GAVIN LIEW & VINCE KOH
BUILDING HOMES FOR THE HEART
FRIENDS SINCE HIGH SCHOOL, Gavin Liew and Vince Koh have sta ed multiple entrepreneur ventures together – and failed almost as many times, before they cracked the code that changed the landscape of prope y investment almost four years ago. With their combined passion of creativity and prope y, The Makeover Guys entered the market with a then never-before-seen effo less solution for prope y investors: by providing strategic makeovers aimed to draw in higher returns through rental – all done within a cost effective budget, and a tight schedule with a turnover of just 30 days.
Today, The Makeover Guys have expanded its services via Groundwork Design for residential homes and privatised office spaces, such as Tang Space and Shang Gallery at KL Eco City, the rés280 co-working/communal living space in Selayang, and many other residences across Klang Valley and beyond. Not to mention, appearing on Astro OK’s 13-episode reality TV series,
Ruang, in which Gavin, Vince and their 62-strong team were seen in action.
HOW DO YOU KEEP THINGS FRESH AT WORK? When people talked about furnishing last time, durability is key. They want furniture that last 15 to 20 years. However, furnishing trends do change ove ime. We provide template choices to allow you to keep refreshing your furnishing, without commi ing to the same old design from 20 years ago. That being said though, our materials and furnishing do last (laughs)! So, if you’re one of those prope y investors who’d prefer to keep to the same design 20 years from now, it’s possible too. That’s the ideology behind what we do, and that’s how we keep things fresh – in the most literal sense! HOW DO YOU THINK THE MAKEOVER GUYS CONTRIBUTE, NOT ONLY PROPERTY INVESTMENT, BUT THE PUBLIC AS A WHOLE? At the end of the day, we want to enable more people to enjoy be er homes, that are cost effective, not to mention, look good in the long run. Less than five years ago, the idea of having cost effective furnishing did not exist. We were prope y investors ourselves in the beginning, and we experienced first hand the trouble that goes into furnishing our own units. Buying a prope y for anyone should be a happy thing; it’s something exciting. But in reality, the happiness soon fades the minute you realise that there is so much to do for this new home! On top of that, developers approached us to service the market with fully furnished packages, and easy move-in kind of concept. That got us thinking: if there is one thing we really need to solve in the prope y market, it is actually the accessibility of renovation. We noticed the big gap in between going from a house to a home, and we believe The Makeover Guys could fill in that gap. ON THE OTHER HAND, HOW DO YOU THINK THE MAKEOVER GUYS HAVE CHANGED THE ENTREPRENEUR LANDSCAPE? It’s safe to say that we are the pioneers. When we first sta ed, as with most businesses that managed to break new ground, it was a bit challenging to get people to accept what we are doing. Today, we see a lot of people emulating the same business pla orm. What we have been seeing is a downward pressure in pricing for cost effective furnishing – which used to be thought as a luxury for the privileged. Mindsets have changed, and supplies are growing to meet the demands, which at the end of the day, benefits the entire industry.