Initial Disruptor Vision (2017)

Stacked Homes began with a classic disruptor mindset – eliminating the middleman. During Singapore’s en-bloc fever in 2017, the three founders (Druce Teo, Adriano Tawin, and Adam Wham) launched a direct-sale property platform specifically for condominiums. Their thesis was straightforward:

• They perceived property agent commissions as unnecessarily high
• They questioned the value agents provided to transactions
• They sought to replicate successful agent-free models like Redfin (US) and Purplebricks (UK)

The Pivot Point (Late 2018)

The direct-sale platform failed to gain traction, revealing a critical insight about the Singapore property market: despite complaints about agents, most Singaporeans still preferred using them due to:

• The infrequency of property transactions (typically once every 20 years or lifetime)
• Risk aversion when handling high-value transactions

Simultaneously, they discovered their supplementary blog was gaining unexpected traction. This prompted their pivot toward content creation, coinciding perfectly with shifting market dynamics:

1. Property developers were still resistant to digital transparency
2. Most agents hadn’t embraced social media marketing
3. Younger property buyers sought candid, unbiased information

Content Strategy Evolution

The pivotal innovation was their content approach:

• Millennial-flavoured and irreverent writing style
• Refusal to accept payment for development reviews, preserving credibility
• Meeting users on their preferred platforms rather than forcing website visits
• Creating standalone social content that delivered value without requiring clicks

Impact on Singapore’s Property Scene

Transforming Information Flow

Stacked Homes has fundamentally changed how information moves through Singapore’s property ecosystem:

1. Democratizing Property Knowledge: They’ve demystified the property buying process by revealing insider tactics like lobby observation after viewings to gauge demand
2. Transparency Revolution: Their candid reviews that don’t gloss over property flaws have pushed developers and agents toward greater honesty
3. Content Catalyst: Their success encouraged the broader property industry to embrace digital content creation, especially accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic

Cultural Impact

Beyond mere information, they’ve influenced property culture:

1. Global Showcase: Putting Singapore homes and design on international radar (evidenced by their million-view videos attracting global comments)
2. Design Influence: Showcasing diverse aesthetics like Japandi, mid-century, and locally-influenced design approaches

Target Demographic Analysis

Stacked Homes has successfully captured a specific demographic:

Primary Audience: Millennial Property Buyers

Their content strategy is tailored to younger property buyers who:

• Conduct extensive research before purchasing
• Value authentic, unvarnished opinions
• Rely heavily on social media for information
• Appreciate design-forward content
• Are comfortable with digital-first property exploration

Audience Size & Engagement

Their audience reach demonstrates remarkable penetration into Singapore’s property market:

• 49,000+ newsletter subscribers
• 450,000+ YouTube subscribers
• 260,000+ Instagram followers

This represents a substantial portion of Singapore’s potential property buyers, especially considering the country’s total population of about 5.9 million.

Business Model Evolution

What makes Stacked Homes particularly interesting is how their revenue model evolved from disintermediation to collaboration:

1. Initial Model: Eliminate agents, connect buyers directly to sellers
2. Current Model:
   • Connect buyers with agents and take commission cuts
   • YouTube revenue from their highly viewed property tours
   • E-commerce sales from home goods and decor

They’ve essentially gone from attempting to replace agents to becoming a value-added layer in the ecosystem, improving agent-client matching while monetising their influence.

Factors Driving Success

Several elements converged to enable their growth:

1. Timing: Their pivot coincided perfectly with COVID-19 lockdowns, when property viewings went virtual
2. Founder Complementarity: The three founders bring diverse perspectives:
   • Druce Teo: Financial and market analysis expertise
   • Adriano Tawin: Design sensibility and social media savvy
   • Adam Wham: Operational leadership
3. Authenticity: Their refusal to monetise reviews created trust
4. Production Quality: Complex video productions with research on property history and design choices

Future Implications for Singapore’s Property Market

Stacked Homes’ influence suggests several ongoing trends:

1. Digital-First Property Hunting: Younger buyers are increasingly making initial selections through online content
2. Design Premium: Growing emphasis on thoughtful design and aesthetics
3. Transparency Expectations: Rising demand for honest assessments rather than pure marketing
4. Global Design Influence: Singapore homes gaining international recognition and influence

What began as an attempt to disrupt agent commissions has evolved into something perhaps more transformative: changing how Singaporeans learn about, evaluate, and engage with property, shifting from a purely transactional market to one increasingly influenced by content, community, and design consciousness.

