Crafting A Legacy

From building enduring homes to investing in blockchain, veteran entrepreneur Eric Cheng is fearlessly looking forward to the future, discovers Hong Xinyi

- Hong Xinyi

I MAKE DECISIONS VERY FAST,” Eric Cheng tells us at one point during this interview. “That is my strength.” Friendly and easygoing in person, there is little sense during our cover shoot that this entrepreneur is a man in a hurry. But the evidence of his inclination for swift action is actually all around us—we are talking in a 1940s inter-terrace house along Makepeace Road, a property he decided to acquire on the spot during his first viewing last year.

“I have very strong instincts when it comes to houses; they communicate with me. And when I saw this one, my first instinct was to buy it,” he explains. Firstly, the house is located in the well-heeled District 9, where properties don’t change hands often. “In the last eight years, there have been no transactions along this entire lane. So I signed the option agreement on the spot without negotiating the price at all. I knew this was a good buy.”

He was proven right just a few days later, when a keen buyer offered him a higher price for the place. “But I refused to sell. Sometimes, good things cannot be replaced.” In fact, Eric scrapped his original plan to erect a new house on this plot of land. Instead, he lavished some tender loving care on the original property’s vintage charms, spiffing up distinctive features such as the original flooring and wooden front door, and adding contemporary flourishes such as dramatic floral wallpaper. “I wanted to keep the character of the property, while also bringing a modern touch to it.”

FROM THE GROUND UP

Paying meticulous attention to aesthetic detail is Eric’s hallmark as a real estate developer. With his experience in architectural planning, he is able to personalise his properties through conceptual planning and by matching them to concepts and designs.