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Shophouse Collective

History

Built during the 1840s to 1960s, with unique architectural features that are symbolic of Southeast Asia’s colonial era.

What is a Shophouse?

Shophouses are built largely between from the 19th century through the mid 20th century, mainly during the period from 1840s to 1960s. Singapore shophouses are built with unique architectural features that are symbolic of Southeast Asia’s colonial era. The foundations were typically made from locally sourced and manufactured bricks set in lime mortar. Today, they are considered an iconic heritage of Southeastern Asian architecture characteristic.
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Emerald-Hill

The fundamental form of Shophouses

The fundamental form of shophouse was originally based on traditional Chinese houses in southern China, where the majority of Singapore’s early immigrants were from. They traditionally served as a home and place of business for wealthy merchants or traders. The front room on the ground floor were used to conduct business.

Towards the 20th century, richer business owners also sometimes built townhouses as a dedicated residence for themselves. They would modify existing shophouses by adding an extra storey and enhancing the façade with beautiful decorative embellishments. The ground floor, which would have been used for a shop, then functioned as a main hall for receiving guests instead.

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tiong-bharu

Architectural Characteristics

Singapore shophouse development has a number of distinctive key features. The ground floor is often designed to accommodate commercial enterprises such as a retail shop, a restaurant, or even as a showroom, while the upper floor or floors are intended for accommodation or office use.
 
Shophouses are built in different time period. Each period has its own distinctive decorative façade and style. The very initial shophouses in the early days were originally designed to be fairly simple and modest. Over time and influence from Peranakan* (Straits Chinese) culture as well as European influence, the style of shophouses begun to evolve over time.

Despite so, it still maintained a certain set of characteristics such as low rise i.e. 2 or 3 stories tall, relatively long and narrow with a typical frontage of 16 to 18 feet (5-6 metres) and were usually built as a row of buildings along streets. Five-foot ways was initiated by Sir Stamford Raffles in his town planning when he founded Singapore. These five-foot ways allowed pedestrians to be sheltered from sun and rain. The pitched roofs are usually laid with clay tiles and flooring typically timber but later stage of shophouses especially in the art deco style are built using concrete.

Shophouses Today

The supply of shophouses are limited as many were demolished due to modernisation. Due to the heritage significance of shophouses on Singapore history, the Singapore government has gazetted about 6,500 shophouses for conservation. Shophouses are now mostly refurbished for modern contemporary uses and considered as a highly prized asset highly sought after by both local and foreign investors, companies and even Family Offices. Many shophouses continued to be owned by 3rd and 4th generations within families whom still continue to live or operate their businesses.
 
Some are zoned for either full commercial usage or commercial use on the first level and residential use on the upper floors, while others are wholly residential. In the Central Business District (CBD) alone, there are about 3000 plus fully commercial shophouses. Foreigners and companies are eligible to purchase fully commercial shophouses properties and no Additional Buyer Stamp Duty (ABSD) or Seller’s Stamp Duty (SSD) is imposed.
 
In order to ensure that the important heritage elements of shophouses are preserved, the URA published a set of conservation guidelines for features that must be preserved to protect the heritage value. 
 
Source: URA Singapore

Let us do the leg work in finding the perfect shophouse for you

People are the soul of a team and you can’t know Shophouse Collective unless you know its people. Meet our shophouse mavericks:

Lukas Shophouse

Lukas

An accountancy-trained overseas graduate, Lukas is the numbers and finances guy helming Shophouse Collective. His experience as a full-time SAF officer trained him to be very meticulous in his planning and execution. The advertising industry experience under his belt gave him a flair for the creative in marketing and advertising. In automotive sales, he was consistently ranked among the top and he won many awards. This has very much to do with his ability to sense and understand the real needs of his customers at a deeper level. Lukas has more than 6 years of experience in the real estate field and was also a panellist speaker at Sing.Pac 2013.

Agnes Shophouse

Agnes

A former air crew turned automotive sales professional, Agnes has proven herself in both sales and customer service. She was consistently one of the top performers and award winners while in the automotive industry. Wanting to grow even further on a personal level, she decided to make the switch to real estate in 2021. Her ability to interact with people from all walks of life makes her a great people person – an invaluable attribute that has served her well in understanding the needs of her customers, both sellers and buyers.

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