The Ascott, CapitaLand Investment’s (CLI) lodging business unit, announced it has expanded its portfolio of co-living properties under the lyf brand to a total of 17 properties with over 3,000 units in 13 cities and nine countries.
The expanded portfolio includes the newly opened lyf Mid-Town Hangzhou, Ascott’s first lyf-branded co-living property in China. It also secured a management contract for its second lyf property in Thailand, lyf Riverside Bangkok. This follows Ascott’s recent acquisition of its first lyf property in Europe, livelyfhere Gambetta Paris, through its private fund Ascott Serviced Residence Global Fund (ASRGF) in June.
The apartments, social spaces and experiential programmes at lyf properties are designed for guests to forge connections and to nurture a strong sense of community.
To date, Ascott has opened four lyf properties in Singapore, Bangkok, Fukuoka and Hangzhou. Three more are slated to open later this year in Singapore, Xi’an and Shanghai – lyf one-north Singapore, as well as lyf Dayanta Xi’an and lyf Hongqiao Shanghai in China
See: Ascott boosts pipeline through alliance with Indonesian developer Ciputra
Between 2022 and 2025, 10 more lyf properties are slated to open in Bangkok, Beijing, Cebu, Danang, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Melbourne, Paris, Shanghai and Singapore.
“Our award-winning brands including lyf demonstrate our capabilities and commitment to deliver quality real estate assets that our sponsored hospitality trust, Ascott Residence Trust (ART); and our private fund, ASRGF, can invest in,” says Kevin Goh, CLI’s CEO for lodging.
“We see the potential for more coliving investments by our existing trust and fund, or even a dedicated coliving lodging fund with like-minded capital partners to accelerate our growth. This will enable us to leverage a capital-efficient business model to expand our capital partner base while achieving fee-related earnings3 (FRE) and funds under management4 (FUM) growth,” Goh adds.
“With the opening of our first lyf property in China, Ascott has opened a total of more than 5,000 units in over 20 properties globally this year. This is more than double the number of units opened for the same period last year,” remarks Tan Bee Leng, Ascott’s managing director for brand & marketing.
Shares in CLI closed 1 cent or 0.29% lower at $3.39 on Oct 6.
Photo: Ascott
