June 16, 2025
SINGAPORE – Seniors looking for elderly-friendly housing with care services will be able to sign up for a pilot private assisted living project in Parry Avenue in Kovan by the third quarter of 2025, and expect to move in by the first quarter of 2026, said the operator appointed to run the facility.
A subsidiary of integrated healthcare and real estate company Perennial Holdings won the bid to manage the project in June 2023.
The development is set to expand eldercare options in a rapidly ageing Singapore for those who may not need the extensive care from a nursing home, but still require some assistance.
The privately operated facility – a new housing-cum-care model that the Ministry of Health and the Urban Redevelopment Authority are co-creating with industry players – resembles publicly run assisted living developments such as the community care apartments in Bukit Batok and Queensway.
While the Parry Avenue project is set to be Perennial’s first foray into the eldercare sector in the Republic, the company has a decade of experience in both health and eldercare in China, after expanding into the market in 2015.
In China, it has a portfolio of medical care facilities that span general, rehabilitation, specialist and nursing hospitals, and eldercare facilities that span independent living, assisted living, nursing homes and dementia care. Its portfolio comprises more than 25,000 beds, of which about 16,000 are operational and over 9,000 are in the pipeline.
The company brought a group of journalists on a press trip to visit its health and eldercare facilities in Beijing, Tianjin, Xi’an, Chengdu and Shanghai in June.
Speaking to The Straits Times in a post-trip interview on June 12, Perennial chief executive Pua Seck Guan said the company intends to bring into the Singapore pilot technology tools that it has adopted in China, as well as tap insights on how to offer integrated healthcare to seniors.
The project spans 195,000 sq ft and will comprise 200 assisted living apartments, a 100-bed nursing home, a wellness clubhouse, a geriatric care centre, and a new 1.5ha community park.
The development will cater to a range of seniors – from those who are healthy to those who need help with daily living and nursing needs, as well as those with mild dementia.
The set-up is similar to the Perennial Eldercare Community Tianjin, which progressively commenced operations from June 2024.
The Tianjin eldercare project consists of a home for independent seniors who do not need help; an assisted living apartment for those who require assistance with activities of daily living; and a nursing hospital for those who have higher needs and may require medical intervention.
To date, about 250 units are occupied at the eldercare home and assisted living apartments, and about 50 beds are occupied at the nursing hospital.
“China, being a very big market, is also a very competitive market. We learnt a lot in terms of technology and equipment,” said Mr Pua.
Intelligent tools were used pervasively throughout all of Perennial’s facilities in China, including Tianjin – from an app that tracks and monitors vital signs, to health logs that pre-empt potential issues like poorly controlled diabetes and hypertension, to in-room sensors with fall detection capabilities.
Elderly people who have mobility issues and difficulty going to the toilet can also opt to use an in-bed toileting system, which will automatically flush away excrement and rinse and air-dry their bodies.
The company hopes to bring such tech aids here, subject to the approval of the local authorities, said Mr Pua.
It is hoped that technology will help the company overcome the “major problem” of manpower crunch in the eldercare sector in Singapore. While Perennial’s offerings in China include caretakers who are assigned to residents on a one-on-one basis, that may be harder to achieve in Singapore.
“We need to think of using technology to cut down some of the mundane work, and we also need to work out the services (we are offering). We are still working through these challenges right now,” said Mr Pua.
Another key lesson from China is the importance of integrating eldercare with medical care, he added.
“We are proud to come up with a model where in our eldercare homes in China, we have Western medicine, traditional Chinese medicine, and rehabilitation as well,” said Mr Pua.
In Singapore, the project will have a geriatric care centre, where specialists in dementia and chronic conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure will look after residents.
“You must bring convenience of services to the doorsteps of patients,” said Mr Pua.
Seniors will get a rotating menu of nutritionist-designed meals, as well as access to social activities.
There will also be a dedicated dementia-friendly zone where residents with the condition can move around safely.
This draws inspiration from a care village for Alzheimer’s disease patients that the company is running in Xi’an.
In this development, cognitively impaired seniors are allowed the freedom to roam and lead lives with a sense of normality within a gated compound, instead of being closely supervised and confined to limited areas like in typical homes.
“We need to treat such dementia patients with dignity,” said Mr Pua.
The company is aiming to target the middle- to high-income group in Singapore, and while the rates are still being worked out, they will be tiered according to care needs and the caregiving attention required.
Perennial also intends to tap its strengths as a real estate company to offer residents a premium product.
Residents here will have a choice of one- or two-bedroom units ranging between 366 sq ft and 666 sq ft, with private lifts and access to balconies, sky terraces and green areas.
“Singapore already has very high home ownership, so when people stay at (the Parry Avenue project), it must be better than their home. So we must provide a nice, five-star hotel environment with services,” said Mr Pua.
Assistant Professor Cynthia Chen from NUS’ Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health said that alongside the Government’s community care apartments, private assisted living facilities like this project diversifies Singapore’s eldercare landscape.
She added: “The value of the Parry Avenue pilot lies in its role as a test bed for developing national standards and scalable operating models for assisted living in Singapore.”
Currently, there are no clear regulatory guidelines for assisted living facilities in Singapore. But the Health Ministry has said that Parry Avenue’s operator will need to comply with specific service requirements.
Prof Chen said that some of the broad standards the pilot project should seek to meet to ensure effectiveness and impact are around care quality and responsiveness.
“(These) should include appropriate staff ratios, continuity of care, and integration with primary healthcare providers,” she said.
Transparency in pricing year on year should be ensured, and livability must be addressed through inclusive design, social engagement and mental well-being support.
“The pilot should incorporate robust monitoring and evaluation systems to track resident well-being and quality of life, satisfaction and service utilisation, ensuring that the model delivers measurable impact over time,” said Prof Chen.
She pointed out that with Singapore’s population aged 65 and above projected to exceed 900,000 by 2030, and as family support structures shrink due to declining fertility rates, demand for assisted living may increase in the future.
“Even if just 5 per cent of older adults opt for such accommodation, this would translate to a need for approximately 45,000 units, which far exceeds the current supply,” said Prof Chen.
The challenge lies not only in expanding the number of assisted living units, but also in ensuring costs remain affordable and sustainable.
“This will require exploring tiered pricing models, public-private partnerships, and scalable infrastructure to ensure that assisted living remains accessible, equitable and responsive to the diverse needs of Singapore’s ageing population,” said Prof Chen.