Two State-Owned Properties In Toa Payoh And Hougang Could Become New Eldercare Facilities — But Only For Up To 9 Years

Public discussion around residential options for elderly Singaporeans surfaced amid public housing options for seniors like Community Care Apartments, as well as private development efforts to meet the growing need for assisted living facilities.

It’s a pressing issue as one in five Singaporeans are now aged 65 or older, with the trend set to intensify as that figure reaches one in four by 2030, according to estimates by the Ministry of Health (MOH).

Steps have been taken to increase nursing home capacity in Singapore from over 20,000 beds today to 31,000 by 2030, with more than ten new nursing homes housing 4,300 beds completed since 2020.

More often than not, these new nursing homes are repurposed facilities from existing State-owned properties. For example, the former Yishun Primary School was retrofitted and converted into a nursing home operated by All Saints Home.

Now, two more State-owned properties might find themselves repositioned as accommodation facilities for the elderly. The Singapore Land Authority (SLA), the custodian of State land and properties, has launched a public tender for a site at 1 Thomson Lane in Toa Payoh, and a cluster of vacant buildings at 95 Tampines Road in Hougang.

The Thomson Lane site spans 97,696 sq ft and is offered for nursing home use only, this tender is being conducted in an electronic Expression of Interest (EOI) exercise that closes on Sept 15.

Meanwhile, the Hougang property is far smaller at 19,724 sq ft and lists an active ageing facility as one of seven uses SLA will consider. The lease of this cluster of empty former Customs buildings will be evaluated via a Price-Quality tender that closes on Oct 21.

We examine what each of the sites offers, an overview of the terms of the tender, and how long the future facility is planned to last.

Thomson Lane

This is not an empty plot of land that SLA has launched. The site has housed the Lee Ah Mooi Old Age Home since 1984.

Located in Toa Payoh West, and close to the upcoming Caldecott estate and Mount Pleasant Road, this 97,696 sq ft site is at the edge of some of the most intense development plans taking shape in this part of Singapore.

The ground work for future residential developments has already been laid, with the opening of new MRT stations like Mount Pleasant on the Thomson-East Coast Line (TEL), Bukit Brown station on the Circle Line (CCL), and Caldecott Interchange intersecting both lines. Mount Pleasant station will only begin operations when the HDB estate in that area is complete.

According to the land information by SLA, the future nursing home site has a maximum gross floor area of 20,050 sq ft. The successful tender will lease the site on an initial term of three years, with two possible renewals of three years each.

The future nursing home site is also next to Sky@Eleven condo, one of the most recognisable condominiums along this part of Thomson Road. Lee Ah Mooi Old Age Home also has another premise along Silat Avenue, which is next to another recognisable condo – Avenue South Residence.

The government’s decision to bring in an operator to run the nursing home arguably makes more sense than selling the site since the lease conditions can decide how the property is used, and the state keeps a valuable plot of land.

Tampines Road

Meanwhile, SLA has launched a Price-Quality tender for a cluster of vacant buildings 95 Tampines Road. Despite its address on Tampines Road name, the site is actually in the Hougang planning area in District 19. It is close to Kovan MRT station on the North East Line, and is flanked by two recognisable condos – The Stars of Kovan and The Tembusu.

The properties were the former Tampines Customs Quarters, near the junction with Upper Serangoon Road, and the site consists of a four-storey building and five single-storey wooden houses.

Back then, the five wooden houses were used to store gunny bags of rice during the war before the Customs station took them over. After operations ceased in the 1970s, the buildings served as a religious school in the 1990s, then a kindergarten followed by a student hostel in the 2000s.

The site spans 19,724 sq ft with a maximum allowable built up area of 11,792 sq ft, making it about a fifth the size of the Thomson Lane plot. But this tenancy is offered for an initial five years, after which the tenant may ask for a further four years at the Government’s discretion, with the first three months rent-free.

While conservation guidelines do not apply to the site, the bidder must submit plans for any alteration work showing how the original architectural features will be kept, and their experience retrofitting conserved and heritage properties will also be taken into account.

