Guess I am on fire these days as I have been blogging a lot more recently. Let's continue from my previous post about renting commercial units for CDs purposes since it is still fresh on my mind... For those CDs who wish to consider renting a commercial unit, you have come to the right place for information. I will try to be as objective as possible to give you some food for thoughts and consideration.
As mentioned previously, getting a commercial unit can sounds quite daunting initially. Some may ask, do you need a business entity, how much is the cost, do we need to pay for utilities, is there short-term leasing and so on. Let me help you with that as I have gone down that path before. As there are quite a lot to talk about on commercial units, I will focus more on work and storage unit here, then introduce how to search for a commercial unit before focusing on the rest later in my next post.
For those who wish to have a hassle-free commercial unit without long term lease commitment or the need for a business entity. You can check out the Work+Store concept. Due to the rise of e-commerce, this option is very popular recently; people generally use Work+Store unit for storage of goods and dispatch arrangement or for small businesses such as walk-in store for wares or photography services or conducting of workshops and so on. The pricing for these Work+Store concept varies based on location and facilities provided. For those who are interested, you must check if the unit is solely for storage purposes or suitable for work and storage. If it is purely for storage only, the unit usually comes with lightings and nothing else.
For those work and storage unit, they come as individual room unit with door lock system that either use keys or security codes to open up. Air condition can either be individual unit or a centralized system, depending on the setup. If you want power points for electricity, some providers only provide corridor power points to prevent abuse or overuse of electricity. Toilet is usually common use type serving the whole level of tenants. Do note that for work and storage unit, they are usually bare unit, meaning the floor is uncarpeted and without flooring boards. There will be no furniture or anything. I think this is good for CDs as they do not need any furniture anyway. To sign up for a work and storage unit, you need to have an idea of what business you want to use the unit for, although a business entity is not compulsory. In terms of pricing, some of these Work+Store units look expensive based on the link below.
http://workstore.com.sg/listings/WorkPlusStore.pdf
Using a 110 square feet unit for calculation, the pricing is $720 (less 25% off is around $540 per month). This cost includes the facilities fee, utilities fee and GST, so no additional fee needed except… you will need to purchase fire insurance depending on what things you want to store inside your unit. The cheapest insurance is around $10 + 7% GST, which works out to be $10.70 additional. There is 3 months free rental, but I will not take that into consideration for the calculation. So, the price per square feet is around $6.50 before discount and $4.90 after discount. Can see that the rate of $6.50 is pretty standard even with storage unit. What is the advantage of a Work+Store unit as compared to a Storage unit? Well, the main thing is, the work and storage unit is like a personal room where you can access easily and have privacy when needed, there is lighting and no need for artificial lights. So, it is more comfortable to dress up as compared to crossdress in a storage unit. The downside is the unit size can be an overkill if you just need like 25 to 50 square feet to really dress up and you do not wish to share the space with anyone else. The smallest unit that I ever get was 80 square feet and I was like paying $470 per month. I have to admit that it was another CD who gave me that idea and I never regret this decision of trying out a work and storage unit. Other additional cost includes 2 months’ rent as deposit (will be return to you if there is no damages to the property) and administrative fee of $53.50, all these are one time payment.
The pricing of the work and storage unit does not look super attractive as compared to the storage unit despite all the perks of having more privacy and comfort. This is where it can get interesting when you start looking for a commercial unit. You may want to check out commercialguru website to find something that is able to better suit your needs.
https://www.commercialguru.com.sg
I will guide you through the search. First, on top of the blank, there is BUY and RENT, this should be a no-brainer that we are looking for rental. After that, you can select the price range that you are comfortable with but be prepared that you are not looking at $100 to $200 price range. Depending on your comfort level, go for $500 to $750 if you okay with that pricing. The price is a bit steep but if you are considering sharing with other CDs, the price is quite reasonable. Next, the size that you want. I guess we must be more practical here. We cannot look for a 1,000 square feet unit when you are just looking for somewhere to store your CD stash and to crossdress. Anything below 500 square feet will be good, you can set your smallest size that to something that you want, maybe around 100 to 150 square feet. There are 4 options under the “Commercial” drop down menu. Usually, the best will be Industrial area, followed by Office. Please do not have the mindset that industrial area is all dirty and messy, or that they must be big. If you set the parameters correctly, you will find a lot of small units, ranging from 100 over square feet to 300 square feet that can be quite nice.
All thanks to WFH (Working From Home), a lot of these industrial or office units were left vacant. Thus, it is a good time to look around. After you have found the units that you are interested, do not be afraid to go for viewing. Just arrange for an appointment and go down and view the unit physically. Usually, for those units that are between 100 to 300 square feet, they are rooms that are partitioned from one big unit or floor area (usually around 800 to 850 square feet). There will be a common area or corridor connecting all the rooms, this is the usual set up for industrial or office units.
I will continue the rest of the procedure in my next post as it can get a bit too technical. Cheers.
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