The land parcel at 116 Lorong J Telok Kurau was purchased on a 103-year lease and will be managed by The Assembly Place as a 430-bed premium hostel (Photo: Knight Frank)
SINGAPORE (EDGEPROP) - A land parcel of 104,469 sq ft with a 103-year lease at 116 Lorong J Telok Kurau was sold for $40 million ($382.89 psf) in November 2022, according to a SISV Realink caveat.
Co-living operator The Assembly Place is the appointed development manager and operator on a 5+5 year lease, says its founder and CEO Eugene Lim. The buyer of the property prefers to remain anonymous.
The seller of the property on a 103-year lease is the Trustees of the Presbyterian Church, which still owns the underlying 999-year lease (from 1939) on the site. While the zoning for the site is for civic and community institution use, URA had permitted the use of the property as a student hostel, according to Knight Frank Singapore, the marketing agent for the site.
Before the property was sold, it had operated as EastLodge, a 120-room student accommodation with two blocks of three- and four-storey buildings on the site.
Knight Frank launched the site at Telok Kurau for sale by tender in September 2022. When the tender closed a month later, on Oct 20, 2022, more than 15 bids were submitted. The $40 million purchase price was also $10 million (33%) above the initial guide price of $30 million ($287 psf). "Interest was keen because of the unique use of the site," says Chia Mein Mein, Knight Frank's head of capital markets (land and collective sales).
The property is currently being renovated and converted into a 430-bed "premium student hostel", says Lim of The Assembly Place. The "premium" comes from its modular design, with every student assured of an individual bed and study area. Communal facilities include a lounge, dining, kitchen, laundry, basketball court and outdoor fitness area. He adds that bathroom facilities are shared and will be "spacious and well equipped”.
In Singapore, most of the student accommodations are relatively basic, with few, if any, facilities provided, Lim observes. The Assembly Place intends to create a premium student hostel on a par with those provided elsewhere, such as in the UK, the US and Australia. "With more than 100,000 sq ft land area, we can put in a lot of communal facilities," he adds.
The number of international students in Singapore was estimated at 65,400 in April 2022, up from 59,100 in April 2021, based on figures from the Ministry of Education and the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority from a Business Times report. Most of the international students in Singapore are from Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, China, India and South Korea, and most are between the ages of 13 and 23, according to the International Trade Association.
Lim expects the international student population in Singapore to be even higher this year, especially since China lifted its travel restrictions in January. The Chinese government has also restricted private schools teaching foreign curricula and foreign investment in private education in China.
Lim notes that the clamp-down has led to more Chinese parents sending their children overseas for their education. And Singapore has traditionally been a popular destination for Chinese parents, he adds.
"These days, parents are also more mindful about the kind of accommodation their children will be housed in while studying overseas," says Lim. "In addition to location, other key considerations are security, privacy, comfort and hygiene."
The 430-bed student accommodation will be the second student housing hostel in The Assembly Place's portfolio following the opening of its first co-living hostel, a 186-bed property on Perak Road, off Jalan Besar, in November 2022. The property is fully occupied.
The addition of the new premium hostel will ramp up The Assembly Place's portfolio of co-living and spaces to 2,000, says Lim.
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