For wealth management advisor Hanni Wong and her banker husband Nigel, living in a shophouse has always been the dream. Inspired by the rows of shophouses opposite her then-boyfriend, now-husband's penthouse apartment in the Joo Chiat area, the couple would often try to peek inside the houses. "I loved walking around the neighbourhood and seeing how these pre-war shophouses look as modern-day residences," recalls Wong.
It was the juxtaposition of the old-world charm of the exteriors and modern interior designs that appealed to the couple. So when they got married in 2017 and the opportunity to purchase a shophouse came knocking on the door, both Wong and her husband wasted no time setting up a viewing appointment.
Walking into the east-side property for the first time, though, Wong was not impressed. The almost 3,500sqft three-storey shophouse, which was then just listed on the market, looked very run down and was segmented into two separate units: The ground floor was rented out as a retail-cum-office space, while the upper two floors were rented out as an apartment.
"It was definitely not a love-at-first-sight moment for me, to be honest," she says of the property. Scrolling through her phone to show the pre-renovation photos, the 35-year-old recalls how dark and dingy the space was. "There was no natural light coming in except from the two windows at the front. It was in [such] a completely unliveable state that I wasn't able to visualize how it could be a home for our family," she says.
Despite her reservations, the couple made an offer and, within days, were homeowners to a 100-year-old conservation shophouse. Wong asserts that while she was not a fan of the property then, she relented as her husband could see its potential.
This story is from the December 2022 edition of Harper's Bazaar Malaysia.
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This story is from the December 2022 edition of Harper's Bazaar Malaysia.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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