The Power of One
After working 12-hour days as head of public relations for Johnson & Johnson China Ltd., Jane Wu heads to her haven -- a two-bedroom condominium near Shanghai's leafy French Concession.
The 36-year-old bought the apartment four years ago for $120,000, then scoured design magazines and interviewed interior designers for ideas on how to create an individual space for a modern single woman. With a strong vision in mind, Ms. Wu spent $26,000 on renovations and furnishings, outfitting her living room in a traditional Ming dynasty style featuring natural teak furniture and cool beige walls.
Spending 10 days a month on the road meant Ms. Wu was looking for a retreat from her hectic life. "I travel a lot, so I wanted to make it homey because I wanted to spend as much time as I could at home and be myself," says the Shanghai native.
But the purchase of her peaceful pad overlooking the bustling Xiang Yang street market wasn't the end of her financial plan. Two years ago Ms. Wu spent $117,000 on a second Shanghai apartment. This one is purely for investment; a nest egg for her future.
Even a decade ago, it would have been unthinkable for a single woman to own even one property in China. But the face of the Asian residential property market is changing thanks to profound demographic shifts that have created an economic force of single households. Across Asia, the number of singles purchasing property is booming. "You're seeing more singles buy properties in Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Bangkok, Shanghai and certainly in Singapore," says Chia Boon Kuah, head of regional marketing for Singapore's Far East Organization.
Property developers are aggressively tapping into this market, shelving their blueprints for family friendly apartment complexes and changing the way that they conceive and design apartments. Forget about poky rooms: it's all about curtains, removable walls and glass to separate areas and give smaller spaces a roomier feel. Then there are indulgent extras: with single women in mind particularly, designers are creating bathrooms with space for a television and bathtubs big enough for a languid stretch. And facilities count, too: new singles-oriented apartment complexes come replete with restaurants, theaters and nightclubs.
"Single person households have increased, and it's happening everywhere," says Joseph Chamie, New York-based director of the population division of the United Nations. "This has enormous implications."
The demographic reasons underlying this trend are widespread. Across the Asian-Pacific region, divorce rates are spiraling: in the past decade in South Korea divorce rates have climbed 250%, while in Thailand the number of divorces has increased by 60%. Then there are the increasing number of Asians who aren't marrying at all, or who are delaying their nuptials until they are well into their 30s and 40s.
On top of those factors, where once single Asians would have lived with their families, now an increasing number are choosing to lead a solo life. Between 1990 and 2000, the number of one-person Beijing households rose to one million, from 200,000 -- a trend that is mirrored in Singapore and Hong Kong. In Tokyo, the number of single women between the ages of 25 and 49 living on their own increased by 47% to 724,000 between 1990 and 2000.
Indeed, single women are having the most sizeable effect on the property trend. While single men have long been voracious consumers, unmarried women in Asia such as Ms. Wu are increasingly fueling the trend as a combination of greater education and urbanization offers them the chance of an independent life.
"Education is probably the single biggest (factor) in moving away from traditional norms, especially for women," says Auckland, New Zealand-based Dr. Clint Laurent, president of Asian Demographics Ltd., which studies future population trends.
A room to call one's own is becoming a must-have for many such women. Last year, Rattaya Kulpradith, a 34-year-old Bangkok-based researcher for market research company Synovate Asia-Pacific, bought a $168,000 two-story home on the outskirts of the city. She then sunk another $22,000 into furnishings and renovations for the 324-square-meter property, which includes a two-car garage for her 2001 Honda CRV.
Exacting in her needs, Ms. Rattaya called in a landscaper for the garden and had her curtains and kitchen cabinets custom-made. A gardener regularly comes in to tend the flowers and trees on her property, as well as the greenhouse-style garden in her bathroom.
"I wanted it to have a resort feel like you're in Phuket," says Ms. Rattaya, whose life is dramatically different from her parents, who own a pharmacy and rent land in their hometown in the northern region of Chiang Mai. Last year, Ms. Rattaya boosted her property portfolio with the purchase of an $8,600 longan orchard on the outskirts of Chiang Mai. The first harvest netted $6,000. "I'll have the property paid off in two years."
Private Garden
In Japan, Eri Honda, a 44-year-old Tokyo native who currently is based in Manila, also is locking in her financial future. Four years ago, the urban development specialist for the Asian Development Bank bought a newly built condominium for $495,000 in the sleepy Taito residential district. The fourth-floor, 65-square-meter flat overlooks the peaceful Buddhist temples in Yanaka Cemetery, and on weekends the air is filled with the fragrance of incense and the sounds of monks chanting prayers. "It's like my own private garden," she says. Even though Ms. Honda is in Manila on a three-year assignment, her Taito apartment is where she plans to spend her retirement.
