Never thought about it just this way, but a Landlord's answer to the Quora question "Why are studios and 1-bedrooms almost as expensive as 2-bedrooms?" makes perfect sense. I *knew* this deep down, but never spelled it out like this:
"Because often the biggest expense of providing an apartment is plumbing.
A two-bedroom apartment will still have one bathroom and one kitchen. These essentials are part of the base expense a landlord will have to incur on an ongoing basis. The extra floorspace is less expensive by comparison.
Stoves and refrigerators generally have to be replaced every ten years. Bathtubs and sinks, every 25 years (or less if you’re trying to stay trendy). We just had ours done at the co-op and the typical replacement cost for both the kitchen and bathroom was $15,000 (Cdn.). Unit size only changes that slightly.
Then there are repair costs. If you’re lucky, you won’t incur any during the lifetime of the appliance or plumbing, but if you do it can be expensive. A landlord can blow half a month’s rent on a single plumbing repair."
Which, by the way, we just did. Well a third of the rent anyway went to a plumbing repair which DH couldn't do on his own.
Anyway, I just thought it was interesting.
--50.82.xxx.xxx