Guest writer – James Chua, Co-Founder of MetroResidences.

If you cannot see it, it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.

Many locals whom I’ve met aren’t aware of what we do because MetroResidences doesn’t touch the retail-consumer sphere. Sometimes I wish we had more visibility, but I suppose being incognito is a by-product of a business-to-business service.

Corporate Housing like radio signals, is not easily seen by the naked eye, but plays a significant role in our everyday life and economy.

Corporate Housing is a near perfect solution for the modern professionals living in Singapore for multi-month period. It provides the best combination of a home, a local experience, and at a reasonable price.  

The biggest benefit comes from the layout of the apartment, the location, the surrounding neighbourhood.

Residential homes are created for low-density long-term living and family-life, while hotels are created for high density short term living leisure. One example comes from the building-code surrounding the construction of balconies. In a typical hotel construction the building code typically rejects balconies due to safety reasons; eg. Hotels pose a higher risk of individuals falling when inebriated. However in a residential building, the risk are significantly reduced and balconies are permitted. From a feel point of view, balconies have a wonderful effect in making an apartment seem more like a home in how alfresco dining is possible, fresh air circulating through the unit and and how the view of the apartment can be more readily enjoyed.

A second benefit comes from the locations surrounding the residential compound. There is typically more greenery, more provision for wide open spaces like parks and open fields, and surrounding family-friendly infrastructure like family doctors, schools and supermarkets. Science shows a direct correlation between mental health and proximity of parks to residential homes. See this study looking at data from New Zealand, Europe and the U.S        

Overall an on-balance corporate housing presents a more economical choice versus the typical hotel. From a daily rate perspective, hotels go for between 50% to 100% more versus a corporate housing apartment across the road. Our own data suggests that our on average daily-rate works out to be between $120 to $130 per night versus the $170 to $180 shown as the Revpar statistic published by the Singapore Tourism Board for 2017, which is 30% lower.    

• Hotels are good for daily stays
• Corporate housing is better for stays of 30 days to 180 days
• Better quality of life
• More family friendly environment
• More cost efficient and cheaper overall

Our Corporate Housing platform has been functioning under the radar for 4 years and counting. Thousands of companies have booked with us and tens of thousands of individuals have passed through our doors. It’s not easily observable but we are making the lives of Professionals better, reducing expenditures for Companies and lowering stress levels in general.