Is a 1-bedroom-plus-den always going to be worth more than a simple 1-bedroom?

Not according to many buyers!  It all depends on what you’re looking for…

That’s a pretty sweet den!

But not quite the one I’m talking about…

No, I’m talking about the cozy little corner of your 1-bedroom-plus-den condo that you never seem to know what to do with!

Some people use it as an office.

Some people use it as a TV room.

Some people use it as a dressing-area for their ladies.  Bring your own armoire!

And to be honest, a lot of people use it for storage.

But many people have absolutely, positively, no clue what to do with the “den” in their condos, since it’s not quite large enough to be a bedroom, it’s too big for just a desk, they don’t have enough books to make it into a library, and they really, truly have no use for it.

For as long as condos have been around, the “one plus den” has always trumped the simple “one bedroom,” both in terms of stature and price.

If you walk into a sales centre for a pre-construction condo, you’ll find that the A-tier floor plans are 2-bedrooms, the B-tier is filled with 1-plus-dens, and the C-tier is comprised of 1-bedrooms.

But more and more buyers are starting to wonder: why is this?

Dont’ get me wrong – a 700 square foot, 1-bedroom-plus-den is worth more than a 640 square foot 1-bedroom, but what if they were the same size?

That’s what I want to talk about today.

Let’s, for a moment, compare apples to apples.

Let’s forget that 1-bedroom-plus-den units sell for more, and are worth more, than 1-bedrooms because they are almost always larger, and let’s consider all things being equal.

Let’s look at the actual use, functionality, and style of the condominium den.

I’m going to show you two floor plans.  Actually, it’s one floor plan that I’ve edited myself, as the second floor plan does not exist, but personally I prefer the second floor plan.

This is a 700 square foot condo.  Have a look, and pay attention to the den, the kitchen, and the living/dining:

Bottom line: I’ve taken the den out of the first unit and I think that makes a MASSIVE difference.

The living/dining room is larger.

This is where condo owners spend most of their time, assuming you don’t consider sleeping for eight hours “time spent.”

The biggest problem with 1-bedroom condos is that many of them don’t have room for a dining room table, and I think this affects the potential resale value.  Stagers make a living by cramming a tiny 2-person dining table into a space that won’t fit it, while shrinking the living space to fit a 2-person couch with a 32-inch television.  It’s smoke and mirrors, and in reality, many condos just aren’t conducive to both living AND dining, even though every listing on MLS will call it “Living/Dining.”

Based on my own experiences and those of my clients, I think that a large, long, open concept living/dining room is one of the most sought-after features of a 1-bedroom condo.

The second floor plan is far more versatile, and it’s large enough that even if somebody wanted a desk (that might otherwise go in the den), they could put one in between the living/dining rooms.

The kitchen is larger.

Again, consider that I edited this myself, in PAINT, so I’m hoping the difference is not subtle.

The kitchen in the second floor plan is exactly 23% longer than in the first floor plan, it makes a big difference!  There’s more counter space, the kitchen is more open, and you can comfortably have two people in the kitchen as opposed to one.  You can also have the fridge and the dishwasher open at the same time!

There is a large hall closet.

Many people use their dens for storage, or for stuff that they don’t know where to put (like all the stuff your parents bring you back from their trips to Florida…), so why not just have a big hall closet?  This is effectively the size of two regular storage lockers, and spending a bit of money on custom shelving would enable you to fit everything that normally goes in your pantry, hall closet, bedroom closet overflow, storage locker, and laundry closet.

I’m not trading the den for a closet – make no mistake here!

But I do think that if we had two condos, same square footage, we could make a far more functional 1-bedroom than a 1-bedroom-plus-den.

The issue with the trade-off is twofold:

1) Buyers want more living/dining space.
2) Most dens are under-utilized.

But those two issues together, and the solution is simple: get rid of the den, and use the square footage elsewhere.

If you had 700 square feet to work with, you could probably design your dream condo, and it wouldn’t be either of the two floor plans pictured above.  You’d probably shrink the bedroom (all you do is sleep there anyways!  You’re not Patrick Bateman doing stomach-crunches on the floor!), add a second bath, change the location of the closets, etc.  I know there are an infinite number of floor plans in your heads, but just work with me here and focus on den or no den.

I have to think that 70-80% of today’s condo-buyers would rather live in the second unit than the first, and this is based on assessing the needs of my current buyers, and those that I’ve sold to in the past 12 months.  The den is usually a “nice to have” on most people’s list, but a large majority of buyers want to “feel” the space and determine if the layout is right for their style of living.

And let’s not forget that the den in the first floor plan above is actually deep, wide, and enclosed!  This is a good den!  Compared to so many of those laughable “dens” out there, where you can barely fit a desk and a chair – this one might actually get some use!

Nevertheless, I think the idea of a “home office” has fallen by the wayside, since most people have a laptop that sits on their coffee table, instead of a giant desktop PC with a two-foot-thick monitor and a computer that sits on the ground next to the desk.

The truth is: unless you’re running a home-business, you likely don’t need 80 square feet as an “office.”  How many paper-clips do you have?  How much space do you need for six pens?  Can’t you keep that stuff in a drawer?

Unless your den-home-office is ego-driven, and you need wall space for your MBA and your movie posters from Wall Street and Boiler Room, you probably don’t actually “need” that space for work.

How many of you have a printer under your couch that you plug in when you need it once a week?  Or how many of you have it on the floor in the corner of the room?  Do you really “need” 80 square feet for a printer, a few pads of paper, and all your university course books?

I have a den.

I have a 2-bedroom, 2-bathroom condo, and we’re talking above about 1-beds, but for the sake argument, I’ll divulge what I use my den for.

Ready?

Folding laundry.

I have a very nice glass table where I “should” be working from, a few bookshelves to show off the fact that I can read, and wall space for my ego (ie. photos from Kilimanjaro/Everest).  So what do I use that den for?  Folding laundry.  When a load comes out of the dryer, it goes right onto the glass table, and it’s slowly tended to over time.

That’s just me, but I feel as though it’s many other condo-owners as well.  I like the den space because I have a lot more square footage than with a simple 1-bedroom, and so I’m not losing out in other areas.

But when you look at most 1-bedroom condos versus the 1-plus-dens, I feel as though the space is wasted.

I have hard time seeing the value in the den pictured above, or figuring out what somebody would do with it.

I’m not den-hating here, since in reality, your 1-plus-den is likely larger than your neighbour’s 1-bedroom, but I am saying that the desire for dens is shrinking in downtown Toronto.  As people become more focused on their “entertaining space” (living/dining/kitchen), and less focused on the price per square foot and other metrics that are only good in theory, I think we’re going to see a lot more value placed on the layout and functionality of a condo.

The question becomes: will builders figure this out?  Or will they continue cramming 4 x 6 dens into condos so they can market the unit as something MORE and get a better buck for it?