The century-old shophouses at Jalan Laksamana before the famous Stadthuys area have been repainted red, after two years of being coated in yellow, blue and purple.

The reason? Tourists and locals simply prefer red, which matches the colour of the historical Stadthuys or Dutch Square built in 1650.

Datuk Bandar Datuk Zaini Md Nor said the city council had gathered the views of both tourists and locals on which colours would best suit the buildings. And red received the thumbs-up in the survey.

"The buildings around Stadthuys are well-known to tourists and locals as a red zone," Zaini added.

Shophouses at Jalan Laksamana have been repainted red from the yellow, blue and purple.

But red is not the original colour of the shophouses built in the 1890s. In fact, the buildings when constructed were painted blue, yellow and purple.

These were the colours used to paint the row of shophouses following restoration work in October 2004. The restoration was carried out after careful study and received the approval of the Melaka Museums Corporation.

It is understood the shoplots were first painted red in the late 1980s to match the colour of the Stadthuys.

Zaini said the repainting work was carried out last month.

He added that the red colour would not affect the conservation work in the area.

"All we need to do is to record the colour of the buildings and the year of repainting them" he said.