Since 2011, Karen has visited several sites in the US such as The Forest at Duke in North Carolina, close to Duke University and Youville Assisted Living. In these sites, the aging homes were distinctly different from the typical elderly homes and explores a concept of community of ongoing learning opportunities and attempts to redefine retirement.

Karen proceeded to mention that what started as a personal fascination and a lifelong search for an answer of how she would want to live when she retires brought about the next phase of her career – CEO of IP Investment Management Singapore, a private equity real estate fund.

In her time at IP Investment Management Singapore, she worked on various projects including Aurel – a senior living project in Kuala Lumpur (KL) Bukit Tinggi area and an aged care facility in Australia. Both projects did not take off for a myriad of reasons; the Australia project could not achieve the returns for investors who were keener on value-add returns in student accommodation. The KL Bukit Tinggi concept, also could not find enough buyers even though everybody loved the concept of pioneering an active lifestyle for older folks, co-located with a hotel.

Despite the previous setbacks, Karen shared that she is still discussing the topic with various private equity players on coming to South East Asia. As she sits on a hospitality board now, she also sees the potential for brand extension from a branded residence into senior living. Karen concluded the first segment by stating that she has been trying to solve the problem at various levels, first at the personal level, the business level, and then at the society at large.

The moderator Angela, posed a question on the similarities and differences between the healthcare and hospitality sectors and if they could converge into senior living. Karen pointed out that key differences were that healthcare is a highly regulated market so government policies on licensing and payment sectors shape the market. Healthcare professionals need to be licensed to work with patients and this is something you do not require in hospitality. Additionally, the user may not be the payer of the services and there might be a misalignment of financial incentives. Lastly, in healthcare, your patients are involuntarily there and there are extra considerations such as segregating the patients by gender and infection controls which adds to operating costs.

Similarities include drawing the distinction between the hard assets (real estate, infrastructure) and soft assets (brand service quality, and people). Hard assets are easier to build but soft assets such as manpower are critical and it is largely the operators that bring value to the hard assets.

Angela probed on whether it is essential to build more real estate for senior living. The consensus seemed to be that we had sufficient real estate in Singapore but it was really the operators of senior living that were few and far between. In response to the gap in the market, hospitality brands such as Lotte Hotel in Korea launched its senior citizen brand, Vitality, and Liberty to operate residential complexes for the elderly. Healthcare operators such as Parkway Life REIT, have also bought Japanese nursing homes.

The Singapore government has also been taking steps to address the needs of 80% of the population in HDB. Kampung Admiralty is a standout model. It is a multi-generational one where seniors live in a mixed-use facility with food, amenities, a gym, clinic, childcare center, learning center, and plaza for activities.

However, despite all of these efforts, in Singapore, Karen states that there is still no independent living and assisted living facilities to her knowledge. This might be due to a regulatory lacuna, and without the creation of such a licensed facility, they will not be built. Given this restriction and given that Singapore is overbuilt for residential real estate, Karen feels that a services model where older buildings are repurposed and communal or cluster living services are curated for the elderly might be a more realistic and sustainable approach.

Angela agreed that this could be a workable model but also pointed out that for those unable to care for themselves, there still needs to be an option for aged care facilities so that we do not have to impose such a burden on our loved ones.

Karen addressed questions and suggestions from the delegate, ranging from the culture of shame associated with institutional care in our culture to the prospects for the education and senior living services in Singapore to converge just like in the case of The Forest at Duke.

Another long-standing issue was that market sizing in Singapore is also hard to scale as our population is too small, and it will be more of a place to experiment and scale in the region. Pricing these services and institutionalizing this would also be difficult because it will be difficult to predict the length of stay of the customer. Due to current constraints in the labour market, perhaps the future model would be one where residents in the elderly home will help each other as well instead of only relying on the caregivers at the facilities.

To conclude, there are still many unknowns surrounding this topic, but Karen’s final food for thought for ULI members was how we could bring what has already been done in US and UK to APAC and Singapore and find a way to institutionalize it such that there will be private funding to support this cause.

Readers may wish to refer to the following resources which were shared with the delegates during the fireside chat:

• Auriens
• Youville Assisted Living
• Embassies
• Aurel Sanctuary
• Forest Duke

Members are also encouraged to read a publication by ULI on Later Living: Housing with Care guide which is available of Knowledge Finder.

ULI Singapore and its Women’s Leadership Initiative (WLI) Steering Committee thank Karen for giving her time and insights on the topic.  We are dedicated to increase both the number and visibility of more women leaders throughout ULI’s vast network.  As part of this mission, our program of work welcomes the inputs and involvement of all ULI members, not just women members.  WLI Singapore mission objectives can be found here.

If you wish to be a Champion of Change, we encourage you to pledge your commitment here.