Buyers Advocate Melbourne

With the recent sale of 14A Lothian Street and 86 Kay Street, my mind could not help but revisit a concept as old as the streets of London, which has only more recently begun to trend once more in the property world: The Small Office, Home Office (SOHO).

The initial concept of The SOHO first spawned with the development of shophouses back in the olden days, when families would simply go downstairs each morning to run the local family business before returning each night to their homes upstairs. With the onset of the modern world, high rise offices became the new workplace and the working class began to flock from afar to the big cities, transiting from their homes in the suburbs to the offices of corporations, day in and night out. This sight was common, not only in places like Victorian era England, but this tradition was even brought over to Singapore, where the pier known as Clarke Quay is lined with these old shophouses, revamped relics of a colonial age gone by.

However, with the invent of the internet as well as a revival in the entrepreneurial spirit, many business men and women have opted to convert a portion of their homes into offices so that they can conveniently work from home or at their own small businesses.

To break it down into simple point form, the SOHO can present these benefits to any one who wishes to implement it:

- Streamlining of utilities (internet, water, electricity)

- Tax deductible mortgage as a business expense and less debt than holding two properties

- Reduction of travel times (you’ll never really be late since you never left)

- Greater maximisation of utility of space in the home

- A perfect starting base for small business owners and entrepreneurs

- Young children can be cared for at the same time, especially important in the formative years who need the attention, care and nurture of parents

- Greater sense of pride and care for workplace

One of the biggest issues of the modern world (a problem that only really ‘bothers’ first-worlders) with the SOHO is that there is little separation between work and the life one leads outside of work. I regard this ‘issue’ as an almost trivial matter (namely because of my understanding of work) but perhaps that is because I love my ‘job’.

The fact of the matter is that most homes have an area, room or space dedicated to work, or storing material brought home from work, so this begs the question what is the difference between this allotted space and the workplace? It would be very hard to define the difference hence why integration of the home and workplace is not as dire or bad as people make it out to be.

There is a simple measure to overcome this perceived problem if it still bothers you: Just put up a curtain at the boundary where the workplace ends and where the home begins, to psychologically and physically symbolise the separation of the two worlds and that each realm should not ‘cross’ into one another.

The SOHO is the way of the future, for the discerning independent business man or woman, and for the small shop owners who want to have the option of caring for their young children at the same time. SOHO: Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it.