Boutique condos – commonly thought of as projects with 50 units or less – offer a lot of privacy. But these tiny developments also mean smaller land space, fewer facilities, and maybe even cliquish management committees; so are they really worth the added exclusivity? This week we spoke to some owners of boutique units, on the aspects that they definitely don’t enjoy. Here’s what to look out for:

1. The entire project is dominated by an extended family

Eliza is a foreigner, and rented a unit in a District 15 boutique condo between 2015 to 2017. She says multiple units in the condo (more than half) were owned by the same extended family:

“They (the family) ran the whole complex as if it was their own little fiefdom. They would arbitrarily change the rules about where the rest of us could park, or how we could use facilities like the clubhouse movie room. 

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