Co-living startup The Assembly Place acquires peer operator Commontown Singapore

SINGAPORE co-living startup The Assembly Place (TAP) has entered into an agreement with Libeto, the operator of Commontown Singapore's co-living spaces, to acquire all assets of the brand.

The acquisition will be completed through a share swap agreement, founder and chief executive of TAP Eugene Lim said.

Under the agreement, TAP will acquire all of Commontown Singapore's spaces which include around 120 rooms spread across 10 locations, as well as its head leases and subleases. Currently, the brand's co-living spaces are fully leased out.

TAP has also agreed to take over the co-living operator's operations team. Lim believes that the incoming team will support TAP in its ongoing expansion and help the company to scale in 2022.

Commontown Singapore's chief executive and co-founder Ian Lau said: "Lim and the team at TAP have the resources, vision and determination to excel in this industry, and we are pleased and excited at this opportunity to work with them in changing the face of real estate in South-east Asia and beyond."

Founded in Seoul in April 2017, Commontown is a co-living brand and operator. The brand moved its headquarters to Singapore in 2018 and opened its first space in the country in 2019. The company currently operates co-living spaces in 4 locations in Seoul.

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This deal comes after TAP's acquisition of straight leases around River Valley, Tiong Bahru, Novena and East Coast. TAP noted that they have added close to 250 rooms to its portfolio over the past few months.

With the acquisition, TAP's portfolio will expand to have over 600 operational rooms in Singapore and an additional 200 rooms in the pipeline, ready to be launched by May 2022.

TAP has plans to launch a 181 bed co-living hostel at 25A Perak Road and a four-storey residential block at 257 Outram Road in April 2022. Planning and construction are also in the works for its serviced apartment assets which will be launched by Q4 2022.