Nepali tenant

In the current slow market, renting out 2nd, 3rd floor and above of a shop unit is quite a challenge. Ground floor is still highly sought after and yields are good but assuming 2nd and 3rd floor is not rented out the overall yields is not high. Businesses no longer seem interested to rent 2nd and 3rd floor for office use. Such business which previously rented out 2nd and 3rd floors are slowly moving online rather than having physical shop.

Recently managed to secure a tenant for 2nd floor of a 4 storey shop lot. Tenant is a Nepali national together with his partner intended to open a Nepali restaurant. The unit was previously rented out to a trainer who used it as an office to conduct training courses, he also sublet the place to a draftsman.

I visited the place post renovation to see how was the business, came in the morning and there were no customers but tenant told me that most of his customers come after work as most of them are factory workers working at the nearby industrial area. The tenant intends to make the place into a place where his fellow countryman can hang out. The definition of hang out means a place for people to chit chat, catch up on stuff. It's akin to our modern coffee cafes.

To make the place more appealing, the tenant painted the place bright pink, added a carrom board and tables. On the surface, the tenant seems quite determined as he is willing to invest money in the business. He claims he has invested his life savings into the business. I sponsored him a used carrom board and an old refrigerator to store cold drinks.

I asked him what was difference between Nepali food and our local Malaysian food, he say Nepali food is more simpler. Not sure what he meant by that but visiting his kitchen reveals that they still use powdered spices and curry powder, it could be that they don't use processed sauces and only dried spices that why he mentioned that Malaysian food is more complex.

1 ingredient that caught my eye was puffed rice golfuki (गोल्फुकी).

It is prepared by soaking of rice and then roasting them. From the outside it looks those Captain Crunch breakfast cereals that you normally buy.

Tenant says his business is more brisk during nights, weekends and public holidays when the factory workers have their day off.

Hopefully this tenant's business grows so that rental collection won't be too difficult.