Singapore’s first private assisted living project targets upper middle class with 'five-star' services

SINGAPORE: Singapore’s first private assisted living project will target seniors in the upper middle class with "five-star" hospitality and care services under one roof.

Staying in one of the 200 apartments spread over 10 blocks costs anywhere from S$8,900 (US$6,900) to S$17,000 a month, depending on room type and the level of required care, operator Perennial Holdings announced on Thursday (Aug 28).

Perennial Living, as the project is called, comes with private lifts, sky terraces and a clubhouse with dining and lifestyle amenities.

In an interview with CNA ahead of the Thursday project launch, Perennial executive chairman and chief executive Pua Seck Guan said the prices and target demographic were informed in part by high land, construction and labour costs.

Elsewhere on the 195,000 sq ft site in Kovan, a medical care and wellness centre will offer both Western and traditional Chinese medicine treatments (TCM); alongside a nursing home with 100 beds and a 1.5ha area envisioned as one of Singapore’s biggest therapeutic parks.

The site comes with a 60-year lease and was first awarded in June 2023 to Perennial, which has a decade of experience running healthcare businesses in China.

The temporary occupation permit will come later this year, said Mr Pua, and those interested will be able to sign up from Thursday and move in by the first quarter of 2026.

Assisted living lets seniors live in home-like environments and access in-house services such as housekeeping, meals, as well as medical care and supervision.

The need for such facilities is growing in a rapidly ageing society, and assisted living has been touted as a possible solution for the "missing middle" – seniors who require some assistance but are not so ill that they need to be cared for in traditional nursing homes.

Singapore currently has publicly run community care apartments in Bukit Batok and Queensway, which integrate senior-friendly housing design with on-site care and social services.

In the private sector, there are a handful of smaller scale assisted living options, such as the St Bernadette Lifestyle Village which now serves 102 elderly residents across nine sites islandwide.

Singapore-headquartered Perennial, which had its origins as a property developer before expanding into healthcare in 2015, hopes to differentiate itself with a premium offering and by meeting "pent-up demand" for higher-end eldercare services, said Mr Pua.

"LIKE SIA FIRST-CLASS"

Perennial said its new development, at Parry Avenue, will cater to seniors across a range of care needs – including those who are healthy but may require some help with daily living or chronic disease management; those who require specialised post-operative rehabilitation or dementia care; and those with long-term nursing needs.

Those interested can choose from studio, one- or two-bedroom units ranging from 302 sq ft to 593 sq ft in size.

Designed with seniors in mind, they come with accessible emergency buttons, wardrobes with pull-down racks, non-slip flooring, grab bars, fall detection sensors and a 24/7 emergency response system.

Perennial said a basic package “broadly” includes accommodation; housekeeping services; full access to amenities such as a swimming pool and senior-friendly gym; in-house social activities; and daily meals at the clubhouse.

The meals – provided by agribusiness group Wilmar International, a shareholder of Perennial – will be designed to cater to different healthcare needs, and served in a setting that aims to emulate a Singapore Airlines first-class lounge, said Mr Pua.

“You can also order ala carte,” he added. “We are not going to give army canteen food.”

Residents also get a personal concierge to help with daily errands and other special requests, such as transport arrangements.

Prior to moving in, all residents will undergo a medical assessment, followed by a six-monthly review so that a personalised care plan can be drawn up.

A range of health monitoring devices connected to an in-house app will also be provided to residents, alongside a tablet to review health statistics.

At the site’s wellness facility, multidisciplinary medical specialists, allied health professionals and a nursing team will oversee preventive care, mental wellness and post-operative rehabilitation for residents, Perennial said.

“These are the added services that we bring to the doorstep of our residents, so that they can age in place and age with self-esteem,” said Mr Pua.

The development also has a 100-bed nursing home for those who may require more intensive care. It will feature private one- and two-bed suites spanning 215 to 376 sq ft, with more details to be provided at a later stage.

TAPPING CHINA EXPERIENCE

While this development is Perennial’s maiden healthcare project in Singapore, the firm has operated medical and eldercare facilities in China for a decade.