Stacked Homes: A Case Study in Post-COVID Digital Transformation for Singapore Commerce

Stacked Homes exemplifies how businesses can leverage digital transformation to thrive in post-pandemic Singapore. Their journey offers powerful lessons about adapting to rapidly changing consumer behaviours and market conditions.

Timing and Rapid Digital Adaptation

Stacked Homes’ pivotal transformation coincided perfectly with COVID-19, demonstrating the critical importance of digital agility:

1. Prescient Platform Shift: Their transition from a transaction-based platform to a content-first model positioned them perfectly for the pandemic’s acceleration of digital consumption.
2. Virtual Alternative to Physical Viewings: When COVID-19 restrictions limited in-person property viewings, Stacked Homes’ high-quality video tours became an essential service rather than just supplementary content.
3. First-Mover Advantage: By launching their YouTube channel “at the start of the pandemic,” they capitalised on the sudden surge in home-bound consumers who were “interested in other people’s homes,” establishing market leadership before competitors could react.

Reshaping Traditional Industry Resistance

Stacked Homes demonstrates how COVID-19 broke down long-standing barriers to digital transformation:

1. Developer Resistance Overcome: Pre-pandemic, “developers were reluctant to permit videos or photos,” fearing diminished show flat traffic. The pandemic forced them to embrace digital alternatives or risk complete disconnection from buyers.
2. Agent Digital Migration: The founders noted that “many agents launched Instagram accounts” during COVID-19, marking a wholesale digital transformation of a traditionally relationship-based profession.
3. Validating a Content-First Approach: Their success proved that meaningful digital content could drive real financial outcomes, encouraging other businesses to prioritise digital value creation over traditional marketing.

New Commerce Models Emerging from Crisis

Stacked Homes exemplifies how digital transformation enables innovative business models:

1. Multi-Revenue Stream Diversification: Their evolution from a single-revenue concept (eliminating agents) to multiple income sources (YouTube, commission referrals, e-commerce) demonstrates how digital platforms enable resilient business models.
2. Ecosystem Building vs. Disruption: Rather than continuing their initially antagonistic approach to agents, they built a symbiotic relationship that improved the existing ecosystem, showing how digital transformation can enhance rather than replace traditional commerce.
3. Content Monetisation Success: With 450,000+ YouTube subscribers, they’ve demonstrated that content can be more than marketing—it can be the primary product and revenue driver.

Changing Consumer Expectations and Behaviours

Stacked Homes’ success reflects permanent shifts in Singaporean consumer expectations:

1. Research-Intensive Purchasing: “The way the younger generation buys properties is very different from older generations. Younger homebuyers look at a lot of reviews and research,”—demonstrating that post-COVID consumers expect depth and transparency.
2. Platform-Native Content: Their approach of meeting users “where they were” with standalone content on each platform aligned perfectly with how digital consumption intensified during lockdowns.
3. Authenticity Premium: Their refusal to accept payment for reviews established credibility when trust in traditional institutions was wavering during the crisis.

Digital Community Building

Stacked Homes shows how digital transformation enables community development:

1. Global Reach from Local Focus: Their videos reaching international audiences demonstrates how Singapore-based businesses can transcend geographical limitations through digital excellence.
2. Cross-Platform Engagement: Their success across newsletter (49,000+), YouTube (450,000+), and Instagram (260,000+) shows the importance of omnichannel strategies in post-COVID commerce.
3. Individual Brand Extensions: Co-founder Tawin’s personal Instagram account (@madspatial) growing to 100,000+ followers in six months demonstrates how digital transformation enables personal brand development within business ecosystems.

