The sense of home doesn't have to come from a physical location - but it helps. If you have a childhood home layered with memories over the years, returning to that space must trigger certain emotions.
The Singapore idea of a house is not permanent - you start with a government subsidised public apartment but you dream to 'upgrade' to a condominium and then something 'landed'. Flipping property is so common that most spam here consists of flyers for new property launches, not Viagra or scams. We're not talking about people being evicted - there is a 5-year lock-in period to prevent people from moving on from their first home too quickly.
Even when it comes to public or commercial spaces, land scarcity makes places impermanent. We're not talking about hundreds of years. If a cafe stays open for three years, I'd already celebrate its success.
This post was written on the day I found out that SOHO Coffee is now closed.