UNDER ONE ROOF
by Lim Lay Ying
Property Times, New Straits Times
17th July 2004

What started out as simply a study area where work gets done at home, is now evolving into a more sophisticated version in the house design: the home office. It has even earned itself a nickname – “SoHo” which is the acronym for “small office home office”.

Sensing that more and more people are either working full time or part time from their homes, real estate developers are looking at new ways to create prototypes for this live/work home concept. So far, the transformation of the living space in the house has been kept quite subtle where only an attachment of an “office space” has been made.

While it is obvious that the new home has a space dedicated solely to accommodate this emerging lifestyle of working-from-home, the basic form of the residence has been kept intact to ensure that the privacy for the rest of the family members is preserved.

Developer Regalmont Sdn Bhd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ireka Corporation Berhad, responded to the anticipated growth in market demand for the home office concept with its project i-Zen@KIARA II located in Mont’Kiara, a highly popular residential suburb in Kuala Lumpur.

Annexe Space for Work at Home

Designed as an upscale serviced residence, i-Zen@Kiara II offers residents the flexibility of working from home by allocating close to a third of the total 238 units in the project for this “SoHo” concept. With a gross floor area of 1,615 square feet, the three-bedroomed SoHo unit has an attached “studio” space of a sizeable 160-odd-square feet including an adjoining bathroom. Access to this annexe is independent from the main entrance to the home although a private access has been provided for via the kitchen.

The main living quarters however feature the standard living, dining, and kitchen areas along with the three bedrooms and attached bath for the master bedroom. To further accentuate an air of luxury, a spacious lanai has been added as an extension of the living area.

iZen@KIARA II features a range of designs aside from those with the “SoHo” concept. Studio units measure 725 to 748 square feet while the larger 2+1 bedroomed types are 1,078 square feet. The 3-bedroomed ones come in sizes of 1,330 to 1,368 square feet, the 3+1 bedroomed units from 1,540 to 1,557 square feet, and the 4-bedroomed units are 1,686 to 1,701 square feet. The largest homes in the project are the penthouses with a total floor space of 5,399 to 5,424 square feet.

The serviced residences cost between RM230,000 for the studio unit and RM698,000 for the larger four-bedroomed type. Residents’ privileges include amongst others, a 24-hour concierge service, a business centre, a fully-fitted gymnasium, a games room, a swimming pool, a launderette, and 24-hour security service.

Loft Apartment Format

Yet another prototype unveiled in Kuala Lumpur last year, which has been prompted by market demands for the live/work housing concept, is the “business suite” designed in the form of a duplex loft apartment. Located in the heart of Kuala Lumpur’s Golden Triangle – at Lorong Bukit Ceylon, the “business suites” make up about ten per cent of the entire 246 units of serviced residences in Seri Bukit Ceylon, a project by UM Residences Sdn Bhd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of UM Land Bhd.

Designed with the loft space on the upper tier to accommodate the residential function, the work area is dedicated to the lower level which allows for an executive office space, a reception/secretarial area, a separate lounge, a kitchenette, and a bath/washroom. Studio-type units measure 960 square feet while the more spacious 2,210 square feet type has an additional leisure deck and a meeting room/area.

These live/work prototypes which are on Levels 1 to 3 in the 25-storey Seri Bukit Ceylon are priced between RM363,880 and RM750,880. The remaining 22 levels house standard residences featuring various designs. With sizes ranging between 591 square feet and 1,260 square feet for the one, two, and two-plus-one bedroomed units, prices start at RM217,880 (larger units cost almost RM430,000).

Aside from the standard recreational facilities, security services, and smart telecommunications infrastructure, Seri Bukit Ceylon investors have the option to appoint Ascott, which happens to be Asia’s largest serviced apartment operator, to manage the leasing of their properties to corporate clients. Ascot will be operating over 40 per cent of the units in the project under its Somerset brand.

A Test-bed for Future Developments

While iZen@KIARA II and Seri Bukit Ceylon have displayed Malaysian real estate developers’ zeal in wanting to keep up with the dramatic changes in the way people work, hesitation amongst them to do live/work (space) is pretty much obvious. Both Regalmont Sdn Bhd and UM Residences Sdn Bhd have dedicated only a segment of their total development densities to this type of concept – using them primarily as a test-bed for future projects while ensuring that the profitability of their current projects are maintained.

Similar sentiments were noticed amongst US developers more than a decade ago. Most thought the “live/works” would never sell then – but they sold so fast that those who ventured into it couldn’t keep up with the building. Those that built, saw their developments doubling in value.

Today, nearly a quarter of the houses being built in the United States have home offices, according to the National Association of Home Builders, based in Washington, D.C. This trend is driven by the phenomenal rate of increase in home-based businesses in country. The Home-Based Business Council in Neptune City, New Jersey, reported a 47 per cent jump in home-based businesses over the last decade – moving up from 17million to 25million this year.

Encouraged by this trend, US developers are pushing the boundaries of the concept with unconventional design features. Designed from “scratch”, these buildings have attracted businesses such as software development firms, insurance offices, publishing houses, commercial photography studios, real estate agencies, accounting firms, hair salons, etc.

For Malaysian developers, the live/work idea would be a revival of the traditional two-storey shophouse concept where the storefront is at the street level while the upper floor is for residential use. But with the anticipated resurgence of this lifestyle set in the 21st century of modernity, developers may need to take a giant leap of faith and create new design formats for the more demanding younger generation.