SINGAPORE: Before I became a parent, I liked the idea of open-concept layouts in a home. Had the “White Flat” option for Build-to-Order (BTO) flats been available back then, I might have jumped at the chance.

Those on the market for new Housing and Development Board (HDB) flats will soon be able to choose between the open-concept layout - with no walls separating the living and bedroom spaces - or stick with the standard BTO layout.

It will start, as a pilot, with a BTO project in the Kallang-Whampoa area to be launched for sale in October.

National Development Minister Desmond Lee said this change came off feedback from young Singaporeans, during the Forward Singapore exercise, for more flexibility to configure their homes based on their needs at different life stages.

APPEAL OF OPEN-CONCEPT APARTMENTS

The appeal of open-concept layouts is clear to see, particularly for married couples without children.

With flats generally becoming smaller since the 1980s, an open-concept design can allow home owners to use space more efficiently. It could potentially visually expand a 66 sqm 3-room HDB flat to feel larger than a boxed-in 90 sqm 4-room flat. Fewer barriers would let in more natural light and allow clearer lines of sight for a more modern feel.

More young home owners also now favour a larger living space for hosting, an open kitchen or even a walk-in wardrobe. The White Flat layout can allow them to design their preferred layout from scratch and carve out dedicated bespoke spaces such as a home office or home gym set-up that took off during the pandemic.

Quite a few of my friends chose to knock down a wall in their own homes such that one bedroom opens up into the living room, flowing seamlessly with the open kitchen and dining area. The new layout option would have appealed to them, to choose which walls to put up rather than which to tear down.

Even if couples welcome children in the future, they can always build internal walls later and reconfigure the space again to adapt to their changing life stages and needs.

THINGS TO CONSIDER BEFORE OPTING FOR WHITE FLAT

Such open-concept and highly customised flats have their own downsides and challenges.

An open kitchen looks great in magazines and on social media. In real life, cooking smells can easily permeate the entire open area, get onto the sofa and bedsheets - requiring more effort to clean and keep odour-free. This is the reason why my husband and I decided not to go for such a design.

Noise will also travel more easily through the whole house without walls to soundproof the different areas. If more than one person is on the phone or having a work meeting at the same time, this could become disruptive.

Another important consideration in hot and humid Singapore would be about cooling individual spaces without walls. Larger spaces require more powerful air conditioning systems. This will translate into a higher energy consumption and more expensive electricity bills.

As a general guide, larger living areas require two to three times more power to cool than a 15 sqm bedroom.

Finally, one should do well to remember that it may not be easy to sell a highly personalised flat.

A house with a non-standard layout may severely limit the pool of ready buyers on the resale market, especially if the customised design is not to their liking or does not meet their needs without major changes.

Future buyers will likely factor in the higher renovation costs into the negotiation process in their attempt to bring the offer price down.

GREAT FOR COUPLES, LESS PRACTICAL FOR FAMILIES

With kids, such an open-concept design would be impractical. The desire for flexibility will have to give way to the need for privacy.

The lack of partition walls is not expected to make a big dent in BTO price, nor will home owners save that much on the cost of hacking a few walls. But adding a room generally costs more than removing one, according to interior designers.

After buying a resale flat with its traditional walls mostly intact, my husband and I spent slightly over S$10,000 on renovation - hacking down some walls and putting up new ones.

We created a home office space that doubled up as a temporary nursery so that caring for our newborn at that time would not disturb our older child’s sleep. We carved out a smaller storage room, a helper room and created a connecting door between the children’s room and the master bedroom.

Without these customisations, our renovation bill would have been cheaper by at least 15 per cent.

Open-concept layouts may be attractive to couples, even if the dual-income-no-kids lifestyle might be temporary for some. Their needs and preferences may change quickly once kids come along - I know ours did.

Once that happens, open-concept layouts no longer become practical.

Dawn Cher, also known as SG Budget Babe, runs a popular blog on personal finance and has a licence in real estate.