Four offers were received for the private assisted living location at Parry Avenue

The tender for an assisted living facility for private individuals on the site in Parry Avenue closed on March 21. The 12,912.1 square meter (138,986 sq feet) housing site was offered for sale by URA in conjunction in conjunction with officials from the Ministry of Health (MOH) in September. It was designated as a pilot project aimed to broaden the scope of housing and care options for seniors’ housing needs.

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Proposals for tenders were invited to submit proposals on innovative assisted living options that offer services like active activities to age as well as housekeeping and routine assessment of care. After an evaluation of a committee, chaired by MOH the shortlisted bids will be considered for the next stage of evaluation. This will be based on the price. The award decision of tenders will be made at a later time.

The tender was closed after four proposals received to the site. One of them was from a consortium comprised of Evia Real estate, Allium Healthcare Holdings, Yuan Ching Development and YK Realty. Pre 20 (a subsidiary of Perennial Holdings) made two distinct submissions. The other submission came from United Medicare Development.

Lam Chern Woon, head of research and consulting at Edmund Tie, notes that each bidder has healthcare expertise. Allium Healthcare Holdings operates a residential aged-care facility as well as United Medical Development is an administrator of private nursing homes.

In the meantime, Perennial, in a joint partnership together with Orpea Singapore, previously submitted the sole bid for the proposed dementia-friendly village on Gibraltar Crescent in Sembawang. The bid for the site was closed at the end of January in 2020. The site was not granted due to the fact that the price for $15 million judged too low.

It is located in the Parry Avenue site is subject to a lease of 60 years and is situated within Rosyth Estate. It is possible to develop to become an assisted living community with flats, or a mixture of landed homes and flats. Each living unit is likely to be of an average size of 32 square meters (344 sq feet).

The development will be built to the maximum ceiling of five stories and a minimum gross floor space (GFA) 16270 square meters (175,130 sq feet) and an upper GFA of 18,077 square meters (194,581 sq feet). A minimum of sixty% from the total GFA is to be used for assisted living facilities, which include private living units as well as communal areas. A minimum of twenty% of the GFA maximum must be allocated to medical and health care , which includes the requirement of 100 nursing homes beds.

The project will have the neighbourhood park, and is close to eating and shopping facilities including Serangoon North Neighbourhood Centre and Heartland Mall. It is a safe and comfortable place for seniors to be able to live independently in a thriving residential neighborhood.

Nicholas Mak, head of research and consulting for ERA Singapore, notes that the site tender is one of the government’s plans to promote seniors into senior care, in order to help the silver-generation of Singapore. “An example is the introduction of public assisted living flats, which are also called Community Care Apartments (CCA) in Bukit Batok in February 2021. The site located at Parry Avenue follows a similar idea as the CCA located in Bukit Batok, but it is being a private project instead of a public one.” He says.

Mak claims that Mak adds that the site is a test site for the future private assisted living facilities. “Authorities were aware of the need to establish essential security measures for the development in order to prevent developers from constructing the typical strata-unit condominium sales, and risking compromising the purpose of this development,” he says.

These safeguards prohibit an developer of subdividing the area with a minimum of 65 years for potential residents and a lease minimum length of 3 months to tenants.