September 22, 2026
A small apartment does not struggle to sell because it is small. It struggles when it is priced above the market, or when the building around it gives a buyer no reason to choose it. Get those two things right and size stops being the deciding factor.
That is Paul's answer to one of the most common assumptions buyers bring to the Atlantic Seaboard: that studios and compact one-bedroom apartments are harder to resell than larger units. The evidence from one of our own Sea Point buildings points the other way.
"I think at the end of the day, it's about the ticket price."
The first test is price. A buyer weighs what an apartment costs against what comparable apartments nearby are selling for. When the price is market related, a smaller unit has an advantage a larger one does not: a lower total outlay, which opens it to first-time buyers, investors, and owners who want a lock-up-and-go base on the coast.
The second test is the building. Paul puts it this way:
"The location, the building, the composition of the building, its ingredients will always underpin the value of the property and its saleability."
These are the same factors he pointed to when we asked whether all developments perform the same. A small unit borrows its value from the building it sits in. In a building with little to offer, a studio is a small room. In a building designed around how people want to live, it is an address.
Station House, at 19 Kloof Road in Sea Point, is where we tested this. We developed it in partnership with D2E Properties around a simple theme: sleep small, live large.
The apartments ranged from studios and micro units to one- and two-bedroom homes. Around them, the building carried the offerings a smaller unit cannot hold on its own: a boutique hotel, a supermarket, a ground-floor restaurant, and a rooftop pool and sky bar. From the outset, the aim was to price the apartments so that people renting in the area could convert their rent into a bond and get onto the property ladder.
Of the original sales, Paul says: "I think we sold thirty to forty percent less than the price that they're achieving now." He puts current resales in the building at north of R110,000 a square metre on average, excluding transfer duty.
For context, CapeTownData's early-2026 analysis placed the Cape Town citywide median at about R22,000 a square metre, and put Clifton and Bantry Bay at R80,000 to R180,000. Small units in a Sea Point building are now trading in the range usually associated with the Seaboard's most exclusive suburbs.
A note on that figure: resale prices exclude transfer duty because the buyer pays it on top when buying second-hand, while a new apartment bought from a developer includes VAT in the price. We explain the difference between VAT and transfer duty in an earlier episode.
Three things work in favour of a well-placed small unit.
The building does the living. When the pool, the restaurant, the gym, and the places to meet people are part of the address, the private footprint can be smaller without the owner feeling it. Buyers are paying for the life the building gives them, not only for the square metres behind their front door.
The buyer pool is wider. A lower ticket price brings in young professionals, investors building a portfolio, and owners who spend part of the year elsewhere. In Sea Point, where so much is within walking distance, that pool is deep.
The supply is fixed. The Atlantic Seaboard has little room for new building at scale, so a well-located apartment of any size draws on the same limited supply.
First, compare the price per square metre with recent resales in the same suburb, not with the asking prices of larger units. A small unit should be judged against small units.
Second, look at what the building offers beyond the apartment. Shared amenities, street-level retail, and on-site management are what let a small unit live larger than its floor area.
Third, study the layout. Storage, natural light, and a usable balcony matter more in 30 square metres than in 130.
Fourth, think about the next buyer or tenant. A studio buyer often does not need a parking bay, which we covered in our episode on parking and resale, but they will care about location, security, and what is on their doorstep.
Judge a small unit by the building, not the floor area. The studio in a building with nothing to offer will always be a hard sell. The studio in a building people want to be part of will find its buyer, and at a price that surprises people who assumed size was the point.
As Paul put it: "It's been an incredible development, an incredible example of value in small units."
Berman Brothers Group has been developing on the Atlantic Seaboard for more than 30 years. Across that time, the apartments that have held their value have rarely been the largest. They have been the ones in the right location, in buildings with the right ingredients, priced in line with the market when they were sold.
Size is one variable among several. It is seldom the one that decides a sale.
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Paul Berman is a co-founder of Berman Brothers Group, which has been developing on the Atlantic Seaboard for more than 30 years. Myth vs Fact is BBG's monthly series cutting through the assumptions buyers most often bring to the Atlantic Seaboard market. For the full Q2 2026 market read, see the Boardroom Quarterly Executive Brief.
Continue reading: Myth vs Fact: Do All Property Developments Perform the Same covers the factors Paul says drive long-term value, the foundation for the argument in this piece.
