Shophouse fulfills a Singapore dream.(Finance).Sonia Kolesnikov-Jessop. International Herald Tribune (Feb 6, 2009): p.14. (995 words) From Military & Intelligence Database. 

Full Text:COPYRIGHT 2009 International Herald Tribune

Byline: Sonia Kolesnikov-Jessop

SINGAPORE — After renting one of Singapore’s historic shophouses for almost two years, Marcel Heijnen, 44, dreamed of buying a similar place but thought he could never afford it.Then, despite all the odds, the Dutch expatriate and his girlfriend Dawn Mok, now his wife, found what they were looking for on their first day of house-hunting in late 2001.”The price was 710,000 Singapore dollars, which was actually quite cheap for this type of house, because the previous owner was desperate to sell it,” the graphic designer recalled. That was about $473,000.”But we had to decide immediately because the house was going to be repossessed by his bank unless he sold it, so we had to make a decision nearly on the spot.”He added: “I remember thinking it felt large. It just felt right.”Shophouses, the two- or three-story row buildings used for residential or commercial purposes, or a mix of both, were introduced to Singapore in the 19th century by Chinese merchants and Arab and Jewish developers.The traditional structures typically have a narrow frontage, sometimes as little as four meters, or 13 feet, but are quite deep, sometimes extending all the way to the alleys between blocks. Many also include a kind of central airwell, a feature incorporated from traditional southern Chinese urban architecture, to provide ventilation and light.Along the front of each row of houses runs what is called a “five-foot way” – a covered walkway, sometimes more than five feet wide, formed by the overhang of the upper floors, a design legacy attributed to Sir Stamford Raffles, the founder of Singapore as a British colonial outpost.The city-state demolished many of the houses as part of its modernization in the 1960s and ’70s, but some remain, though not always in good condition.Renovated units usually have colorful facades, often with European-inspired neoclassical motifs and louver windows, and are in demand among home buyers.They typically sell for around 2.5 million to 3 million dollars on the east coast and as much as 5 million to 8 million dollars in the prime areas like Emerald Hill, off Orchard Road, said Susan Ye, managing director of the Isabel Redrup Agency, which specializes in the historic properties. They typically rent for 6,000 to 13,000 dollars a month, she added.The Heijnens’s house, which dates from the 1930s and which they own freehold, had been renovated and extended by its previous owner so the couple had to do only minor renovations when they moved in, spending about 50,000 dollars to attach a new bathroom to the master bedroom, install a kitchen and recondition the floors.”The house had actually been used as a shop and storage space for Chinese antiques, so the space was very bare. But one of the advantages of the previous owner’s trade was that he had replaced the first floor flooring with wood that he had salvaged from an old bungalow. Our floors are probably older than our house,” Heijnen said.”He also used his contacts in the trade in Indonesia to have some woodcarvings made for the fanlights above some of the doors and windows,” he added. “These carvings are not original to these houses, and we can see from our neighbors that window mesh would have been put in those fanlights, but they still look very nice.”The 280-square-meter, or 3,000-square-foot, house is typically narrow – just 4.8 meters wide and 23 meters deep – and stands on about 125 square meters of land. A visitor immediately steps into Heijnen’s office, before moving on toward the large kitchen and dining area at the back of the house.Upstairs there is a living room, with the master bedroom and bathroom at the rear. His wife’s office is on the third floor.One of the downsides of these long and narrow row houses is that they can be fairly dark inside.To remedy that, the Heijnens decided in 2004 to create a large airwell, a vertical shaft from the ground floor through to the pitched roof. This major structural work, which forced the couple to leave the house for two months, also provided an opportunity to make some repairs to the previous owner’s renovations. In all, the work cost $120,000.The couple also had to seek permission from the Urban Redevelopment Authority to keep some of the detailing on the facades, including some old decorative tiles from Malacca and wood carvings. The items had been installed by the previous owner but were not in keeping with the original facade, which is covered by a conservation program.Heijnen said their architect managed to persuade the authorities to allow them to keep the detailing and to permit the construction of a short staircase to the attic.”It’s quite nice to know that the authorities here are slightly flexible, because they do want these old properties to be preserved,” he added.Since then, the couple bought a plot at the back of their house for $35,000. Although small, the additional space allowed them to replace the kitchen wall with floor-to-ceiling sliding doors, which let in a lot of additional light.”The house has been a slow labor of love, evolving with us,” Heijnen said. “The best points of living in such a house is the character, the feel of the place and the very high ceilings. We also love our neighborhood and I like it that when you step out of the house you’re onto the sidewalk. Some people might think it’s not safe, but really it’s not an issue in Singapore.”He added: “Maybe one downside is the layout, which is O.K. if you don’t have children or guests. But because the house is narrow, you don’t have much space you can close off, so just about everything becomes a walkway to the next space.”The couple is mulling more renovations because the large attic space above the living room could be converted into a second bedroom. “I wouldn’t mind knocking out the ceiling and opening it up,” Heijnen said. “More for the visual space than to create a mezzanine.”

Source Citation:Kolesnikov-Jessop, Sonia. “Shophouse fulfills a Singapore dream.(Finance).” International Herald Tribune (Feb 6, 2009): 14. Military & Intelligence Database. Gale. Remote Access. 18 Feb. 2009
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