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Kolette Lim

Aidan Jones

Joseph Sipalan

Helen Fung’s home felt empty. After her husband died last October, she found herself rattling around a house in Singapore with only a domestic helper she could not get along with for company.
She turned down her children’s invitations to move to England, put off by London’s grey winters, and instead checked herself into an assisted living facility.
On a recent Monday afternoon in St Bernadette Lifestyle Village at Trevose Crescent, tucked away in the leafy residential estate of Bukit Timah, Fung celebrated her 92nd birthday.
Carers wheeled and walked eight fellow residents to the dining table before breaking into song. Goaded into a speech, Fung kept it brief: “I’m very happy to be here.”
The home, a refurbished two-storey bungalow, is one of a growing number of assisted living facilities springing up as Singapore’s population ages. The city state officially became a “super-aged” society this year, with more than one-fifth of its population over 65.
These facilities offer a much-needed middle ground for older people who can no longer live independently but do not require the round-the-clock medical care of a nursing home.
Staff help residents with daily tasks such as dispensing medication and writing letters, while some facilities include memory care units for those experiencing cognitive decline.

Assisted living is a nascent but fast-growing segment of Singapore’s multibillion-dollar silver economy. The government has provided more than 1,100 such flats since 2021, and private real estate operators are also increasingly entering the market.
For residents like Fung, what matters most is feeling part of a community, keeping their independence and being treated with dignity. Despite her early-stage osteoporosis, she moves around the home without a walking frame, sometimes forgoing afternoon sessions of mahjong to journal in her room instead.
“I’m fitting in little by little – I’ve learned to get to know more of the residents and our different timetables,” she said. “I told my family I’ll probably stay here until the time comes.”
For fellow resident Soo Soo Cheng, 90, her single room is a world away from the six-bedded ward she shared at her previous nursing home. “It was like a dormitory and nothing private like this. I was getting really uncomfortable,” she said.
Now she spends her days in a bright orange armchair by the window, walking frame within reach, while carers take care of tasks like printing copies of bills and helping her to bed when her spine acts up.
“I’m thankful for a place like this, where I can do things on my own and yet never have a dull moment,” she said. “Time seems to fly.”

A middle ground
Southeast Asia is ageing rapidly and its social welfare systems are increasingly grappling with a thorny question: what happens to the people who can no longer manage entirely on their own, but do not need a hospital bed?
Assisted living – offering medical and social care scalable to residents’ needs – has emerged as an answer.
It was designed for people whose needs fell somewhere between the intensive clinical care of a nursing home and what a domestic helper, who cannot reasonably be expected to manage a medical emergency, could provide, said Janice Chia, founder of Ageing Asia, a Singapore-based social enterprise focused on the business of growing old.
In Singapore, more people are ageing alone – an estimated 83,000 by 2030, according to the Ministry of Health – while shrinking family sizes are increasing the caregiving burden shouldered by adult children.
“Assisted living provides independence and privacy without the seeming unpopular burden of managing foreign domestic helpers,” said Kelvin Tan, who heads the applied ageing studies programme at the Singapore University of Social Sciences.
Options in the city state range from government-run flats to private luxury apartments, with monthly bills ranging anywhere from three to five figures, depending on location, room size and level of care required.

In 2021, Singapore introduced community care flats aiming to support independent ageing in a social environment. Five such projects have launched so far.
The Housing Development Board announced in July that from its sixth project, launching in October, the eligibility age for assisted-living public housing estates would be lowered from 65 to 55, alongside lower fees aimed at improving affordability.
Estimated fees for a 15-year lease – currently S$40,000 to S$49,000 (US$31,400 to US$38,500) for a basic package – will drop to between S$26,000 and S$28,000 from next year, according to Vanguard Healthcare, which operates the developments.
“The cost is a big advantage for average Singaporeans looking for an accessible offer,” Tan said.

Private operators are also scaling up their operations. St Bernadette Lifestyle Village, which runs eight facilities island-wide, offers a mid-tier option priced from S$3,000 to S$6,000 a month.
Care homes were “less a business venture than a necessity”, said founder Belinda Wee, who has observed elderly residents growing unsettled in nursing homes due to a lack of socialising. About 80 residents lived in St Bernadette’s homes last year, up from 19 in 2023.
Well-heeled pensioners gained a luxury option last month with the opening of Perennial Living, a S$260 million, 195,000 sq ft development in northeastern Singapore featuring a hydrotherapy pool, a traditional Chinese medicine clinic and a karaoke lounge.
A basic package for a 330 sq ft studio flat starts at S$8,000 a month, while a 565 sq ft two-bedder costs more than S$13,000.
The hefty price tag has raised concerns about the affordability of retirement, though experts note the project is aimed squarely at the upper end of the market.