With the dual-approach tender, this means that each bid is evaluated based on what the operator plans to do with the property on top of the rent it offers, so the highest bid does not automatically win.

The list of indicative uses for this site include:

• an active ageing facility
• a commercial school
• indoor sports studio
• meditation centre
• serviced apartments
• spa and wellness facilities
• student hostel

So, while an active ageing facility is the first on that list, it is not necessarily the one that will be chosen. If retail and F&B uses are approved, it will be capped at 1,768.85 sq ft, or exactly 15% of the estimated GFA.

Why an eldercare concept could win the Hougang site

If an eldercare operator does step up and bids for this site, it would be going up against stiff competition from serviced apartment and student hostel operators, who have been relatively starved of development and repositioning opportunities to increase the stock of these accommodation options in Singapore.

It is unlikely that an eldercare operator will put in the strongest offer based on bid rent alone.

But under the Price-Quality Method set out in the tender documents, price is worth 40 of the 100 points and quality the remaining 60 score. This means that the proposal is scored on how creative the concept is and how well it fits the surrounding neighbourhood, with rejuvenation, green initiatives and maintenance plans making up the rest of the quality factor.

Under the heading of rejuvenation and vibrancy, SLA names active ageing, preventive healthcare and community bonding as examples of the programming it wants to see. From our perspective, we interpret this to mean that it hopes to see more eldercare proposals and bids compared to other land use offers.

In addition, NEA has attached a condition in the same direction, requiring any active ageing facility at the site to put in place a healthcare waste management system that separates biohazardous waste, used needles and cytotoxic drugs at source.

Nine years is the tenancy ceiling at both sites

The three plus three plus three at Thomson Lane and five plus four at Tampines Road both have a term limit of nine years. And in both cases, the renewal is at SLA’s sole discretion.

However, this also means that most of the capital expenditure spent by the tenant will have to be removed, even if an extension is not secured. For a nursing home or an active ageing centre, that is a hard basis on which to plan.

In short: an operator is being asked to fit out a building for frail users and accept that the arrangement may end after five years.

With no existing parking space and LTA requiring all pick-up and drop-off to happen within the grounds instead of the main road, any use that moves people with limited mobility is an important consideration for the tenderer.

These tenancy limitations come despite calls for more nursing home and eldercare facilities in Singapore. For anyone working out care arrangements for a parent, the options in Singapore range from light support at home to full-time nursing care, the kind that Lee Ah Mooi Old Age Home was built to cater.

The lightest are Active Ageing Centres, and there are now over 230 island-wide, putting eight in 10 seniors within reach of one.

These are drop-in centres for exercise, meals and social activities rather than places to live, and most sessions are free. If the Hougang site goes to an eldercare operator, this might be the kind of centre it would become.

Next are the services MOH groups under intermediate and long-term care, which cover day care, community rehabilitation and day hospice at a centre, plus home visits ranging from nursing to Meals on Wheels. After that comes housing built for ageing at home, where HDB’s Community Care Apartments pair a senior-friendly flat with a compulsory Basic Service Package.

The cost of that package has been a talking point of late, with the first project quoting about $50 a month against the roughly $180 residents have more recently reported paying. Eligibility was also widened last year when the qualifying age was lowered to 55.

Above that is private assisted living, and Perennial Living is an example of that. The relatively new concept combines 200 assisted-living apartments with a 100-bed nursing suite and a rehabilitation centre on one site, setting families back about $8,000 a month.

Nursing homes are the heaviest option, for residents who need help through the day and nursing care around the clock. That is likely the type of centre Thomson Lane’s scale would be suitable for.

Some vital pieces of information are unknown

So far, SLA has not published any guidelines on rent for these two sites, so there is no way to say what either site would cost an operator. We also cannot say for sure if the Hougang property ends up as an eldercare facility.

For operators, committing that much capital against three or five guaranteed years is a hard sum to make work, and an awkward footing for senior care centres that are meant to last.

The EOI for 1 Thomson Lane closes on 15 September, and SLA has reserved the right to close it earlier if enough interest comes in. The tender for 95 Tampines Road closes on 21 October.