For Expats, by Expats; HomeyDays aims to change the industry landscape for international tenants
- HomeyDays is an apartment rental service platform that aims to bring about better co-living experiences for their tenants
- Scofield Li, Co-founder of HomeyDays, was inspired to create HomeyDays after going through some bad living experiences with rental rooms
In this article, we talk to Scofield, Co-founder of HomeyDays, about his company and why he decided to create HomeyDays.
Founder’s Interview with Scofield Li
Share with us more about HomeyDays!
HomeyDays is an apartment rental service startup that provides a co-living environment for our tenants. We leverage on private residential properties from individual owners to provide long-term room rental for inbound professionals and international students in Singapore.
You can expect all of our furnishing and household services to be stylish as well! At HomeyDays, we redesign the traditional room viewing experience by employing the immersive virtual room viewing technology. Prospective tenants can use their mobile phones to get a 3D dollhouse view of the apartment, with the illusion of touring around the apartment by simply tapping on the screen to manoeuvre around. Other added values we give our customers include building an inclusive community for all the tenants by organising events to enrich their overseas living experience.
What was your motivation for creating HomeyDays?
8 years ago when I left China to study in Singapore, I was faced with some bad experiences living in rental rooms. As a country that attracts so many expats, I believe there are many other foreigners who encounter the same pain with rental rooms in Singapore. Finding a good room is time consuming- details and photos of rental rooms are often misleading. Apart from the tenants who face such pain, property owners also encounter difficulties with finding good tenants, low rental rates and property damage issues. Therefore, I want to solve these pain points for both tenants and owners with HomeyDays. With HomeyDays, we believe that we can change the industry landscape and bring about better co-living experiences and leasing model.
Talk to us about your startup journey so far.
It has been a fruitful journey. Since joining The Start, we have made big progress with HomeyDays. The mentoring sessions during the programme have provided us with lots of assistance and guidance with our problems, thus making us more confident in scaling our business and serving more customers now!
One big challenge we used to face with HomeyDays was not being recognised enough for property owners to engage our services. Many owners still prefer to rent their homes directly to families instead of us, even though the rental fee is below market rate. What they fail to realise is that HomeyDays provides a good rental return and higher overall ROI. HomeyDays renews and extends the contract for long-term tenancy, ensuring that our property will always be occupied, hence relieving worries that owners might have on vacancy risks. Moreover, at HomeyDays, we have a dedicated and professional maintenance and housekeeping team that will take good care of our owners’ property. Complimentary wall repainting and floor polishing will be performed before the property is handed back to its owner to ensure that the property is back to its original state when it was first rented out.
HomeyDays is not only a tenant, but a steward as well. The long term goal for HomeyDays is to firstly be recognised in Singapore, and then internationally, in the rental market industry.
Where can we go to learn more about your company?
You can visit our website at www.homeydays.com! Alternatively, we also have a strong WeChat community- WeChat ID: “HomeyDays” and WeChat public account: “HomeyDays 馨居时光”
