(Money) can’t buy me love – or luxury

I've often been asked, what's the ultimate luxury in a condo development – especially in land-scarce Singapore?

After all, aren't these two words almost oxymoronic in some ways? Condos are essentially mass housing albeit with a bit of class fitting here and there and your token pool and gym, and whatever else that may be the fancy of the day, as opposed to singular homes on sprawling land which are probably the epitome of luxury in most people's minds.

For some, having the now-ubiquitous lap pool, the sauna and steam rooms, the latest designer fittings and appliances or lush greenery will suffice them as luxury condos. But as said before, luxury has now become too commodified and easily available with money.

Therefore, what IS the Ultimate Luxury in Condo living? My answer is simple …something that money cannot BUY! So, how can this be possible given that most things can be bought with money and my answer is again, equally simple: it's all in the song by The Beatles …

…(*money) Can't Buy Me Love

So if money can't buy love then therefore, only LOVE can buy the ultimate luxury! What does that mean? (and I'm sure a lot of property developers will be listening hard on this one!)

Love simply means that someone has cared for you, and have taken the trouble to make sure that everything fits for you!

Take an example: Space. Quality of space, not quantities of it! A space that is neither big nor too small, something that is just right for you, and arranged in such a way that it resonates with really who you are because after all architecture is primarily space and everything else is just secondary. A space that is lovingly crafted, and caringly embellished – either ornamentally or otherwise.

Another factor for me would be the sense of unexpectedness, that adds to the sense of true luxury. I still remember many years ago when I was asked by a developer client of mine who was then building possibly the tallest and most luxurious apartments in Jakarta at that time, and right smack in the heart of town …the Times Square of Jakarta if you like, the famous H.I. Bundaran or The Roundabout.

He asked me to give him a fully grown garden complete with tall mature trees on the Super Penthouses so that when you step out of your lift lobby, you are greeted immediately by views of the garden not unlike any of the other landed gardens in Jakarta, or anywhere else for that matter. Which is all fine except you are walking through a fully matured and treed garden at the 60th floor! To him, having a normal garden at stratospheric height was unimaginable and almost unreal and to him completely unexpected and therefore, totally luxurious!

We then further upped the ante by giving him a infinity lap pool that stretched right to the end, only to be terminated by a pool pavilion that is perched precariously on – not the cliff edge of Uluwatu, mind you – but the razor sharp perimeter rooftop of a 60th floor residential high rise, overlooking the vibrant skylines and the far away hinterlands beyond. Now that's what I call Ultimate Luxury!

For me, true luxury as a bachelor living in the hustle and bustle that is Singapore would be:

…living in a private boutique-ish condominium populated by not too many, preferably with birds of the same flock so you can still remember their first names and still care to say hello on your way out. What we call the good old communal living transplanted onto a fast-moving Asian metropolis.

…a place that is so close to the city that you could not only feel but HEAR the heartbeat (*if you choose to, that is!), as convenience or location is still key.

…a place when you come back from your work or your nonstop travelling you are greeted by so much greens and shrubbery that you thought you've just stepped into a resort …something you would NOT expect in a location so right smack in the city.

…a place where when you walk into your apartment, everything is there …where every space and surface of your home sings the same tune as your body and your SOUL.

Luxury however can never be a sum total of all these factors, as with most things.  It has to be an acute confluence of the right factors that not only reinforce each other, but are coherently weaved into a singular story that is so compelling that it might just possibly sell by itself.

Now if there are any would-be aspiring developers (or for that matter, any seasoned ones!) out there who are interested in developing this little gem of an idea into a reality, then I think he or she may have found his or her first buyer, namely ME, plus probably a couple of other like-minded blokes (and gals, of course!) queuing behind me!

Article source: http://www.thethailandlinks.com/2012/12/18/money-cant-buy-me-love-or-luxury/