My home is a big cultural melting pot.
Meet Harshit Rampuria, a 26-year-old Manager working for a co-working company in Singapore. He works in a shared office space and loves the environment because he enjoys the flexibility as well as the concept of space sharing with other like-minded people.
Wanting to replicate the same environment at home, he decided to turn his home into a co-living space. To make his home inviting and comfortable for himself and others, he had certain, specific requirements.
“Location was important — the house had to be accessible and close to basic amenities like eateries and MRT stations. I was also looking for a property with a large living space to make socialising and entertainment enjoyable. Lastly, the house also needed to have the right home appliances like television and dishwasher,” says Harshit.
Experiencing the worst
Before he turned his home into a co-living space, Harshit spent two nightmarish years living with others. From experiencing sleepless nights living with an expat family with a crying baby, to staying with messy housemates, he has seen it all.
“Obviously, when you’re living with others, you share the same home so there are bound to be conflicts. But after experiencing my share of bad housemates in the last couple of homes, I decided to rent my own place and chose who I wanted to live with.”
Finding the right space and housemates
Using the PropertyGuru platform, he found his current home — a four-room condo in Chinatown. It’s comfortable enough for himself and his housemates and large enough to accommodate more people for parties. Currently, he’s living with Pauline Taupin, a 25-year-old Business Consultant, and 27-year-old Lawyer, Garv Malhotra. They share the cost of rent among themselves.
Though the three of them hail from different backgrounds and professions, they have a common interest in sharing their home with friends and regularly host parties.
“My home is a big cultural melting pot. We know people from different industries, backgrounds, and cultures. When we bring all our friends together during the weekends, our home becomes a unique place for everyone to talk about interesting things.”
Each weekend, he and his housemates host up to 40 people for meals, parties, or for drinks. Since they spend more time at home with their friends, they save money from eating out.
As Harshit and his housemates are foreigners, they understand the challenges of coming to a foreign land with a different culture, and want to help their friends too.
"Some of our friends are young people who left their home countries to start a new life here. Since we’ve gone through the same path ourselves, we share our experiences with them to help them adapt better," he says.
Read more stories of people and their home journeys. Or view thousands of listings for sale/rent on PropertyGuru.
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