Rows of shophouses in Singapore have gone from being thought of as urban relics to high-priced symbols of sophisticated city life.
Almost a decade ago, Sebestian Soh got the idea to buy a shophouse, one of the two- to three-story row buildings that are distinctive of old Singapore. He’d recently returned to Singapore after going to university in London, and to his eyes shophouses had a kind of magic.
But in an arc familiar to rehabbers of brownstones in Brooklyn, New York, and London Victorian terraces, the rows have gone from being thought of as urban relics to high-priced symbols of sophisticated city life. With their colourful facades, ornate plasterwork and covered walkways, they’re sought after for hipster restaurants, bars and boutique hotels, which are doing brisk post-pandemic business as tourism returns to the city-state.
Mr Soh’s first shophouse purchase is now home to his family office. Along Telok Ayer Street in Chinatown, the cyan-blue building adorned with calligraphy frescoes is next to a Michelin-starred restaurant and a few steps away from Thian Hock Keng, the island’s oldest Chinese temple. “There’s tremendous demand,” Mr Soh says as he brews tea on the third floor. “Now we’re no longer able to acquire – it’s quite hard.”The squeeze hasn’t gone unnoticed by the government.
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