REAL estate platform Hom, recently launched its first unit in the freehold apartment Sky Suites @ KLCC and is already looking at launching units in Bangsar South and Mont Kiara in Kuala Lumpur.
Its co-founder and CEO Felix Ferdinand said Hom was created to solve the housing problem in Malaysia, where property prices are expensive and unaffordable to many.
“We want to be the solution to that problem, and to empower our community through accessibility over home ownership.
“At Hom, we provide more than just space. We provide accommodation and on-demand services with the element of community,” he said at the platform’s online venue launch recently.
Hom has redesigned and repurposed spaces to be more functional for millennials.
“We curated the space with a common area, where you can work from home,” Ferdinand said.
In addition, the platform also has a mobile application with which members and tenants can make payments, view accommodation listings and on-demand services, and RSVP to community events that Hom provides.
Also at the launch was Cradle Fund Sdn Bhd Group CEO Rafiza Ghazali, who said co-living gives residents an opportunity to not only share their living space, but also to share similar intentions, values and interests.
“The increased interest in living more sustainably and being part of a community has inspired the idea of co-living such as Hom.
“Hom reinvents the way people live by making it easy to find flexible and affordable housing which is centrally located across the country,” she said.
Rafiza added that co-living offers solutions to prohibitively high rents and gives leasing flexibility to young professionals trying to make it in the gig economy, much like co-working.
“Hom’s unique technology matches roommates who share the same passion and emphasises that while co-living is about the community, it also supports individuality.
“It is about sharing rather than consumption, and collaboration rather than competition,” she said.
Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives Minister (Medac) Datuk Seri Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar who attended the online launch said he was pleased with Hom’s efforts to offer a co-living space platform to the youth in the city.
“I hope that Hom will increase the scale of its offerings in a short and timely manner, while helping with the recovery process of the Malaysian economy,” he said.
“I hope that the youth will seize the opportunities to venture into the digital economy sector to introduce innovative services in improving the nation’s quality of life,” he added.
According to the Department of Statistics Malaysia, the Malaysian digital economy contributed 18.5% to the GDP amounting to RM267 billion in 2018.
“This sector also employs 1.12 million people which is 7.6% of the total jobs in Malaysia,” Wan Junaidi said.
He also said start-ups are contributing to the country’s economic growth digitally, namely Fave, EasyParcel, TheLorry.com, Carsome, Moovby, Exabytes, Aerodyne and SEA Gamer Mall.
A survey conducted by Medac on 5,195 users in April 2020, shows that consumers now have the tendency to perform online purchases as opposed to physical purchases.
“Thus, in line with the development of current economic trends, entrepreneurs must always be sensitive and ready to adapt to the latest technologies and innovations in their businesses,” Wan Junaidi said.
He added that the ministry is ready to provide support and facilitation to entrepreneurs in driving economic growth through technology-based companies.
“On June 5, the prime minister presented the short-term National Economic Recovery Plan (Penjana), outlining three main thrusts namely empowering the people, boosting businesses and stimulating the economy.
“Forty initiatives worth RM35 billion were introduced with a direct fiscal injection from the government as much as RM10 billion,” he said.
Via Penjana, the government has allocated a special fund of RM100 million to encourage the development of innovation and creativity that can catalyse the digitisation of service offerings that would leverage start-up companies.