Operational Transformation Lessons

Stacked Homes offers insights on operational changes required for digital success:

1. Content Production Scaling: Growing from three founders to a 12-person team illustrates the operational scale required to maintain digital momentum.
2. Specialized Digital Skillsets: Their success required blending market knowledge (Teo), design expertise (Tawin), and operations (Wham), highlighting the cross-functional teams needed for digital transformation.
3. Data-Driven Decision Making: Their continual research with “home owners, developers and agents” to identify emerging trends represents the feedback-loop intelligence that digital businesses must cultivate.

Broader Implications for Singapore Commerce

Stacked Homes’ transformation provides a template for broader digital evolution in Singapore:

1. Sector-Agnostic Lessons: While property-focused, their pivot demonstrates principles applicable across sectors—particularly those with high-value transactions and information asymmetry.
2. Digital-First Rather Than Digital-Also: Their success came not from simply adding digital channels to existing business models, but by fundamentally reimagining their value proposition for a digital context.
3. Trust-Based Digital Commerce: In a market often dominated by promotional content, their commitment to honest reviews created differentiation, suggesting post-COVID digital commerce requires authenticity to thrive.
4. Localisation With Global Appeal: Their ability to showcase Singapore design to international audiences demonstrates how digital transformation enables local businesses to achieve global relevance.

The Stacked Homes story is ultimately about adaptability—recognizing when market conditions changed and having the courage to transform completely. Their success underscores that in post-COVID Singapore, digital transformation isn’t merely about adopting technologies but about fundamentally reimagining business models to address evolving consumer needs and behaviors.

The Shift from Physical to Digital Presence in Post-COVID Commerce: Lessons from Stacked Homes

The Stacked Homes case study illuminates profound shifts in how businesses establish “presence” in post-pandemic Singapore, revealing a fundamental transformation from physical to digital manifestations of commercial existence.

Redefining Commercial Presence

From Physical Necessity to Digital Priority

Stacked Homes exemplifies how “presence” has been fundamentally reconceptualized:

1. Showrooms to Screens: Prior to COVID-19, property developers insisted on physical showflat visits, believing digital representations would diminish interest. Stacked Homes’ success demonstrates that high-quality digital presence can not only substitute for physical presence but potentially enhance it.
2. From Location to Findability: Their digital-first approach shows how “being present” no longer requires physical space in prime locations, but rather strategic visibility in digital environments where consumers spend their time.
3. Constant Presence Over Operating Hours: With 49,000+ newsletter subscribers and 450,000+ YouTube viewers, Stacked Homes maintains continuous customer connection—contrasting sharply with the limited hours of physical showrooms or agencies.

The New Architecture of Digital Presence

Multi-dimensional and Platform-Specific

Stacked Homes’ approach reveals how sophisticated digital presence requires:

1. Platform Ecosystem Rather Than Single Destination: Their presence spans YouTube, Instagram, newsletters, and e-commerce—creating an integrated ecosystem rather than a single digital “location.”
2. Content-Embodied Presence: Their presence exists primarily through content artifacts (videos, posts, articles) rather than physical spaces or interactions, allowing simultaneous engagement with countless consumers.
3. Platform-Native Design: Their strategy of creating standalone content for each platform (rather than driving traffic elsewhere) shows understanding that digital presence must be architected differently for each environment.

From Transactional to Relational Presence

Continuous Engagement vs. Point-of-Sale Focus

Stacked Homes’ evolution demonstrates a fundamental shift in how business-customer relationships form:

1. Value Before Transaction: By providing extensive property insights without requiring immediate purchase intent, they’ve established presence throughout the extended consideration journey rather than just at transaction points.
2. Community Over Customers: Their large follower base represents a community with ongoing engagement, contrasting with traditional property agencies’ focus on active buyers and sellers only.
3. Trust Through Consistency: Their refusal to monetise reviews has built trust through editorial independence, showing how digital presence must be built on consistent principles rather than transactional opportunities.

