Through a friend’s recommendation and out of curiosity, they delved deeper into the world of co-living properties. Both husband and wife were previously working in the tech industry, and the need to travel frequently and work long hours pushed the two to leave their jobs and start their own co-living venture, Bespoke Habitat, in 2019, with the aim of providing affordable living spaces.
Husband-and-wife team Ernee Ong and Jelene Sim have always been savvy real estate investors. Although the couple have a deep passion for the industry and a keen eye for deals, that did not matter as property cooling measures imposed by the Singapore government set in and returns became less attractive.
“It became more difficult to buy properties without the additional buyer’s stamp duty and it was getting too expensive to invest directly in properties. We had to find other ways to get better returns with real estate,” says Sim, adding that they had previously bought properties and rented out the rooms to bring in income.