Ms. Honda is one of a growing band of women in Japan building their own property-focused nest eggs. According to the Nomura Real Estate Development Co., single Japanese women in their 30s are a fast-growing slice of the Tokyo real-estate market. About 13% of single women aged 35 to 39 own their own home or condominium, as opposed to 9.5% of men.
To tap into this market, this year Nomura's development arm Nomura Real Estate Development opened three new properties -- the Proud Gem series -- in the funky fast-fashion spots of Shibuya and Shinjuku. Proud Gem prices are relatively affordable, with the average small apartment selling for about $320,000.
"Two years ago we saw the phenomena very clearly that women in their 30s were buying (condominiums)," says Michihiro Kawai, head of planning and marketing for Nomura, which plans to open four more new properties geared toward singles in the next few years. "It was a clear change in the market."
Discerning singles like Ms. Honda who are looking for an apartment with an edge are also changing the way apartments across Asia are conceived and designed. Although Ms. Honda's apartment is small, the walls separating her living and dining rooms can be removed to open up the space when she wants to entertain friends -- an important part of her lifestyle.
"We had to throw away our old fixed ideas of (design)," says Mr. Kawai. To give the Proud Gem properties a modern design focus, Nomura hired renowned architects Makoto Shin Watanabe and Yoko Kinoshita, who have long argued publicly that the traditional concept of a home catering to mother, father and children is out of step with the times.
"Our research showed that only 60% of (Japanese) households are nuclear families, and that's been decreasing because of the rapid growth of single households," says Mr. Watanabe.
At the Proud Gem Shinjuku and Shibuya properties, the pair's first step was to shrink apartments from the Tokyo average of 75 square meters to as small as 40 square meters -- in part to make them more affordable and practical for single buyers. Then they looked at the design of the apartments. Their thinking was greatly influenced by the fact that privacy is less of an issue in a household of one.
Thinking of singles who might want the freedom to roam around their apartments naked or to listen to music at 3 a.m., Proud Gem rooms are divided by translucent panels and toilets, which are usually separate, are located in the bathroom. At the Shinjuku complex, where 60% of the owners are single women, kitchens are larger and -- more importantly -- bathrooms include a full-size tub and space for a television.
"There's more of seamless transformation between public and private space," says Singapore interior designer and architect Mink Tan, who designed the year-old Icon apartments near Singapore's business district for Singapore-based property company Far East Organization. In the Icon apartments, walls are replaced with curtains, glass or removable walls to give apartments a roomier feel. "The space has to be more ambiguous and embrace the hard-working aspects of their life as well as entertainment," says Mr. Tan. The upscale apartments quickly sold out last year -- 40% were bought by singles.
Singapore is a hotspot for the singles property market. In the past year, a string of high-end developments have been launched that show yet another side to the singles property boom -- added-value facilities. For example, the Pier at Robertson, a 200-unit development by the Singapore River, boasts restaurants, nightclubs and art galleries, with prices starting at $398,000. The 97-unit Leonie Studio development, with prices starting at $380,000, has a 24th-floor sky terrace and private-party zone. The 126-unit Levelz has a golf-putting green and a glass-encased gym that juts out of the building. (Prices start at $350,000.)
Scuba Diving
It isn't just the property industry that is seeing the power of one. Other areas such as the travel and financial-services industries also are feeling the effect. Ms. Wu, the Shanghai-based public relations executive, spends almost a quarter of her time traveling for work. Despite that, she's still keen to tack on extra days to business trips to see more of the world. After a busy recent London work trip she spent a weekend wandering the British Museum. And Ms. Honda, the Tokyo-born single based in Manila, spends almost a third of her year traveling around Asia for work, then spends even more time away from home for holidays, heading south almost every month for weekend scuba diving trips to Puerto Galera off Mindoro Island.
Not surprisingly then, the hospitality industry is increasingly training its attention on single female travelers like Ms. Wu and Ms. Honda -- regardless of whether they are traveling for business or pleasure. In India, single female travelers increased by about 10% last year, according to ITC Hotels, which operates 14 four- and five-star hotels from Delhi to Mumbai.
