CAPITALAND Investment Limited 9CI : 9CI 0% 's (CLI) unit The Ascott has set a target to sign 150 properties with over 30,000 units under its lyf co-living brand by 2030, the mainboard-listed property manager announced at the official opening of lyf one-north Singapore on Monday (Apr 11).

There are currently 17 lyf properties with over 3,200 units in 14 cities and 9 countries. The apartments, social spaces and experiential programmes are designed for guests to forge connections and nurture a strong sense of community, its media statement said.

CLI's CEO for lodging, Kevin Goh, said: "We see the potential to expand our lyf portfolio to 150 properties by 2030. In addition to growing the lyf brand via management contracts, we also see attractive opportunities for our private funds and Ascott Residence Trust to deploy more investments into this product class."

Presently, 2 lyf properties - lyf Funan Singapore as well as lyf Gambetta Paris, Ascott's first lyf-branded property in Europe slated to open in 2023 - are owned by the Ascott Serviced Residence Global Fund.

The 324-unit lyf one-north Singapore is owned by Ascott Residence Trust HMN : HMN 0% , Ascott's sponsored hospitality trust, and currently has an occupancy rate of above 85 per cent. lyf Hongqiao Shanghai and lyf Farrer Park Singapore opened their doors in February.

In 2022, 5 other lyf properties are slated to open across the globe in cities including Bangkok, Cebu, Kuala Lumpur, Melbourne and Xi'an, with another 5 scheduled to open in Beijing, Danang, Ho Chi Minh City, Manila and Paris by 2025.

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Ascott also announced a collaborative innovation laboratory to power up its digital-enabled offerings to explore, design and test out immersive virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technologies and digital experiences.

The first pilot, now under way, is the expansion of lyf's co-living experience into the metaverse by harnessing VR and AR technologies to merge the physical world of lyf with the virtual space.

"With 25 per cent of people expected to spend at least 1 hour per day in the metaverse by 2026, Ascott is co-developing these immersive technologies to deliver cutting-edge experiences in the new interactive metaverse starting with the lyf brand," it added.

Successful pilots will, the company said, eventually be implemented across other lyf properties worldwide.

Ascott Residence Trust unit price was S$0.01 lower at S$1.10 while CLI share price also dropped S$0.01 to S$4.04 on Monday when the market closed.