Last year, it became the first foreign company to wholly own and run a private tertiary general hospital in China – a 500-bed multidisciplinary facility in Tianjin city. Tertiary hospitals manage patients with more complex problems, across a broad range of specialties. 

Perennial has plans for more hospitals in the Guangzhou, Hainan and Shanghai areas, adding to a portfolio of private eldercare and medical businesses that includes a dedicated Alzheimer’s disease care village in Xi’an city.

The firm will bring back to Singapore what it has learned in China, such as having dedicated assisted living blocks to care for those with mild to severe dementia.

Perennial Living’s wellness centre also incorporates TCM in partnership with China's Tianjin Academy of TCM and the Singapore Chung Hwa Medical Institution.

Technology is another area, and this includes an in-bed toileting system for bedridden seniors, which works like an “automated diaper” to remove excrement before washing and drying the body.

Tapping on tech will help reduce reliance on manpower – a figure Perennial said it was “still working through” for its Singapore development.

Mr Pua said hiring would be a “major task” given the labour crunch. But beyond the numbers, it is also about employing the “right people” to provide the service expected of a “five-star” development, and who can also converse with seniors in various languages or dialects, he added.

SINGAPORE CHALLENGES

Mr Pua told CNA his firm had focused on growing its healthcare portfolio in China due to the demand in the world’s second-biggest economy and a more conducive business environment aided by friendly government regulations.

He recalled how when Perennial first entered China around 2015, it only had to invest in renovation costs as the government took care of building development.

Since then, the Chinese government has sweetened the deal for businesses by renovating buildings before leasing them out.

This has helped lower costs for businesses, in turn translating into cheaper prices for customers, said Mr Pua.

By contrast, operators in Singapore have to deal with steep costs, largely in land and construction. Private assisted living and eldercare facilities also currently use residential land, which is more expensive than land zoned for nursing homes. And once Perennial Living gets going, the firm will have to factor in high labour costs.

Perennial has invested around S$260 million in the project thus far.

“As a result, this is the kind of cost we have to charge and that's why for us to do this business, we have to target the upper middle class,” said Mr Pua. “Otherwise, it's very, very difficult, based on this current investment criteria, to make it feasible, unless the government comes up with a new, different model.”

He said the Singapore government has done well to ensure subsidised care for the masses, with government-funded nursing homes and public initiatives such as community care apartments.

But a gap remains in the market, where the needs of the upper middle class continue to be unmet, he added.

Mr Pua also called for a review of rules which he claimed were “too stringent” to grow the eldercare sector in Singapore.

For one, businesses need to seek approval from relevant authorities before adopting new technological tools and equipment, he said, citing his firm’s own experience.

Given Singapore’s market size, smaller players may also be inclined to throw in the towel in the face of onerous regulatory hurdles.

All that said, Perennial still hopes to do more in Singapore and is mulling over another project – a “private retirement village”.

“We are lobbying the government, but we haven't gotten any approval yet,” said Mr Pua. “I think the government would want to see the result of this project before they roll out new projects … so we hope that this project will do well.”

SUBSIDIES NOT APPROPRIATE: MOH, URA

Responding to CNA's queries, the Ministry of Health (MOH) and the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) said agencies will monitor the pilot project at Parry Avenue, and assess the need to release more land for commercially-developed assisted living premises, given the limited land space in Singapore.

"However, such commercial models can realistically only cater to a certain segment of the senior population. As these are commercially run facilities by the private sector, it will not be appropriate for the government to subsidise them to lower the costs," said the joint reply sent to CNA on Sep 12.

The authorities added that, unlike big countries such as China, "the large majority of Singaporeans will need to age within their existing communities, living in their current homes".

This is why the government has rolled out the Age Well Neighbourhoods, a new initiative announced by Prime Minister Lawrence Wong in his National Day Rally speech last month, MOH and URA added.

This initiative, aimed at better supporting Singapore’s elderly in their own backyards, will "involve significant government investments in senior-friendly physical living environments, active ageing centres, community health posts and home personal care".