This year, ITC introduced a female-only floor to its high-end Maurya Sheraton property in New Delhi to give lone women travelers a sense of security and privacy. And all ITC hotels offer specially trained female butlers for female guests: At the Maurya Sheraton, 28-year-old butler Nisha Basuroychaudhari is at the beck and call of her guests 24 hours a day. Last year she was roused at 2 a.m. to find 108 marigolds for a Hindu ritual one woman needed to perform at precisely 5 a.m. "You never know what they're going to need," she says. Ms. Basuroychaudhari, who says about 55% of her female guests are unmarried, keeps a detailed history of her charges, including how guests place their toiletries and garments. "We try to do a lot of lady-lady bonding to get to know our guests," she says.
Women's only floors also are popping up in Japan -- albeit with more of a party theme. Last December in Tokyo, the five-star Hilton Tokyo Bay near Disneyland opened a floor of 15 rooms, each containing four beds. The idea: to create a "slumber party" feel for groups of young single Japanese women, says Shelley Winkel, director of public relations and communications for Hilton Asia Pacific.
The sheer buying power of singles is making financial-services groups take note. Single women in their 30s now account for 25% of business at ING Financial Planning in Hong Kong, says managing director Phil Neilson. "Ten years ago you wouldn't have had any," he says. And in the past decade, banks in 10 Asian countries have issued 40 credit cards aimed at the female market, according to MasterCard Asia-Pacific.
"We see the young female segment as very important," says Stuart McDonald, senior vice president for MasterCard Asia-Pacific. "They play a constant ... consumer role … and we want to make a long-term relationship with them." Last October, Standard Chartered Bank in Singapore issued the Manhattan credit card targeted at young, largely single men and women. The card offers benefits such as cheap drinks at local bars, free access to a local gym and pool and discounts at department stores.
