Making room for co-living in Singapore as investors commit, demand broadens
[SINGAPORE] Home ownership has long been the cornerstone of Singapore’s housing model, with nine in 10 resident households owning the homes they live in.
Against this backdrop, the emergence of a viable housing format built on shorter leases would have been less obvious a decade ago.
Yet, co-living has grown rapidly over the past five years, evolving from a niche accommodation concept into an increasingly visible segment of the country’s housing landscape.
The potential of this demand was amplified when construction delays and border disruptions hit during the pandemic. The reopening further fuelled a rapid recovery in international mobility, and rental market conditions tightened, as demand rose in multiple tenant groups.
Between 2022 and 2023, the private residential rental index of the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) spiked sharply, which at its peak rose by over 40 per cent.
Direct acquisitions of co-living assets climbed as operators sought to scale their portfolios, while a number of transactions for operating platforms, such as Mitsubishi Estate’s buyout of Habyt, also emerged.