Singapore’s silver tsunami draws assisted-living players like Perennial and Autagco, but can they make money?

[SINGAPORE] In the Asia-Pacific region, the silver economy was projected to have been worth US$4.6 trillion by 2025, catering to 600 million seniors above the age of 60.

Singapore has already felt this grey tide on its shores. It is expecting to be classified a super-aged society in 2026, when 21 per cent or more of its citizens is projected to be 65 or older.

Apart from medical care, a key concern of those growing old is their living arrangements. Those who are bedridden or who need medical attention will likely end up in nursing homes.

Those who are still mostly independent can hire a live-in helper and continue to live in their homes. They could also consider moving to a serviced apartment, although this would mean getting no assistance in daily activities.

Another alternative – finances permitting – is to move into the kind of luxury suite provided by Allium Healthcare. At Allium Care Suites in the Upper Thomson area, there is 24-hour nursing and medical care, wellness activities, meals and housekeeping. 

A resident there who is mobile and independent, for example, can expect to pay around S$9,000 a month, going by a self-assessment estimate on its website.

Now, there is a competitor who will operate on a larger, more ambitious scale.

In 2023, integrated healthcare and real estate player Perennial Holdings won the public tender for a private assisted-living site in Parry Avenue with its bid of S$71.99 million. The luxury development is slated to open in phases from the second quarter of 2026.

Its spokesperson reported “good interest” in the project, saying that the cost of taking a unit there starts at about S$8,000 a month, “depending on the size, layout, level and facing of the unit chosen”.

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The facility offers urgent-care doctors; residents can also consult a panel of specialists. Perennial will offer a medical concierge who arranges for appointments and accompanies the residents to their appointments.

Residents can get help in managing their chronic diseases, or be given pre-emptive care, such as strength and mobility training, and experience a combination of Western and traditional Chinese medicine.

Perennial brings to the table its experience in China, where it runs the country’s first private integrated-healthcare ecosystem. This is a medical platform centred on partnerships with doctors and is one of China’s largest private eldercare platforms.

The company’s executive chairman and CEO, Pua Seck Guan, is aware that, even with this record under its belt, profitability in Singapore is not guaranteed.

“As I told people, Singapore is a very difficult place to make money,” he told The Business Times in an earlier interview.

“Our main business is outside (the country), and we have done so much, learned so much. What we hope to do is bring the skill set and create (a similar model in Singapore).” 

Autagco, a recent entrant to the market

Autagco, a Singapore-based, Singapore-listed investment holding company, has set its sights on the premium assisted-living market space, although its operations are much more limited in scope.

It was partly the ill health of an aged relative that got its executive chairman and CEO Jason Ng thinking about providing services for Singapore’s growing ranks of senior citizens.

Speaking to BT, he said of this relative: “She’s bedridden and in a nursing home. Her husband isn’t around. Her children are living and working overseas. How can we expect them to come back to Singapore to look after her?”

This is what many Singaporeans fear: ageing in isolation and without family support, especially given that family sizes are getting smaller.

A growing number will find themselves in this boat, which means there is a significant market of seniors who will need various services, said Ng.

Autagco’s subsidiary, Communa Gold, operates the assisted-living business. 

The name Autagco may not at first ring a bell, but investors would probably have heard of its previous incarnation, LifeBrandz, which ran several Clarke Quay nightspots. Ng took a controlling stake in it via his company in 2024.  

In November 2024, Autagco announced its foray into premium assisted living, clear-eyed about what it would do: take in still-mobile residents in private residential settings, which can be condominium units or landed homes. 

It has six locations, including a landed property in Changi, which has a garden where the residents mingle. The interiors of these properties are kitted with grab bars and other senior-friendly features; hospital beds are available if residents ask for them.

For a monthly sum of S$4,000 and up, residents get a single room, meals, housekeeping, wellness programmes, social activities and daily-living support; transport for hospital visits or outings are available at an additional charge.

The aim, Ng said, is to create a more home-like environment that promotes social interaction and “ageing in place”.

He emphasised that he is not competing in the nursing home space. Senior citizens like his relative – ill and who require tubing, injections or other medical attention – will not find Communa Gold’s facilities suitable. 

He is instead homing in on the growing number of seniors who are relatively mobile and wish to live independently in a safe, residential environment that provides some communal interaction.

Those who need help with daily activities will find it from the live-in staff, mostly migrant workers hired under the Household Services Scheme. A manager shuttles among the properties.

“We have a spritely 92-year old among our residents,” said Ng, though most residents are in their 60s or 70s.

Some have children who are overseas, for example. Others are singles who have been living on their own. “However, as they age, they see the perils of isolation, which can lead to depression, or they may face a higher risk of falls,” Ng added. “It’s hard for them to move in with relatives or their siblings.”

Ng, who agrees with the currently accepted wisdom that ageing in place is preferable to living in an institution, noted that the government has provided options in the form of Community Care Apartments that Singaporeans aged 65 and above can buy if their income is below a set level.

These units come with senior-friendly designs.  

For Ng, Communa Gold’s properties offer an alternative, especially in Singapore, where “the government is providing a lot, but we can complement this, as a private enterprise, to serve this market”.

With only six properties, the scale of the business is still relatively small. For the half-year ended Jan 31, 2026, revenue came in at S$316,000; the business ran up losses of S$122,000. 

Medtech and expansion plans

Last November, Autagco inked a memorandum of understanding with Singapore-listed medical-technology solutions provider AJJ Medtech. The two parties are looking into deploying humanoid elderly care robots in the company’s facilities. 

Ng said that he is keen on technology wearables, which would pave the way for monitoring of the residents’ vital signs.  

Expansion is also on the cards. Autagco will rent an eight-storey building in Kallang. It is now being built, and the handover is likely to be in May. Among its 33 rooms will be show suites that prospective residents and potential business partners can view. 

Ng is confident that his assisted-living offering is pitched at the right level for the market.

“If this concept takes off, Singapore will be a springboard to other markets,” he said. “Our aim is to franchise this model to Malaysia and Vietnam.”