Live, Work and Play – the philosophy that we would love to have but might think it is hard to get. Not anymore.

The ability to focus at work, the convenience of coming home from a train station, and the availability of various amenities all within easy access. Who wouldn’t want this kind of convenience at a footstep? We are in a fast-moving society where the economy and worldwide population has been on the upside, it is not impossible to have this ambitious way of living. With the rise of mixed developments in many parts of Singapore, the “Live, Work, Play” philosophy is now right in front of you at the Dairy Farm Residences.

Undeniably we are a land-scarce country, being able to offer homes and amenities all at the same time is not easy, but nothing is impossible. In mixed developments, we can enjoy the convenience of having commercial spaces right at our footstep. From supermarket, 24hrs convenience store, cafes, restaurants, childcare centre, beauty salons, and cinemas – we literally have a mall just below our unit.

So, What Are Mixed Developments?

Land use in Singapore is based on the urban planning regulated by Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA). There are several types of mixed development that integrate residential, retail, office and hotel usage together with major transportation hubs such as train station and bus interchange in a same development. In this context, we will be focusing on mixed development where the development combines residential and commercial spaces in one estate. Usually, the residential towers standing on top of the commercial retail mall which can be single or multiple floors. Mixed development as a whole can be in the form of a single building or the entire cluster. For the case of Dairy Farm Residences, the compound is segmented into residential and commercial areas.

Top 5 Benefits of Mixed Developments in Singapore

Having convenience and accessibility at our footstep are not the only advantages of mixed developments, there are more benefits of living in an estate combining residential and shopping mall as one. While some people see mixed developments as something risky for their private life, there’s more to these developments than privacy issues.

Here are the advantages that easily override the fears:

Unmatched Convenience

Convenience is the kind in a mixed development. With almost everything we need right within reach, we do not need spend extra effort to dress up to travel far from home just to fetch daily necessities and probably do not even need a big refrigerator to stock up food items and having more food wastage if we cannot consume fast enough before they expire. Thus, bring retail conveniences close to home has many advantages:

• We do not have to strain our arms traveling with huge grocery bags,
• Restaurants and food shops within the estate provide easy access to sumptuous meals,
• Driving away from home just to visit shopping malls is virtually not needed,
• We do not have to rush from home just to catch our favorite blockbuster movie,
• Having part time jobs at the cafes and supermarkets could be good for the young or older ones than spending their time on gadgets.

Saving Costs

Travelling expenditures could be greatly minimized when retail amenities are at our footstep. The cost of car petrol, ERP gantry and parking fees are on an all-time high, and by reducing the need to travel, it allows us to save a huge amount of sum for a better use too.

Better Chances of Rental Income

Market sentiments place great emphasis that developments closer to MRT stations commands fetch higher rental income, this may not always be true. The added benefit of having a mall or retail amenities can likewise fetch high rental income. Mixed developments are attractive to tenants because of the convenience it brings. Tenants are willing to pay more especially for developments that could provide the daily essential needs all under one roof as they are literally enjoying the conveniences too. Dairy Farm Residences has a supermarket, childcare center and food court within its compound.

Increasing Location Value

There is a common notion that mixed developments are for affluent people as some of the mixed development are priced on a high side that an average income family may not be to afford it. This may not be true. While this might be accurate in some forms at some developments, it plays a huge role in increasing the intrinsic value of a development. With affluent people flocking into the area, it significantly puts the development in a better position. Attracting more affluence home stayers could help making the area a highly “desirable” location, as was seen at Clavon condo. By working out the financial asset planning, owning a residential unit in a mixed development for an average income local and family is not impossible.

Flexible Investment

A well-planned mixed development curated by an established developer sitting on a great location that is not too far from the expressways and train station is a massive uptick to attract strong interest from buyers. Having retail amenities at our footstep is surely a desirable love to the locals, foreigners adore the conveniences too since most of them are attracted to convenient city living. In a similar aspect of us becoming a landlord to collect rental, there is a possibility of renting such a property to gain valuable income.

Caveat Venditor

Having to know the benefits, we may not possibly have the best of both world. There are some disadvantages behind the benefits of mixed developments that we should be aware of. Here are some general drawbacks that we need to consider:

• Commercial spaces to be owned and run by individual owner or a single owner/developer makes a huge difference in tenant mix,
• Noise from shops, and cooking/food smell from the eateries
• Privacy issues with non-residents hanging around the estate
• Possibility of parking shortage and both residents and non-residents passing through the carpark gantry

The addition of having the utmost convenience and accessibility to everything are the driving factors of mixed-used properties. These reasons and more makes them uniquely wonderful and practically stellar.

In recent years, several mixed developments were launched by established developers, namely Dairy Farm Residence, Normanton Park and One-North Eden and have been well-received by buyers who desire having parks and natural reserve beside their enclaves catering to their needs for hiking and walking with the conveniences of retail amenities at their footsteps which these developers have designed these developments in such a way that residents would not be affected by the retail components.

In times to come, with the current new normalcy of more working from home, we foresee that more mixed developments will be launched in future.

Source: https://www.propertyasiadirect.com/blog/benefits-of-mixed-developments-singapore/