How should a small investment
Condo be furnished to attract the Caucasian expatriate
tenant?
The
2 photographs shown above may help answer the Frequently
Asked Questions (FAQ) from first-time Landlords as to how
they should furnish their small condo for rental.
This Tanglin Regency condo had been rented to a Japanese
despite construction work of another condo seen outside
the living room. As at October 31, 1999, the construction
of the neighbouring condo is almost completed.
Besides a reasonable asking rent, what helps is the
quality furnishing and and pastel colours.
Here
are some furnishing tips for first-time Landlords:
- Caucasian
Tenants like pastel colours in
furnishing as shown by the light yellow night
curtains and living set in the photographs.
Many Owners do not provide the white (day)
curtains, trying to save money but this is penny
wise pound foolish. Some Tenants do not mind
having night curtains only but not the flowery,
multi-coloured Walt Disney types. Definitely no
pink, orange, green or grey curtains even though
you may want to differentiate your condo from
others.
- The
night curtain in the photographs
should be of a thicker material
to stop any sunlight coming through or should
have another backing.
This is important in bedrooms with bright lights
coming up from the tennis court (as in some UE
Square Condos next to the tennis court) or facing
East. Some expatriates may want to wake up later
but are disturbed by the bright sunlight.
- Mirrors
make the small condo look spacious. One
clever Landlord in a Fifth Avenue Condo uses a
long mirror outside shoe-rack cabinet, near main
door. Another one in Costa Rhu has a big mirror
in the private lift lobby flanked by imported
brick like tiles so that Tenants can check their
appearance before going out. These are expensive
ideas but they do attract tenants who feel your
unit is "superior" to your competitors.
- Furnish
with smaller living and dining sets
as shown in the photographs, otherwise the
apartment looks cluttered. Usually the living set
should be 2+2 and the dining table should have 4
chairs. Caucasians expect comfortable, not too
soft or too narrow arm chairs, so do not buy
those meant for Asians.
- In
this case, the Owner uses fabric covers for
dining chairs with the idea they can be washed.
Expatriate families with small children will find
this difficult to maintain and will avoid renting
such units.
You thereby reduce your chances of getting early
occupancy. It is best is to buy light brown
wooden chairs with good seats rather than black
chairs.
Black sofa sets & black
dining tables may not get dirty so obviously, but
the black colour is not a favourite colour of
Caucasians. You therefore reduce your catchment
of prospects if you insist on black.
- Wood
for the dining table is good but buy
light-coloured ones like pinewood.
- Glass-top
dining tables and coffee tables give a
contemporary and classy look. This glass with
metallic legs combination seems to be in favour,
but try not to buy ornate types.
- Ceiling
lights should be one or maximum 3
electric bulbs rather than chandeliers which are
suitable for bigger houses.
- Master
bed for master bedroom. The owner had bought a queen-sized
bed plus 2 side tables
bought as a set. One side table should be all
right, if a king-sized bed is needed. The Owner
is reluctant to change the size of the bed as the
other 2 smaller bedrooms can't even accommodate
the queen-sized bed.
Caucasians prefer king-sized beds. Japanese do
not mind queen-sized ones.
- Decorate
the whole condo like a show flat
in sensible pastel colours, as in this case.
There is still no guarantee but an apartment
furnished with quality furniture tends to rent
out faster. This is called
"differentiation" or
"positioning" in marketing terms.
Japanese tenants usually want to rent fully
furnished. Many caucasian singles and
couples want fully furnished if the apartment is
small. Caucasians tend to have their own beds and
living and dining sets if they have a higher
rental budget of say, $6,000 and therefore will
want partially furnished
apartments. .
How
do you advertise and promote
your investment condo?
As a first-timer, you need to be energetic to maximise
your returns on investment in your condo. You will have
to look for realtors specialising in rental and be pro-active
yourself in advertising and insert the wording "Owner"
in the Straits Times Classifieds.
If you need to give exclusive marketing rights to a
realtor, do not advertise as
"Owner" as this will lead to unwanted calls.
Nor should you ask your agent to do so, unless "full
commission" is advertised and is payable to
the other party with the client.
Rental realtors with prospective tenants tend to contact
Owners direct rather than co-broke and
therefore giving exclusive marketing rights may hamper
your chances of an early occupancy rate.
If you have no time to attend to the house-viewing
appointments, it will be best to let a good realtor
handle your unit rental but offer "full
commission" to the co-broking realtor. Pay
your broker a managing fee.
The October 1999 rental market has bottomed out, but
there are still many new condos ready for rent. Many
corporations are renovating their investment condos to
attract tenants and they have much bigger advertising
budgets than the average first-time individual landlord.
If you do not mind, we recommend one affordable Internet
Property Advertisements of Asiahomes Internet, the
advertising agency for Asia USA Realty (see Photo-Ads at http://www.asiahomes.com/singapore_classified).
It
costs S$13.50/40 words/90 days and it is worth every cent
since you expose your property to a website targeted at
expatriates relocating to Singapore.
Asiahomes.com is a massive Singapore
website with lots of information and over 1,000
photos and layouts on Singapore housing as at October 31,
1999. It is updated continually and frequently.
 Your internet
advertisement means a lot to us as we to want expatriates
to visit our website frequently too and have the option
of contacting the Owners or Realtors direct.
We welcome your your property particulars, please email
them to judy@asiahomes.com to expose your
property for rent to our realtors and the world wide web
of via http://www.asiahomes.com
Good
luck.
James Ang
james@asiahomes.com
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