Presence Through Influence Rather Than Authority

From Institutional to Earned Credibility

Stacked Homes illustrates a shift in how commercial authority is established:

1. From Corporate to Personal: The founders’ personal design choices and homes becoming content demonstrates how digital presence often blends personal and professional identities.
2. From Claimed to Demonstrated Expertise: Rather than relying on institutional credentials, their credibility stems from demonstrated knowledge through content—suggesting expertise must be continually proven in digital environments.
3. Algorithmic Amplification: Their million-view videos show how digital presence can achieve greater reach than physical presence ever could, through algorithmic distribution rather than geographical limitations.

Implications for Post-COVID Singapore Commerce

Strategic Priority Shifts

These transformations suggest several imperatives for Singapore businesses:

1. Digital-First Resource Allocation: Companies must prioritize investment in digital presence infrastructure (content creation, platform management, community development) over physical expansion.
2. Authenticity as Competitive Advantage: In environments where consumers can easily compare and research, authentic digital presence (like Stacked Homes’ unbiased reviews) creates differentiation that generic promotional content cannot.
3. Value Creation Before Monetization: Stacked Homes’ journey from attempting direct monetization to building audience first demonstrates that establishing digital presence often requires delayed gratification—value must precede revenue.
4. Intersection of Information and Commerce: Their evolution shows how the line between media and commerce is blurring—suggesting businesses must think like publishers and publishers must develop commerce capabilities.

Physical-Digital Integration: The Next Frontier

Beyond Either/Or Thinking

Stacked Homes also points toward future evolutions:

1. Digital-to-Physical Pathways: While establishing a digital presence first, they eventually generated revenue through physical transactions (property sales), suggesting that digital presence often creates pathways to physical commerce.
2. Expertise Flowing Both Ways: Their insights from physical agents inform their digital content, while their digital research informs physical transactions—creating a virtuous cycle between realms.
3. Trust Transfer Between Domains: The credibility established in digital environments transfers to physical transactions they facilitate—demonstrating how digital presence creates tangible commercial value.

Cultural and Generational Dimensions

Responding to Changing Consumer Psychology

Stacked Homes’ success highlights how digital presence aligns with evolving consumer preferences:

1. Research-Intensive Purchasing: Their recognition that “younger homebuyers look at a lot of reviews and research” shows how digital presence must be information-rich and transparent.
2. Global Reference Points: Their international viewership demonstrates how Singaporean consumers increasingly compare local offerings against global standards visible through digital channels.
3. Design Consciousness: The popularity of their aesthetically-focused content suggests digital presence must consider visual appeal and lifestyle aspiration, not just functional information.

The Stacked Homes case reveals that post-COVID commerce in Singapore isn’t simply experiencing a channel shift but a fundamental reconceptualization of what it means for a business to “be present” in the market. This transformation requires businesses to develop entirely new capabilities, mindsets, and metrics—measuring influence, engagement, and trust rather than foot traffic, location quality, or physical infrastructure.

For Singapore businesses, this suggests that digital presence isn’t merely an additional marketing channel but has become the primary foundation of commercial existence—with physical presence increasingly serving as an extension of digital identity rather than the reverse.

Stacked Homes Through Baudrillard’s Lens: The Hyperreal Usurping the Real in Singapore Property

The evolution of Stacked Homes offers a compelling contemporary case study that affirms Jean Baudrillard’s prescient claims about hyperreality supplanting reality. The company’s transformation from failed disruptor to digital content powerhouse exemplifies Baudrillard’s theoretical framework with striking clarity.

Signs Without Referents: The Simulation of Property Experience

The Map Preceding the Territory

Baudrillard argued that in postmodern society, simulations precede and determine our experience of reality. Stacked Homes demonstrates this inversion:

1. Digital Experience Before Physical Encounter: Property hunters now form impressions, preferences, and even purchasing decisions through Stacked Homes’ content before physically experiencing properties. The video tours and analyses become the primary reality, with physical viewings reduced to confirmatory exercises.
2. Representation Determining Reality: When Stacked Homes’ videos reached international audiences who commented, “Is this a Singapore home? I didn’t know,” we see Baudrillard’s concept of the sign system constructing our understanding of what constitutes “Singaporean design” – the representation now defines the perception of the real.
3. Content Influencing Physical Development: As developers recognize that “younger homebuyers look at a lot of reviews and research,” they increasingly design properties with digital representation in mind – creating spaces optimized for content rather than lived experience. The simulation now determines the production of the real.