A credit card that Shanghai-based Ms. Wu, with her tendency to enjoy dining out and shopping, might well appreciate. Despite her two apartments in China's most cosmopolitan city, Ms. Wu isn't entirely without money concerns. To ensure she meets her mortgage payments, the successful executive has a very simple way of keeping her budget in check. Every month, Ms. Wu hands her paycheck to her mother. "She's my financial manager," she says. "I'm very bad at budgeting, I just like to spend."
单身的力量
强生（中国）有限公司(Johnson & Johnson China Ltd.)公关经理吴洁(Jane Wu)每天几乎都要工作12个小时，一下班她就赶快回到自己的安乐窝－－位于襄阳路附近的一套两居室的公寓。
今年36岁的吴洁四年前以12万美元的购买了这套房子，随后她阅读了一些装修设计杂志，还走访了一些室内装修设计师，为营造一个现代独立女性的生活空间捕捉灵感。当一切成竹在胸，她又花了26,000美元用于装修和购买家具，她的起居室采用传统的明朝风格，以柚木家具为主，墙面是米色的，看上去很酷。
吴洁每个月有10天的时间都在路途中奔波，她一直在寻觅一个能够让她在紧张的生活中得以喘息的平静之所。“我经常出差，所以我想把房子装修得很有家的温馨，因为我会尽量待在家里，享受一个人的空间，”这个上海女人说。
然而，购买一处自己的居所、可以俯瞰喧闹的襄阳路，这些并不是吴洁理财规划的全部。两年前，吴洁花11.7万美元在上海购置了自己的第二套公寓。这回纯粹是为了投资，希望为自己的将来挣点保障。
十年前，一个单身女人即使能拥有一套房子在中国都是无法想像的。但如今，亚洲住宅地产市场正在发生变化，大规模人口流动使单身一族演变成一只重要的消费力量。在亚洲范围内，单身置业的人数不断增长。“在吉隆坡、雅加达、曼谷、上海和新加坡，你会看到越来越多的单身购置家业，”新加坡远东机构(Far East Organization)的地区营销总监Chia Boon Kuah说。
地产开发商正大胆进入这个市场，暂时搁置起许多家居公寓蓝图，改变他们以往设计公寓的方式。狭下的房间再也没有了：只要窗帘、可拆装的墙面和用于隔离空间的玻璃板，使较小的空间看上去也很宽敞。由于考虑到单身女性的生活需求，开发商在设计上还有一些突出的亮点：浴室的空间很大，可以放一台电视；浴缸也非常大，完全可以让一个人懒洋洋地在里面舒展全身。除此之外，配套设施也充分考虑了单身的需求，有饭店，电影院和酒吧等。
“单身家庭日益增多，你随处都可以看到”，联合国(United Nations)人口计划署总干事夏米(Joseph Chamie)说，“这种趋势产生了巨大的影响”。
这一趋势后面有著广泛的人口因素在起作用。在亚太地区，离婚率大幅上升：过去十年中，韩国的离婚率飙升了250%，泰国的离婚数量也增长了60%。而且，有越来越多的亚洲人根本就不想结婚，或者是推迟到30或40多岁才想结婚。
除此之外，以前亚洲的单身人士总是和家人居住在一起，现在越来越多的人喜欢自己单过。在1990至2000的十年间，北京单身家庭的数目从20万个猛增至100万个，这种态势以前在新加坡和香港也有过。在东京，25-49岁的女性中单身居住人数在这十年间增长了47%至72.4万人。
事实上，独身女人对地产业发展趋势的影响最大。尽管长久以来独身男人一直是最慷慨的消费群体，但随著受教育水平的提高以及城市化进程的加速，像吴洁这样的亚洲单身女性开始享受独立的生活，她们对这一趋势的影响力越来越大。
“教育可能是促使人们改变传统方式的最大因素，对女性尤其如此”，克林特?劳伦特(Clint Laurent)博士说。他是总部设在新西兰奥克兰的人口发展趋势预测组织亚洲人口统计(Asian Demographics Ltd.)执行董事。
对很多这类女性来说，拥有一间可称为自己的房已成为一种必须。曼谷一家市场调研公司Synovate Asia-Pacific一位34岁的研究员Rattaya Kulpradith去年花16.8万美元在曼谷郊区购买了一套两层楼的住宅。随后她又花了2.2万美元装修这套324平方米的房子。这套住宅有一个能停放两辆车的车库，里面停了Kulpradith的2001本田CRV。
她还聘请了一个庭院设计师帮她做花园设计；她的窗帘和橱柜都是专门定制的。一个园艺工人经常来给她打理花园里的花草和浴室里的温室花房。
“我希望我的家有普吉岛度假圣地的感觉”，Rattaya女士说。她的生活和她的父辈完全不同。去年还花8,600美元在清迈买了一个龙眼果园，第一次丰收就让她赚了6,000美元。“两年本就回来了。”
私人花园
在日本，44岁的东京人Eri Honda也在经营著自己未来的理财计划。她目前在马尼拉上班。四年前，这位亚洲开发银行(Asian Development Bank)的城市规划专家花49.5万美元在安静的Taito居民区买了一套新建的公寓。这套位于第四层的公寓面积65平方米，可以看到佛教寺庙。每到周末，空气中就弥漫著熏香的味道，还能听到和尚念经的声音。“这就像是我自己私人的花园”，她说。她在菲律宾的工作要持续三年，她计划退休后的生活要在这套公寓里度过。
日本像Honda女士这样购买房产建筑自己的小巢的女性越来越多。野村不动产(Nomura Real Estate Development Co.)称，三十多岁的单身女人是东京房地产市场快速增长的消费群体。从35到39岁的独身女性中，大约13%的人拥有自己的公寓；而同等条件的男性比例只有9.5%。
