit in the same region, that is a rough gross yield of about 5.1 per cent in the CCR, 4.6 per cent in the RCR and 4.5 per cent in the OCR. A three-bedder in the same regions yields about 3.0 to 3.6 per cent on the same measure. Ours is a blunt measure: the rent side includes bigger one-bedders that the price side leaves out, and nothing is deducted for property tax, maintenance fees or empty months. Analysts quoted by The Business Times put completed one-bedders nearer 3.5 to 4.25 per cent. Either way, the small unit pays more for every dollar you put in. Roov's rental yield calculator and rental cashflow tool work out the figure for a specific unit after its costs.
Co-living rooms, at about $2,000 to $2,500 a month, compete for the younger tenant. Our co-living guide covers how that market works.
Slower to sell
This is where the one-bedder falls behind. Between 2022 and 2026, the median resale price per square foot rose:
• Prime (CCR): about 1 per cent for homes under 500 sq ft, against 9 per cent for 500 to 999 sq ft and 8 per cent for 1,000 sq ft and up • City fringe (RCR): about 11 per cent for homes under 500 sq ft, against 24 and 26 per cent for the larger sizes • Suburbs (OCR): about 14 per cent for homes under 500 sq ft, against 25 and 29 per cent for the larger sizes
So in every region the smallest homes gained roughly half as much as the bigger ones, or less. They still cost more per square foot, but the premium is shrinking. Across all regions the median small resale cost $1,788 psf this year against $1,781 for a 500 to 999 sq ft home, when in 2022 it was about 13 per cent dearer.
That fits what sellers report. Fewer buyers want a one-bedder, so the price has to do the work. We saw the same pattern in subsales last month: the few subsales that lost money were almost all shoeboxes.
Who buys a one-bedder now
The buyer pool has shifted rather than vanished. The Business Times reported, citing PropNex data, that people with an HDB address made up 43.7 per cent of one-bedroom resales from January 2025 to October 2026, against 23.2 per cent for homes of 1,000 sq ft or more. For an HDB owner, a resale one-bedder at a median of about $816,000 this year is a far smaller step than a new launch at a median of $1.37 million. Our guide to upgrading from HDB to private covers the rules and timing. Singles and right-sizing older owners are a growing pool too: the number of one-person households has risen sharply in the last decade.
So, for you
If you are buying a one-bedder, buy it for the income and plan the exit before you sign. The units that resell best have a practical layout with a study or flex space, decent storage, and a short walk to an MRT station, a business park, a hospital or a university. Be wary of a project full of identical small units, where every seller is chasing the same buyer. Roov's investment scorecard weighs yield, tenure and resale volume for a specific project.
If you already own one and want to sell, price it against what has actually sold in your project and your region, not against what bigger homes have done. Roov's market tool now lets you compare prime, city fringe and suburban prices side by side. If the price you need is not there yet, renting it out while you wait is a reasonable fallback, as long as the rent covers the loan.
And if you are deciding between a one-bedder now and a bigger home later, our look at where launch prices are heading shows what waiting is likely to cost.
Thinking of buying, holding or selling a one-bedroom unit? Roov's agent can run the numbers for your unit and talk you through the options. Get in touch.