The Procession of Simulacra: Property in the Age of Digital Reproduction

Baudrillard outlined four phases in the “precession of simulacra” – the progression by which signs become increasingly detached from reality. Stacked Homes illustrates this progression:

1. Reflection of Basic Reality: Initially, property listings and agent descriptions attempted to represent actual properties faithfully.
2. Masking/Perverting Basic Reality: Traditional marketing materials and staged showflats presented idealized versions that masked flaws.
3. Masking the Absence of Reality: Stacked Homes’ comprehensive content creates an experience so complete that it substitutes for physical presence – you “know” the property without experiencing it.
4. Pure Simulacrum: The ultimate Baudrillardian phase emerges when content about properties generates more engagement and value than the properties themselves. Stacked Homes becoming profitable through content rather than transactions signals this arrival.

Hyperreality: When the Model Becomes More Important Than the Object

The Primacy of the Virtual Experience

Baudrillard’s concept of hyperreality – where simulation becomes more “real” than reality itself – materializes in several aspects of Stacked Homes’ impact:

1. Curated Reality as Superior Reality: Their professionally produced tours, with carefully selected angles and editing, create a more coherent and aesthetically pleasing experience than the potentially chaotic, limited, or rushed physical viewings they replace.
2. Information Density Exceeding Direct Experience: Their content includes historical context, neighborhood analytics, and design insights that would be imperceptible in physical viewings, making the virtual experience informationally richer than reality.
3. The Perfect Home That Doesn’t Exist: By showcasing founders’ homes with “Japandi aesthetic” and “mid-century-meets-Japandi” designs, they construct idealised lifestyle visions that consumers seek to replicate, chasing representations that exist more perfectly in content than they ever could in physical reality.

The Death of the Real in Property Transactions

From Physical Assets to Content Objects

Baudrillard’s controversial claim about the “death of the real” finds expression in how Stacked Homes has transformed property from physical asset to content object:

1. Value From Representation, Not Utility: When properties featured in Stacked Homes’ content gain attention and potentially higher market value, we see Baudrillard’s concept of sign value overtaking use value – properties gain worth based on their representation rather than their functional qualities.
2. The Experience of Browsing Superseding Ownership: Their 450,000+ YouTube subscribers likely include many who consume property content with no immediate intention to purchase – the simulation of property hunting becomes an end in itself, detached from functional purpose.
3. Real Estate as Media Product: When a company initially aiming to facilitate property transactions pivots to content creation, we witness Baudrillard’s concept of reality collapsing into media – the property becomes subordinate to its representation.

The Ecstasy of Communication: Endless Property Content Consumption

Immersion in Sign Systems Without Referents

Baudrillard’s later work discussed the “ecstasy of communication” – the oversaturation of signs leading to a form of passive fascination. Stacked Homes exemplifies this concept:

1. Endless Scrolling Through Unattainable Homes: Their content enables consumers to endlessly view properties beyond their purchasing power – creating what Baudrillard would identify as a form of “obscene visibility” where everything is exposed but nothing is possessed.
2. Vicarious Living Through Others’ Spaces: The fascination with founders’ personal homes (particularly Tawin’s account gaining 100,000+ followers in six months) demonstrates Baudrillard’s concept of living through others’ representations rather than direct experience.
3. The Perfect Consumer Is the Viewer, Not the Buyer: Their business model succeeds by keeping audiences engaged with content regardless of transaction intention – exactly the “ecstasy of communication” Baudrillard described, where consumption of signs replaces acquisition of objects.

