How you can promote a flat with a perceived drawback, like being West sun-facing or close to a garbage chute

Right here’s a conundrum: you’re at the moment a house owner who plans to promote your own home by consulting with an agent and itemizing it on a property portal.

Nevertheless, there’s one caveat: the home has a characteristic that not many potential consumers might instantly heat as much as. For instance, it’s direct East- or West sun-facing, which suggests within the mornings or evenings, it might get hotter than standard.

We thought we share how some householders get round this and maybe flip what might often be perceived as a drawback into a bonus.

1) East or West sun-facing flat

If a specific room (eg. main bedroom or front room) is East sun-facing, householders would often say they’re often not residence by the point the East solar is at its most intense, as they’d have gotten up and gone to work. If their potential sellers view work routines the identical manner, they could not thoughts the sun-facing side as a serious turn-off.

The problem often comes with West sun-facing flats. It is because after a whole day at work, chances are you’ll return residence and nonetheless really feel as if your house nonetheless feels hotter than standard.

One home-owner, whose kitchen is West sun-facing, would search for residence consumers who seldom cooks or stays within the kitchen. Actually, as a home-grown gardener, she was in a position to make full use of the daylight to develop crops in her yard and grasp her garments to dry. For her, she discovered a homebuyer who had comparable ideas or pursuits.

One other home-owner blocked the sunshine with UV sheets like photo voltaic or reflective movies on the home windows, coupled with putting in retractable blinds. If a purchaser can settle for these added options as a preexisting fixture (a part of the sale worth) that counters the perceived inconvenience, that’s already a win for the vendor.

As a rule, East or West sun-facing residences produce other options that override this perceived drawback. For instance, a house owner’s high-floor unit was West sun-facing and had a panoramic reservoir view. Potential consumers will know that the breathtaking view often overrides slight inconveniences like a morning or night solar.

Moreover, most trendy flats as of late have strengthened metal bars inside their concrete partitions to assist redistribute warmth all through the day.

BCA even has a time period referred to as ETTV – or Envelope Thermal Switch Worth – which measures warmth acquire (or conduction) by means of several types of partitions and home windows of a constructing, and RETV – Residential Envelope Transmittance Worth.

These values help architects and engineers in complying with completely different thermal efficiency requirements for buildings. Within the close to future, coming residence to an East- or West sun-facing condo might now not be a serious situation as broad-based building applied sciences enhance warmth dissipation inside nationwide eco-sustainable requirements.

2) Hall-facing (no privateness) or unit having taboo numbers

One other perceived drawback is that if the condo is going through the frequent hall or has usually taboo numbers (like 13 or 4). Some might view a low-floor unit as more durable to promote, or if it faces the expressway or noisy practice tracks. In usually, it’s more durable to promote to consumers who’re very specific about good feng shui.

In a single occasion, an HDB flat vendor was residing on the 4th flooring, going through the frequent hall and an LRT observe straight reverse. Initially, he thought he couldn’t promote his flat as a result of it was on the 4th flooring. It is because to some Chinese language consumers, the phrase 4 appears like loss of life.

He additionally thought it was due to a lack of privateness as a result of frequent hall and the LRT observe. That is regardless of the unit being inside strolling distance of the LRT station and having solely not too long ago accomplished its Minimal Occupation Interval (MOP).

Nevertheless, the home-owner quickly realised the rationale: as his HDB venture had solely not too long ago accomplished its MOP, different flats on the identical block (and better flooring) additionally entered the resale market. Naturally, potential consumers would search for greater flooring or nook models as a favoured selection.

After holding out for a while, a number of viewings and no affords, the home-owner lastly closed the deal at his focused worth. He offered to a non-superstitious purchaser with the assistance of his agent in the long run. In different phrases, he shouldn’t have anxious about not with the ability to discover a purchaser – it was about discovering the precise purchaser on the proper time.

Moreover, as a part of LTA’s railway noise obstacles programme, most practice tracks have privateness screens that double as noise obstacles. Between 2018 and 2023, 27 km of rail tracks have been or can be put in with noise obstacles. There was even a examine by a gaggle of NUS college students, the place they discovered property values improved after these noise obstacles had been deliberate and erected.

In response to LTA, these obstacles are anticipated to scale back railway noise ranges by 5 to 10 decibels.

3) Unit is subsequent to or going through the garbage chute

A 3rd perceived drawback is that if the condo is subsequent to or going through the garbage chute.

Nowadays, newer flats include a centralised garbage chute (as an alternative of getting one inside every home). This minimises points like pest infestation (particularly after intense fumigation) and upkeep prices for often choked chutes. In some methods, centralised chutes are usually higher for residents.

Do observe, nonetheless, that some consumers might desire a decentralised garbage chute within the residence. They might be seniors who don’t need to stroll out of the home occasionally to get rid of their garbage (so they like having a personal chute). These could be present in older resale flats, and there are methods (or advisories from City Councils) to maintain the chute door tight to stop pests and foul odour.

For blocks the place the chute has been centralised, there are models nearer to or going through the chute. Should you’re one in all these householders, what are you able to say?

For some, they declare they seldom go away their entrance door open, so the noise (from neighbours dumping garbage) isn’t as pronounced. For others, being nearer to the centralised chute means you don’t need to stroll far if it’s essential to get rid of garbage often. It is because residents residing farther away from the chute are inclined to accumulate extra garbage all through the day (which impacts the odor of their houses) in comparison with one residing nearer to the chute.

Actually, in case you’re residing on the next flooring, the difficulty of pests crawling out of the chute throughout fumigation rounds wouldn’t be as worrying as somebody residing on a decrease flooring.

Most centralised chutes are additionally nearer to the principle carry foyer, in order that’s a standard space trade-off in comfort for some householders.

–

Whereas we’ve shared just some examples, it’s clear that these “generally perceived disadvantages” could also be seen as “benefits” or “non-issues” to some potential consumers.

These consumers (and their brokers) would put aside these misconceptions or perceived disadvantages in lieu of the models’ much more beneficial benefits. These may vary from the unit’s wonderful design, breathtaking unblocked view, enticing pricing to neighbourhood rejuvenation or potential. Some might just like the neighbourliness of the ground (having good and pleasant neighbours) or are in search of a ceaselessly residence primarily based on these added conveniences. Just a few would don’t have any intention to promote the identical unit sooner or later, so that they’re not worrying about these issues in any respect.

Regardless of one or two perceived disadvantages, if the condo has many different constructive options going for it, it might positively be within the residence vendor’s favour to give attention to what makes it an incredible residence for potential consumers.

Keep in mind, no two consumers understand the identical condo the identical manner – one could also be in search of conveniences whereas one other could also be speculating to promote. Each purchaser has completely different residence routines that will match the persona and options of the home you’re promoting. You simply have to know what your consumers are in search of and market your own home to your benefit, on the proper time and on the proper worth.

 

–

Should you discovered this text useful, 99.co recommends Which property sorts to improve to after promoting your first BTO? and What an HDB second-timer should know earlier than deciding to promote.