“I stressed it is not about how much rental I can get. Our objective is far more than that. It is about how to support our operator to be even more successful. Healthcare expenditure will grow in the region and the stronger players will be in a position to capitalise. The end objective is to help the operator compete. When the operator faces difficulty and loses market share it will affect the landlord,” Yong says in a recent interview with The Edge Singapore.
Yong Yean Chau, the unassuming and soft-spoken CEO of ParkwayLife REIT’s (PLife REIT) manager, describes the relationship between a healthcare REIT, its operators and master lessees as a collaboration. PLife REIT owns three hospitals in Singapore, where IHH Healthcare is the master lessee and an IHH unit is the operator. PLife REIT also owns 49 nursing homes in Japan, operated and tenanted by 27 operators and master lessees.
PLife REIT’s most important relationship is, of course, with IHH. On July 14, PLife REIT and IHH jointly announced they had renewed the master leases for the three hospitals for another 20 years, starting in August 2022.