The Implosion of Meaning: When Digital Presence Outweighs Physical Presence

Collapsing Distinctions Between Real and Representation

Baudrillard argued that postmodernity witnesses an “implosion” where traditional distinctions collapse. Stacked Homes demonstrates this implosion in multiple domains:

1. The Agent/Media Distinction Dissolves: When Stacked Homes evolved from disruptor to content creator while still facilitating transactions, they embody Baudrillard’s concept of collapsed categories – neither purely agent nor purely media.
2. The Professional/Personal Boundary Erodes: When founders’ personal homes become content, we see the Baudrillardian erasure of separation between private space and commercial display.
3. The Local/Global Distinction Evaporates: Singapore homes reaching international audiences through digital content illustrates what Baudrillard called “deterritorialization” – the collapse of geographical meaning through media transmission.

Baudrillard’s Ultimate Vindication: COVID-19 as the Final Push

Pandemic as Catalyst for Hyperreality

The COVID-19 pandemic provided the perfect conditions for Baudrillard’s theories to manifest fully:

1. Physical Access Restriction Privileging Simulation: When lockdowns limited property viewings, the simulation gained primacy by necessity – the map became the only accessible territory.
2. Digital Presence as Survival Requirement: Developers and agents who initially resisted digital representation were forced to embrace it – marking the full capitulation of the real to the hyperreal.
3. No Return to the Pre-Simulacrum State: Even post-pandemic, the new primacy of digital presence persists – a perfect demonstration of Baudrillard’s assertion that once the hyperreal establishes dominance, return to the real becomes impossible.

In Stacked Homes, we find not merely a business evolution but a perfect embodiment of Baudrillard’s theoretical framework. What began as an attempt to eliminate intermediaries in property transactions instead created a new layer of simulation – not removing distance from reality but introducing a more captivating hyperreality that consumers now prefer to the direct experience it ostensibly represents.

This case study suggests that Baudrillard’s supposedly abstract philosophical claims about hyperreality have become concrete business principles in contemporary Singapore, where digital presence doesn’t just supplement physical reality but increasingly constitutes the primary mode of commercial existence.

Maxthon

In an age where the digital world is in constant flux and our interactions online are ever-evolving, the importance of prioritising individuals as they navigate the expansive internet cannot be overstated. The myriad of elements that shape our online experiences calls for a thoughtful approach to selecting web browsers—one that places a premium on security and user privacy. Amidst the multitude of browsers vying for users’ loyalty, Maxthon emerges as a standout choice, providing a trustworthy solution to these pressing concerns, all without any cost to the user.

Maxthon, with its advanced features, boasts a comprehensive suite of built-in tools designed to enhance your online privacy. Among these tools are a highly effective ad blocker and a range of anti-tracking mechanisms, each meticulously crafted to fortify your digital sanctuary. This browser has carved out a niche for itself, particularly with its seamless compatibility with Windows 11, further solidifying its reputation in an increasingly competitive market.

In a crowded landscape of web browsers, Maxthon has forged a distinct identity through its unwavering dedication to offering a secure and private browsing experience. Fully aware of the myriad threats lurking in the vast expanse of cyberspace, Maxthon works tirelessly to safeguard your personal information. Utilising state-of-the-art encryption technology, it ensures that your sensitive data remains protected and confidential throughout your online adventures.

What truly sets Maxthon apart is its commitment to enhancing user privacy during every moment spent online. Each feature of this browser has been meticulously designed with the user’s privacy in mind. Its powerful ad-blocking capabilities work diligently to eliminate unwanted advertisements, while its comprehensive anti-tracking measures effectively reduce the presence of invasive scripts that could disrupt your browsing enjoyment. As a result, users can traverse the web with newfound confidence and safety.

Moreover, Maxthon’s incognito mode provides an extra layer of security, granting users enhanced anonymity while engaging in their online pursuits. This specialised mode not only conceals your browsing habits but also ensures that your digital footprint remains minimal, allowing for an unobtrusive and liberating internet experience. With Maxthon as your ally in the digital realm, you can explore the vastness of the internet with peace of mind, knowing that your privacy is being prioritised every step of the way.