Co-living operator The Assembly Place seeks to raise $18.3m through SGX listing

SINGAPORE - Co-living operator The Assembly Place (TAP) is looking to raise $18.3 million through an initial public offering (IPO) on the Catalist board of the Singapore Exchange (SGX).

The offer of 50.3 million shares at 23 cents a share comprises 48.3 million placement shares and two million public offer shares.

Cornerstone investors will subscribe for around 29.5 million shares. These include Apricot Capital, Asdew Acquisitions, Cache Capital, ICH Synergrowth Fund, and Maybank Securities on behalf of certain high-net-worth clients.

The IPO, which opened on Jan 15, will close at noon on Jan 21. Shares are expected to begin trading on Jan 23 at 9am. TAP is expected to hit a market capitalisation of around $88.1 million.

SAC Capital is the sponsor, issue manager, underwriter and placement agent for the IPO.

TAP is a leading co-living operator in Singapore, operating 3,422 rooms across 100 property assets. It operates six brands across five living sectors, catering to young professionals, students, foreign healthcare workers and senior residents.

The majority of its properties are signed under master leases at properties such as condominium apartments and conservation shophouses.

It also operates a four-star hotel in Singapore, Social on Outram, and is gearing up for the launch of its second hotel in the Bangsar area of Kuala Lumpur in February – its first overseas property.

The company aims to operate 10,000 rooms by 2030. So far, it has more than 600 rooms in its pipeline.

TAP said it would use net proceeds of around $9.7 million to expand its portfolio and pursue investment opportunities, and another $1 million would be channelled to its working capital.

It currently employs 42 staff and said it plans to hire only two to three more employees post-listing, maintaining its asset- and manpower-lite strategy so that its bottom line can be improved significantly.

It will also focus on enhancing its digital technologies, developed in-house, to improve its services and efficiency.

In addition to its co-living business, TAP also offers property management services to manage the assets that it leases.

For instance, it was appointed asset manager for Serene Centre mall in Bukit Timah in 2024, marking its first foray into retail mall management. It leases the third and fourth floors for its co-living space, and manages the retail tenants on the lower two floors.

It also has investments in several other properties, owning stakes of between 5 per cent and 20 per cent, with a plan to exit in three to five years after the initial investment.

Chief executive Eugene Lim, who has more than 15 years’ experience in the real estate industry working at firms including Oxley Holdings, Knight Frank and Wing Tai, said at a media briefing on Jan 12 that TAP’s strategy is to help property owners raise their assets’ value with its property management services. This leads to TAP’s capital appreciation when these properties are ultimately sold.

TAP, which was founded in 2019, has grown significantly from its portfolio of 311 rooms in 2021. Occupancy rates have also gone up, from 91 per cent for the financial year 2024 to 94.4 per cent in 2025.

Setting it apart in a highly competitive market is its “community-driven stays” segment, a core tenet of its business model.

It focuses on building a sense of community for and enhancing the well-being of its residents, which includes planning regular events and workshops to foster social interaction and cohesion.

“We believe these initiatives increase customer satisfaction, foster cohesion and identity within our community, reduce vacancy and turnover, and act as a key differentiator in the market for our group,” it said.

Student accommodation offerings are priced at between $850 and $1,200 a month, while residential co-living spaces go for around $1,250 to $3,200 a month.

Mr Lim noted that having a diverse range of sub-brands targeting different customer segments allows the company to identify properties in less popular locations while maintaining its value proposition in a hotly competitive industry.

The multi-brand strategy also helps to develop stronger brand affinity, especially among foreign student tenants who may continue to live in Singapore in their adulthood for work.

“We always tell ourselves that we want our members to graduate from space to space with us. This is one of our key strengths and the most important unique selling point that we have.”

He added that brand stickiness would be even more crucial for customer retention should the demand for co-living spaces decline.

For the financial year 2024, TAP recorded $18.9 million in revenue, up 32.2 per cent from 2023, and a net profit of $6.2 million, reversing from the previous year’s loss of $899,000.

Revenue for the first half of 2025 rose 43.6 per cent to $11.6 million compared with the same period a year ago, with the bulk of it derived from the community-driven-stays segment which grew 41.5 per cent to $11.1 million.

The company said it is debt-free and has a positive operating cash flow with a net cash position of $1.5 million. It generated positive cash flows of $6.9 million in the six-month period ended June 30, 2025.

Mr Lim said the company is able to keep its operating costs low primarily because it does not incur huge capital expenditure on its properties.

At its larger co-living properties, property asset owners would fund the renovations and refurbishing, while TAP would charge a project management fee to fund the costs of its co-living operations.

He cited student living property Campus in Telok Kurau, which comprises two blocks of 426 beds on a 104,000 sq ft site and cost $6 million to renovate.

TAP, which had raised $11 million from two rounds of fund raising then, would not have been able to foot the cost.

On the other hand, smaller properties like shophouses and landed houses would cost an average of $25,000 to $30,000 to refurbish, which is much more manageable for the company.

TAP would be the second co-living operator to list on SGX, with competitor Coliwoo making its mainboard debut in November 2025 after spinning off from parent company LHN Group. Since listing, Coliwoo has been trading below its IPO price of 60 cents.

But SAC Capital’s head of capital markets Tan Kian Tiong said he remained confident of TAP’s outlook due to the high potential for further growth in Singapore’s co-living industry, exemplified in TAP’s business operations.

“We like to believe that the co-living players are disrupting the traditional HDB landlords, rather than fighting for the pie among themselves.”

TAP’s community-driven co-living approach also resonates well with students and young adults, which would help attract young investors to invest in SGX, he added.

Mr Lim said while share prices are ultimately out of his control, he believes TAP has proven its community living concept over the past few years and the time is ripe for the company to go public.

He added that he is targeting a mainboard listing for TAP in two years, and is focusing on growing the business in Singapore first to cement its status as the clear industry leader before entertaining the thought of an overseas listing.

The company is also exploring the possibility of operating a foreign workers’ dormitory in the future that also runs on its community-driven-stay philosophy.

Drawing from the experience of running a living space for foreign healthcare professionals, Mr Lim said a lodging facility for foreign workers is the “final piece to the puzzle” for TAP’s community-driven strategy.

To attract workers for sectors such as construction and electrical services amid rising competition from other countries, such as those in the Middle East, Singapore would need to rethink how a dormitory should look and feel, he noted.

He said: “Everybody is more educated today. Singapore will run into a lot of trouble if we end up in a situation where skilled foreign workers do not want to come here to work because they think we are not a forward-thinking country.

“As an operator, we believe we can help business owners solve this problem.”

He added: “That’s why the community living strategy is so important. Our big vision is that one day we can build a robust community without strangers for all our residents under the TAP brand, regardless of their age and background.”