The young man who bought a one-bedroom apartment off the plan in the Sydney CBD only to discover it’s now become a studio has been told that developer Lenland is not prepared to offer him any financial compensation.

Instead, he’s been told there’s no alternative to the stark choice to either have the contract for the apartment in The Castlereagh, for which he paid $585,000 in 2012, rescinded by the developer – or to accept an offer to have the former bedroom area’s carpet replaced, free, with timber flooring instead.”

“I still don’t feel that is a resolution of the issue,” says design consultant Jae Jun Kim, 27, who’s now waiting on legal advice. “I feel the least they can do for me is offer me financial compensation.”

It has now emerged that seven other buyers of one-bedroom apartments in the new 15-storey The Castlereagh are now also being told their units have been turned into studios.

“The market value for a one-bedroom is now $700,000 but the market value for a studio is now $550,000. So how can this situation be fair? How can they sell a unit as a one bedroom when it’s not even big enough?