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Ascott Residence Trust (Ascott Reit) has acquired a prime greenfield site at Nepal Hill for $62.4 million for its maiden development project.
In a statement, Ascott Reit revealed plans to develop the site into its first co-living property within Singapore’s one-north research and innovation business hub.
To be managed by The Ascott Limited under the co-living brand, lyf, the property will be named lyf one-north Singapore.
The 324-unit property, which has a gross floor area of 73,447 sq ft, will offer a mix of studio and loft units. Set to be completed by 2020, the property is expected to open in 2021.
The 60-year leasehold site was put up for sale by JTC in a two-envelope concept and price tender.
Meanwhile, the 200-hectare one north estate on which the site is located has attracted more than $7 billion worth of investments in sectors such as the info-communications, media and biomedical industries. It is also a talent development hub that houses world-renowned business schools and corporate universities.
“Set to be the first co-living development in one-north, lyf one-north Singapore will cater to the ready pool of young entrepreneurs, millennials and professionals in the vibrant cluster that hosts prominent research and knowledge-based organisations, startups as well as business schools,” said Beh Siew Kim, CEO of Ascott Residence Trust Management Limited (ARTML).
“We expect strong demand for the property, given the thriving innovation ecosystem and the limited lodging supply in the vicinity.”
ARTML chairman Bob Tan noted that compared to acquiring completed properties, this investment “not only allows us to have an early entry at a lower cost, enjoy development profits, but we can also expect higher yield in the long term”.
“The strong government support and private sector investment in one-north give us further confidence to invest in the site.”
He added that the acquisition is an “important move to build Ascott Reit’s pipeline of quality yield-accretive assets in Singapore”, given that it is becoming harder to find immediately accretive assets within the country.
Romesh Navaratnarajah, Senior Editor at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact him about this or other stories, email romesh@propertyguru.com.sg
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