Chia said its prices should be viewed in the category of premium hospitality and care, rather than general assisted living.
Sign-ups have been gradual and interest has been “positive”, according to Perennial Holding’s chief executive Pua Seck Guan, who projected a 30 per cent occupancy rate after a year and 80 per cent after two.
More new entrants were expected to join the assisted living sector, Chia said, as Singapore’s shift from live-in caregiving to mainstream services gave firms the confidence to invest. But she urged regulators to pace approvals carefully given the dearth of healthcare workers.
Singapore needed to recruit about 6,000 nurses, healthcare professionals and support staff every year to meet demand, the Health Ministry said in 2024. It previously estimated that a healthcare workforce of 82,000 would be needed by 2030.
“This figure is the one worth dwelling on, because it shows care capability cannot simply be commissioned. Sites can be approved considerably faster than carers can be trained, deployed and retained,” Chia said.

Ageing in luxury
With its circular driveway and plush lobby, Perennial Living looks more like an upscale hotel than a home for the elderly.
The development aimed to set a “new benchmark for senior living in Singapore”, Pua said – reflecting a surge in luxury senior living facilities across Asia as operators recognise their target demographic wants more than just care and medical services.
More than US$500 billion is expected to pour into the silver economy across six Southeast Asian markets – Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines – by 2030, according to Ageing Asia.
Retirees today were wealthier, healthier and more assertive than any generation before them, the social enterprise said in a report released last month, making the business of ageing the Asia-Pacific’s “largest commercial opportunity”.
“Baby boomers, the biggest savers of all generations, have spent their lives making choices and are expected to hold onto that autonomy into their older age,” it said.

At Homerly International Senior Living in Thailand, residents walk long, tree-lined avenues within a large, serene gated community, accompanied by nurses, with their pets padding along behind them. The resort, which provides assisted living and nursing care, is one of hundreds of retirement communities popping up across a country with abundant land and a growing healthcare workforce.
A month’s stay – including round-the-clock medical care, physiotherapy, pool villas shaded by trees and two staff members in attendance – starts at US$2,200, with the top-end pool villas commanding a price tag of around US$4,500.
“Here you’re not a patient, you are a resident. We treat people with dignity,” general manager Rene Pisters said. “You have somebody with you all the time if you need it and the feeling that if something happens to you, there is a nurse sitting here.”
Malaysia is seeing a similar boom in luxury homes for the elderly, driven by changing expectations of ageing, according to N. Raaj Selvarajan, group chairman of regional healthcare infrastructure investor Hemrish Group and founder of its flagship senior living brand Sukha Golden.
Residents increasingly wanted privacy, wellness and access to care without the institutional feel traditionally associated with elderly care, he said.
Demand for its luxury Sukha Senior Resort has surged since it opened in March last year – all rooms are fully occupied, with interested residents placed on a waiting list.
Capitalising on the boom, Selvarajan said plans to expand regionally were under way, with projects in Indonesia and Vietnam in the pipeline. “The opportunity is not simply that Asia is ageing; it is that people want to age differently,” he said.
Crossing borders
For Singaporeans who feel priced out of their own super-aged society, homes for the elderly have become an unlikely engine of Malaysia and Thailand’s recent tourism boom, as families shop for similar care standards at a fraction of the cost.
The Straits Resorts Medini, a retirement home in Johor just a 15-minute drive from the border, has built its business around Singaporean demand.
“Consistent and encouraging” is how founder Elvira Tan describes cross-border interest in the facility, which offers rooms from S$4,300 a month, bundling in personalised care and grooming services, arts activities and social programmes.
Industry insiders expect the Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone and Rapid Transit System Link, set to open in January, to further boost demand.
“You can obtain the most expensive level of care in Malaysia for about one-third the price of the same level of care in Singapore,” said Kashif Ansari, group CEO of real estate market intelligence group Juwai IQI.

Cultural familiarity and the absence of a language barrier eased the transition for would-be residents considering homes across the causeway, he added.
“Families with a senior who needs potentially years or even more than a decade of care, naturally want the highest quality service and the lowest cost they can possibly obtain,” he said. “Malaysia has a real competitive advantage in this sector and operators hope to make the most of it.”
Money goes further in Thailand too. Facilities in Bangkok and Chiang Mai are attracting a growing number of Asian retirees, including from Singapore and Hong Kong, looking for care comparable to what they can get at home at a fraction of the cost.
Thailand hopes the care and wellness industry will become a defining part of its economy in the years ahead, as more people grow old and spend money on a curated retirement.
Care standards were high, Homerly’s Pisters said, adding that his company helped elderly residents with bureaucratic hurdles such as visas and bank accounts.
“The demand is huge, and it will only get bigger,” he said.


