When it comes to a passion for property, and breathing new life into tired run-down places in need of a face-lift, Ashley Horne is right up there on the Richter scale! An Englishman in his early 40s, and an electrician by trade, Ashley has been living and working in Macau for about six years. And he has recently completed one of his most challenging projects – the purchase and complete remodelling and modernisation of a 950 square foot apartment in Old Taipa Village.
This is the third of his conquests. Like the previous two, this is in a low-rise walk-up in one of the high-demand, low-supply areas in Macau, where, with a little courage and imagination, and a relatively small investment, the capital gain on the property is considerable.
“You can go and buy 20 Nova Citys, Supreme Flower Citys, or Wa Boas in central Taipa, but in the village it’s very difficult to find available properties these days. The scarcity makes them all the more desirable, especially for those working on the Cotai strip,” Ashley explains. “They make ideal rental investments as tenants can walk to work, and besides, the village is a great place to live”.
The apartment, located on Rua Direita Carlos Eugenio, the main bus artery leading into Old Taipa Village, was on the market for about three months in early 2012. Advertised in the local Chinese newspaper and listed with three different agents, priced at HK$3.2, HK$3.1 and HK$2.95 million … in March 2012 the seller was finally persuaded to accept HK$2.9 million.
“At that time the market was quieter than it is today and the extent of the renovation needed was obviously putting off many potential buyers. If you’re going to have success with the older properties – whether to rent or to buy – you have to see the potential of a place, you have to have a vision”.
After six months of planning, designing, building site upheaval, a painfully slow contractor and a renovation bill of HK$300,000, Ashley was finally able to move in and start to make it feel like home.
“People ask me why I enjoy living here so much”, smiles Ashley. Apart from the obvious charm of the village with its narrow streets and quaint little houses, “what I love about Old Taipa village is the familiarity with the locals. At 8.30am each morning many of the old villagers congregate at the Community Hall on the other side of the street to my apartment. They sit around, gossip, sing and chant”.
“It’s a three-minute walk to my local pub. It takes 15 minutes for me to walk to work and I have restaurants and shops all at my door step. There’s a real life and soul to this place” he exclaims.
And what is especially important to him is that his home has plenty of outside space with a terrace and a rooftop which was lacking in his earlier two properties.
“I like the fact that I can see the complete diverse range of Macau buildings from my terrace.” Looking out over his traditional Chinese red roof tiles, “there’s the old tatty village places across the road from me, Taipa residential high-rises behind, several traditional Portuguese-style buildings, and the shiny new casinos in the distance, all of which sums up what Macau is to me”.
So what exactly did Ashley do to get his apartment into the shape it is today? This time he decided to use a designer to help him.
“I gave him ideas that I’d seen on the Internet or in magazines to help explain my vision, then we basically had the whole place gutted, so the walls, floors, windows, everything was demolished.”
The wall between the kitchen and the living room was knocked down, the bathroom and master bedroom enlarged, all new double-glazed windows and sliding doors out to the terrace installed, and attractive pale wood, engineered oak floors were laid.
As you enter the apartment, the bathroom with its spacious rain shower and smart black and grey tiles is to the left, and to the right, the open kitchen and breakfast bar and living area.
The focal point of the living space is the floor to ceiling sliding doors that fold up neatly to one side and lead to a terrace, with multi-brown tiles, muted-pink wall, a table and couple of chairs. From the terrace, its just a few steps up to the roof.
The kitchen wall tiles are a creamy-caramel with stark white grouting which ties the walls and the white cabinetry together.
Ashley’s preferred colour scheme is predominantly white walls, with a dark caramel-brown feature wall, chocolate brown sofa and chair, cream rug and several framed black and white photos on the walls.
Leading off the living area are two double bedrooms. One is large enough for a study alcove, though being a true man at heart, at the moment it serves as storage space for Ashley’s bicycle and sports gear! Ample storage can be found in a walk-in under stair cupboard and floor to ceiling wardrobes taking up one whole wall in the master bedroom.
The downsides to living in the village? “Fifty buses going past every hour!” says Ashley. The buses are definitely an irritant especially on Rua Direita Carlos Eugenio, “number 33 seems to go past every three minutes …”, hence the importance of the double-glazing.
The good news – after the remodelling and modernising of his current apartment the bank valuation stands at just over HK$6 million, so that’s double his original investment in only 18 months – proof that giving old village properties a face-lift is a very much a winning formula.
