An Old Taipa Village property currently for sale, offers an interesting investment and a cozy home.
Canadian Richard Algajer came to Macau via a somewhat circuitous route. He was teaching in Colombia, South America and on his way to take up a job in Mongolia. It was summer vacation and so he stopped off to visit family in home town Edmonton, Alberta. Attending a football game he sat next to a complete stranger – a teacher with The International School (TIS) here in Macau – and they got talking. It was a serendipitous meeting and the rest is history as they say.
Whilst considering Macau, there were also work opportunities in Lahor, Pakistan and Santa Cruz in Bolivia. “So one of the questions I asked interviewers in each location was whether there was an ice skating rink. I’m a keen ice hockey player and the fact that Macau was the only one with an ice skating rink, albeit a small one, was another deciding factor!”
A teacher for 20 years, Richard’s specialty is English literature and English as a second language taught through the lense of social studies. As TIS is an Alberta school system and Richard’s teaching qualifications are certified through this same system, it was all the more fitting that he took up his role here. That was 6 years ago, in 2009.
When he arrived, fortune smiled again; he befriended another teacher at the school who was in the process of buying an apartment. His friend was betting on Macau and could foresee the growth potential in real estate. After visiting several properties in tow, Richard caught the property bug. “I’d bought in foreign countries before – I owned my own place in Colombia – so was not intimidated with the prospect as many newly arriving expats may be,” he smiles.
One of the first things Richard did on arriving in Macau was to apply for his residency which enabled him to get a larger mortgage from his bank. “I had sold my place in Colombia, so had a little cash in my pocket. From an early age my father taught me the value of owning property. In Taiwan in 1997 when I lived there, foreigners were not allowed to have bank accounts. I was paid in cash, and so I kept cash rolled up tightly in airtight tea containers in the freezer. My parents were visiting one time and my mother stumbled upon it – a stash of about twenty thousand US in the freezer. I was only 25 at the time. Shortly after the parents returned to Canada my mother called saying ‘you and your father have just bought a house and here’s what you owe for your part!’”
Here in Macau the home he settled on in 2011 is located just off the main one way road into Old Taipa Village. 
Originally 3 bedrooms, the previous owners had opened it up to bring in more light and converted it into two double bedrooms – master at the back with spacious walk in dressing room and guest room at the front – so as to enlarge the living room. There are one and a half bathrooms;, a little front balcony, and off the kitchen is the piece de resistance, a charming covered terrace that serves as the focal point of the apartment for dining and entertaining.
“I chose the village because of its proximity to everything I need. Buses are frequent. I have a bicycle, not even a scooter or a car, and from this corner of the village I can get to work in 5 minutes” he explains. “There’s a sense of belonging and community here and a good mix of expats and locals. I like strolling through the narrow streets, you feel safe, I have great neighbours, and I know the owners of most of the restaurants and bars around, many have become friends like Jesus at El Gaucho Argentinian restaurant opposite. There’s a good village vibe”. 
Being within easy access to the airport is also important to Richard. Clearly a sports fanatic he adores surfing, “I’ve been surfing in Bali four times this year!” Last Chinese New Year he spent in Indonesia with his parents, and then he took 20 students from TIS to Sulawesi “a World class spot for diving”.
“When I moved in to this place I contemplated doing a full renovation job as I didn’t initially like all the built in furniture and I wanted to remove the raised section in the living room. But after chatting with some designers and without any convincing design ideas to improve the use of space, I decided against it, and kept things as is. So many homes I visit look cluttered but with the tons of storage, drawers everywhere, its easy to keep things looking neat”. Richard did however give the apartment a fresh coat of paint throughout, added some modern light fixtures, and lifted up some ugly white linoleum in the living room and to his delight found perfectly good wood parquet underneath which gives ‘life’ and light to the space.
Artwork on the walls and a few ornaments are an eclectic mix from his visits to China, 
Burma, Cambodia, Vietnam and Bali. A Chinese sign, kept from the previous owner’s home altar, asks of the gods to ‘Protect this House.’ A Cambodian metal figure and miniatures of the Xian warriors on open shelves are all mementoes of Richard’s Asia travels. One of his prized possessions is a series of 5 paintings of Taipa Village Banyan trees, painted by an ex colleague at TIS, Melissa Atenfessu. Bought in a silent auction that she had in Portals, a local bar just down the road, all proceeds went to a school in her native Ethiopia.
The rustic charm of the apartment is most apparent when sitting at the dining table in the covered extension off the kitchen. The large windows look out on an adjacent neighbour’s vegetable patch with its neat lines of lettuce, choi sum and spring onions, and jackfruit, mango and papaya trees. A higgledy-piggledy collection of 
old buildings, some with Chinese tiled roofs, others simply with corrugated iron. A line of washing on a neighbour’s balcony, several cats lying sunning themselves, a smartly painted yellow 2-storey house edging the garden, all against a backdrop of central Taipa highrises in the distance.
A pleasant breeze runs through the home, one can hear the gentle rumble of traffic as it passes by, and in the mornings and early evenings a cacophony of birdsong. There’s a quaint and restful feel about the place; so centrally located, yet seemingly so rural.
The kitchen, with its smart black and stainless cabinets and black counter top though small, is a user friendly and convivial space especially as it adjoins the dining terrace. 
Both Richard and his girlfriend Cindy Ali enjoy cooking. Cindy, a kindergarten teacher at TIS, is of Indian heritage from Trinidad & Tobago in the West Indies, so they tend to cook quite a bit of spicy Indian food. “We make a lot of our dishes in the slow cooker” Richard explains. He also has a Rasonic toaster grill which is quick to heat up and so super convenient. “I can cook a whole roast chicken in this in 45 minutes!”
A countertop gas hob, an IKEA Butcher block, a coffee maker, “definitely no microwave, there are more healthy ways of heating food”, and a juicer for nourishing breakfast smoothies completes the tools for the couple’s culinary escapades.ad & Tobago in the West Indies, so they tend to cook quite a bit of spicy Indian food. “We make a lot of our dishes in the slow cooker” Richard explains. He also has a Rasonic toaster grill which is quick to heat up and so super convenient. “I can cook a whole roast chicken in this in 45 minutes!” 
The apartment has one more secret to divulge. Up the main staircase of the building one comes out to a back door. This opens out on the cobbled one way street running left to the crest of the hill, to a tree lined plaza and the lovely Our Lady of Carmel Church. Built in 1885, its neoclassical architecture and yellow and white coloured walls are so quintessentially Macau and offers a peaceful respite to the more frenetic busyness of the village below. 
Richard’s 1,000 square foot apartment is now on the market for sale. Whilst in no particular hurry to sell, he is at heart a rolling stone and his love of traveling will eventually mean leaving Macau. “I’ve been very happy in this home but I’m not emotionally tied to possessions”, he says, “I can’t love something that cant love me back”.
For anyone interested in buying this property, they may give Ambiente Macau a call on 2871-5713 or email us on [email protected].
Photographs are by Antonio Mil-Homens for the Macau Closer Magazine, May 2015 edition.