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Singapore

Golden years: in Southeast Asia, growing old is big business

Illustration: Huy Truong

Helen Fung (left) celebrates her 92nd birthday at St Bernadette Lifestyle Village in Singapore. Photo: Handout

An elderly woman looks out from a shelter set up after floods in Malaysia’s Kelantan in 2024. Southeast Asia is ageing rapidly, putting pressure on its social welfare systems. Photo: AFP

An elderly woman walks with her carer in a park in Singapore. Shrinking family sizes are increasing the caregiving burden shouldered by adult children. Photo: AFP

Sukha Senior Resort in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia, is already operating at full capacity and plans to scale across Southeast Asia. Photo: Handout

A hydrotherapy pool is seen at Perennial Living in Singapore. The project is aimed squarely at wealthier retirees. Photo: Handout

Perennial Living bears a closer resemblance to an upscale hotel than a home for the elderly. Photo: Handout

Homerly International Senior Living in Thailand offers assisted living and nursing care in resort-style surroundings. Photo: Homerly International Senior Living

A living room at the Straits Resorts Medini, a retirement home in Malaysia’s Johor just a 15-minute drive from Singapore. Photo: Handout

‘No bandwidth left for the family’: why many Singaporeans want to be child-free

Many Singaporeans are opting out of parenthood due to financial and time constraints. Photo: AFP

Zahir Latif’s family life consists of time with his fiancée and four cats. Photo: Handout

Singapore is taking a fresh look at issues such as the cost of raising children and access to affordable infant care to lighten the load on families. Photo: EPA-EFE

Singapore’s Prime Minister Lawrence Wong will unveil plans to ease the strain on families during his National Day Rally address on Sunday. Photo: dpa

Tax manager Debbie Lin (right) said she wants to have a second child, but is worried that she might fall behind in her career. Photo: Handout

Is super-ageing Singapore headed for population decline?

A mother and her child stand next to the Rain Vortex display at Singapore’s Jewel Changi Airport. Photo: AFP

A worker paints an apartment building in Singapore last month. Housing is among the costs the city state wants to make more manageable for prospective parents. Photo: AFP

Same-sex parents kiss their son during the Pink Dot SG pride event in Singapore on June 27. Photo: EPA

Migrant workers on a construction site in Singapore. The city’s growth model historically combined labour force expansion with productivity improvements. Photo: AFP

A carer walks with an elderly woman through a park in Singapore. Sectors such as healthcare and caregiving will still require the human touch, observers say. Photo: AFP

A child poses for photos at a Chinese New Year market in Singapore in 2024. Photo: Xinhua

A woman carrying her baby shops at a Hari Raya bazaar in Singapore. Photo: Reuters

‘Super-aged’ Singapore’s secret to growing old well? Stay busy

Elderly citizens use sewing machines at the Yong-en Active Hub in Singapore. Photo: Kolette Lim

Elderly citizens gather at the Yong-en Active Hub to take part in art, language and exercise classes, or socialise with others over board games like Rummikub. Photo: Kolette Lim

Agnes Chen, a 74-year-old retiree and carer for her elderly sister-in-law, visits the Yong-en Active Hub at least once a week to socialise and learn new skills. Photo: Kolette Lim

Elderly citizens interact with a therapy miniature horse at an active ageing centre in Singapore last year. Photo: AFP

A carer walks with an eldery woman at a park in Singapore. Photo: AFP

Elderly women use sewing machines at the Yong-en Active Hub in Singapore. Photo: Kolette Lim

This Week in Asia

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Southeast Asia

From Singapore to Thailand, private operators and luxury resorts are cashing in, as more retirees seek care on their own terms


From Singapore to Thailand, private operators and luxury resorts are cashing in, as more retirees seek care on their own terms.


Malaysia

Thailand

Juwai IQI

Singapore University of Social Sciences

Golden years: in Southeast Asia, growing old is big business

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}From Singapore to Thailand, private operators and luxury resorts are cashing in, as more retirees seek care on their own terms

From Singapore to Thailand, private operators and luxury resorts are cashing in, as more retirees seek care on their own terms