Planning for senior living needs rethink on regulations, costs and stigma: property players

[SINGAPORE] As Singapore’s ageing population continues to grow, the conversation around assisted-living developments has become more relevant than ever, but the industry has many issues to tackle. 

“From urban planning, design and developments, to manpower, culture and business models, they are all pieces of a puzzle that we need to fit together,” said Real Estate Developers’ Association of Singapore (Redas) president Tan Swee Yiow. 

He was speaking at the inaugural Redas-Ageing Asia Dialogue on Thursday (Nov 20). 

By 2030, more than 900,000 Singaporeans will be aged 65 and above.  “This demographic shift requires us to rethink how we design our homes, communities and services,” said Tan.

“We need to explore questions like, should we consider a separate zoning category for senior living, to facilitate development? Or would integration within mixed-use projects encourage intergenerational interaction and connection?” 

He added that each choice “carries implications for urban planning, financing and policy coordination”.

Tong Ka-Pin, Perennial Holdings’ chief corporate officer, said that land betterment charges, which developers have to pay for enhanced use or change of use of land, “provide a high level of uncertainty for players”.

In China, where Perennial has developed many integrated developments with medical and eldercare components, such facilities would fall under commercial and other land use. 

“In Singapore, Perennial Living is sited on a residential plot, so there are challenges when we need to apply to put in certain medical or dining (facilities),” said Tong.

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Perennial opens S$260 million assisted-living facility with monthly rates from S$8,900 to S$17,000

Perennial Living is Singapore’s first private assisted-living development in Parry Avenue in August, which the group built on a state land site it acquired in 2023.

The assisted-living sector in Singapore may not be able to benefit from economies of scale the way Perennial’s projects in China do, said Tong, who was one of the speakers at the event. 

Keppel’s chief executive officer for senior living, Nathaniel Farouz, noted that as the industry grows, there will be more economies of scale “in terms of manpower, usage of tech and catering”. 

In May 2024, Keppel opened its first senior living facility in Asia, Sindora Living Nanjing Qixia, with around 400 beds. The group now has 1,300 beds under management across three locations in China. 

Farouz said the assisted-living market still faces some stigma, which will disappear with more education and as operators bring in more supply to transform this “need into a demand”.

Tong said: “I think we need to increase the awareness, so that people understand what a good quality assisted-living apartment looks like, and then the stigma goes away.”

Asked about market feedback for Perennial Living, which is priced between S$8,900 and S$17,000 a month, he said: “When we went out with the launch sometime in August, the initial feedback (was) ‘why so expensive’?

“But I think over time, when (customers) do their sums, when they look at the availability of choices in Singapore, there’s a lot more acceptance.” 

Tong added: “We are also not sure how we will make money from this project, but in essence, it’s also attributable to land costs (and) staff costs. I think we will learn along the way and move forward.” 

Unlike in China, where the population is homogenous and seniors, nurses and carers can all communicate in Chinese, care staff in Singapore may be foreigners, and this may pose issues in communication and engagement between seniors and their care team, she added. 

What seniors want 

Given Perennial’s experience in medical care, the group believes “rehabilitation, exercise, food and mental health” are very important for seniors, Tong said. 

She added that Perennial Healthcare City Tianjin is home to one of the largest hydrotherapy pools in China, which supports the rehabilitation journey for seniors. 

Perennial also works with the Wilmar Group to tap its knowledge and expertise. It also engages the group for food sourcing, ingredients and functional food, to ensure that seniors in the facility get “safe as well as tasty” food. 

Choo Chin Hua, group director for design development at the Housing & Development Board, who delivered a presentation on community care apartments (CCAs), said he hopes the assisted-living public housing concept can give residents another chance to “live independently for as long as they can and defer the need for institutionalisation”. 

“We’re still starting in fairly small steps,” he said.

“We launched five projects and we are taking a wait-and-see approach to see whether demand picks up, whether we should launch more… But our end-state goal is to have at least one in every estate.

“We also hope that through building community bonds, (we) encourage them to come out and interact (to) allow them to have good social networks.”

At Harmony Village @ Bukit Batok, the first CCA project to be completed, an activity centre offers weekly activities such as mahjong. 

“The whole development is barrier-free. We also utilise larger numbers and fonts for all the signage for better way-finding,” said Choo. “Another unique feature is that (for) every floor, we use different coloured codes and motifs to demarcate the different floors so that residents with mild dementia can still find their way around.” 

Janice Chia, founder of Ageing Asia Singapore, said: “What seniors want most (is) the key to (their) own front door. (It’s) not very different from what all of us want, (it) represents control over their own lives… and assisted-living providers help to provide that.” 

Farouz said seniors want to “be able to live a life as normal as possible for as long as possible, with as much autonomy and agency as possible”.