SINGAPORE - The proposed new concept dementia village occupying 10 bungalows at Gibraltar Crescent in Sembawang has attracted only one bid.

It was submitted jointly by Pre 11 and Orpea Singapore.

Pre 11 appears to be a newly-incorporated subsidiary of Perennial Real Estate Holdings, which describes itself as an integrated real estate and healthcare company. It is headquartered and listed in Singapore.

Orpea, incorporated here a year ago, lists its principal business activity as nursing and personal care facilities, with residential care services for the elderly as its secondary activity.

The tender was submitted in two parts on concept and price.

The price of the tender will be looked at only if the concept is acceptable by the evaluation committee chaired by the Ministry of Health (MOH). Criteria include the quality of the care programmes and services.

Whether the sole bid received will be awarded the 30-year tender will be announced later, said the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), which called the tender for the MOH.

If it gets the award, it will have four years to develop the facility.

The tender, called in July last year, is for a gated community where people suffering from dementia can live safely and securely.

The 10 large bungalows in the tender stand on two plots of land with a total area of 28,000 sq m.

Another 1,600 sq m of additional gross floor area may be added to existing buildings or as new buildings, but any new building must not exceed the height of the existing ones.

At least 60 per cent of the maximum permissible gross floor area must be for residential purposes. The rest may be used for enterprises like a shop, restaurant or centre-based care and nursing home.

The plan is for "a safe, home-like environment where residents are assisted to live independently, with meaningful community participation and social interactions", according to the URA tender details.

The MOH group director of the Ageing Planning Office, Ms Charlene Chang, said the ministry hoped "to enlist private sector ideas and innovation to develop a model of care that is less medicalised, and which promotes independence and autonomy".

Dementia is a brain disorder that includes memory loss and difficulties with thinking, problem-solving or language. Its decline can be slowed, but not reversed. When it becomes severe, it could affect a person's ability to perform everyday activities.

A problem that increases with age, it looms here, given Singapore's rapidly ageing population.

According to an Institute of Mental Health study, one in 10 people aged 60 years here and older suffers from dementia.