为了抓住这个市场，野村不动产开发了三个新项目 -- Proud Gem系列。这些项目位于最潮流的涉谷和新宿地区。售价不算昂贵，一般小型公寓的价格大约是32万美元。
“我们两年前就清楚的看到了这种趋势，30多岁的女人愿意购买自己的公寓”，野村不动产的策划和营销主管Michihiro Kawai说。今后几年内，野村不动产还打算再开发至少4个针对单身消费者的项目。“市场已经发生了明显的转变”。
这种消费群体的变化也使亚洲各种住宅的设计和理念发生了变化。Honda女士的公寓不大，但是隔离起居室和餐厅的墙面是可拆卸的，使她可以在招待朋友时腾出更大的空间。这是她生活很重要的一部分。
“我们必须屏弃过去陈旧的设计观念”，Kawai说。为了赋予Proud Gem现代设计，野村不动产聘请了两位著名的设计师--Makoto Shin Watanabe和Yoko Kinoshita。长期以来，他们一直在公开倡导新理念，称传统的、适合父母和孩子一起居住的设计方式已经落后于时代了。
Watanabe先生说，“我们的调查显示，这样的家庭在日本只有60%，而且这个比例随著单身家庭的增加还在下降。”
东京公寓每套的平均面积大约是75平方米，而涉谷和新宿地区的Proud Gem项目将公寓的平均面积缩小至40平方米。这样更符合单身家庭的经济承受能力，实用性也更强。在房屋设计方面，他们认为，在单身家庭居所内，隐私不再是个大问题。
考虑到有人可能会想裸体在家里逛来逛去，或是半夜三点听音乐，Proud Gem的房间设计都是采用半透明的隔板；厕所也不再像以前那样和浴室分开。在新宿地区的公寓里，60%的业主都是独身女人。这里的厨房空间很大，更重要的是，浴室里面有一个全长浴缸，而且有足够的空间放下一台电视。
单身地产市场在新加坡很火。在过去一年中，新加坡开盘了一系列高端单身物业社区，向我们展示了这些物业的另一个侧面--高附加值的附属设施。比如，座落于新加坡河畔的Pier at Robertson，是一个200个单元的项目，号称社区内有餐馆、夜总会和画廊，起价是39.8万美元。还有起价38万美元的Leonie Studio，共有97个单元，在24层有一个观景露台和一个私人派对区。有126套房屋的Levelz起价35万美元，带有一个高尔夫球拨球场，和一个外墙是玻璃的健身房，就设在住宅大楼的外边。
深海潜水
房地产并不是唯一一个看到单身经济巨大力量的行业。其他行业，如旅游和金融服务等，都感受到了这股新力量的影响。吴洁四分之一的生活都是在出差。尽管如此，她还是希望可以在出差时抽出几天时间，到世界各地看看。最近她去伦敦出差，繁忙的公务过后，她周末还到大英博物馆(British Museum)参观了一番。Honda也是，一年中三分之一的时间都在亚洲各地奔波，但她还是会抽一些时间外出度假。她每个月都会到菲律宾波塞罗拉(Puerto Galera)去潜水。
因此，服务业逐渐开始加强如何为单身女性服务的培训就不足为奇了。在印度，单身女性旅行者去年增长了大约10%，ITC Hotels称。从新德里到孟买，该酒店共经营14家四星级或五星级的酒店。
ITC今年将其新德里的喜来登酒店(Maurya Sheraton)推出女士楼层，给单身女性旅行者更多安全感和隐私。所有ITC酒店都有受过专门女性服务训练的管家：在喜来登酒店，28岁的管家Nisha Basuroychaudhari全天候等待女客人要求提供服务的召唤。去年，她的一位客人凌晨五点要参加一个印度教仪式，所以她半夜两点被叫醒去找108只仪式用的金盏草。“你根本不知道她们想要什么，”她说。她的女性客人中55%都未婚。Basuroychaudhari的服务工作有详细的历史纪录，比如客人怎样摆放她们的化妆品和衣物等。她说，我们希望能尽可能多地了解我们的客人。
女士独层在日本酒店中也有，只不过在风格上更像是要开派队。五星级的东京湾希尔顿饭店(Hilton Tokyo Bay)靠近迪斯尼乐园(Disneyland)，去年12月这家酒店将一个楼层15个房间专门用来接待女性游客，每个房间可以住四个人。这个创意是想为一群年轻的日本女性创造一种“昏睡派对”的感觉，希尔顿亚太(Hilton Asia Pacific)公关经理Shelley Winkel说。
单身购买力也引起了金融服务领域的注意。三十多岁的单身女性如今占据香港ING Financial Planning业务的四分之一，公司董事总经理Phil Neilson说。“十年前，根本就没有这样的情况，”他说。但万事达信用卡亚太有限公司(MasterCard Asia-Pacific)称，在这十年间，亚洲的银行发行了40多种针对女性的信用卡。
“我们将年轻女性视为非常重要的目标客户”，万事达信用卡亚太有限公司高级副总裁Stuart McDonald说。“她们一直是一个稳定的...客户群体，我们希望与她们建立长久的关系。”新加坡的渣打银行(Standard Chartered Bank)去年十月发行了针对年轻的、大多数是独身男女的Manhattan信用卡。持卡人可以享受当地酒吧便宜的饮品、免费参加当地健身中心和游泳馆，还可以在商场购物时享受折扣。
上海的吴洁喜欢外出用餐和购物，这样信用卡会大有用场。尽管她在中国最繁华的城市拥有了两套住房，但她仍然有为钱犯愁的时候。为了确保达到月供要求，这位成功的公关经理采用了一个最简单的办法来控制开销。她每个月都将自己的工资交给她的妈妈，“她就是我的财务经理，”她说，“我是个没有划算的人，我就爱花钱。”。
