Royal Group Plans Long-Stay Serviced Residences on Claymore Road

For foreign residents weighing the shifting calculus of living in central Singapore, Royal Group's latest move on Claymore Road is a useful signal. The Singapore-based property group, controlled by hotelier Asok Kumar Hiranandani, is preparing a long-stay serviced apartment project on the quiet residential stretch off Orchard Road, with development costs estimated at between S$185 million and S$190 million. The scheme is expected to yield approximately 100 apartments calibrated for stays of three months or longer, a format that has gained renewed traction since regulators formalised the long-stay serviced apartment category in 2023.

The Claymore Road address places the project inside one of the most established prime residential pockets in District 9. The street threads between Orchard Boulevard and Tanglin, within walking distance of Orchard MRT, the Tanglin Mall cluster and the embassies along Nassim Road. For the foreign tenant pool that has historically anchored demand here, senior executives on assignment, regional family-office principals, and consultants between postings, the location offers proximity to international schools via short rides to Bukit Timah, alongside the medical hub on Orange Grove and Napier.

The long-stay serviced apartment classification matters more than the building itself. Introduced by the Urban Redevelopment Authority to formalise stays of three months and above, the category sits between traditional hotels and standard residential leases. It allows operators to offer hotel-style amenities, housekeeping, concierge, gym access, while booking guests on terms that suit corporate relocation budgets. For tenants, it removes the friction of furnishing, utility set-up and the minimum three-month lease that governs standard private residential rentals in Singapore.

Demand for this hybrid product has been building. Corporate relocations into Singapore have rebounded as regional headquarters consolidate, and the post-pandemic preference for flexible tenure has not faded. Many incoming executives now arrive on shorter mandates of six to eighteen months, a window awkward for both hotels and conventional condominium leases. Operators including Ascott, Frasers Hospitality and Far East Hospitality have all expanded their long-stay inventory, but supply in the Orchard sub-market remains tight, particularly for units sized for families rather than single professionals.

Royal Group is not a newcomer to this segment. The group's portfolio spans the Holiday Inn Express Clarke Quay, the former Grand Park Orchard (now Pullman Singapore Orchard), and a string of residential and mixed-use assets across the central districts. Its bet on Claymore Road extends a pattern of acquiring or developing assets within walking distance of Orchard, where land scarcity and conservation overlays make new supply rare. Roughly 100 keys on a prime District 9 plot is a modest count by hotel standards but substantial in the serviced-apartment context, where individual units are larger and operating economics depend on occupancy rather than turnover.

The price tag, S$185 million to S$190 million in total development cost, implies a per-key spend in the region of S$1.85 million, consistent with prime central area benchmarks for serviced apartment schemes. Whether the project ultimately commands the rental premium needed to justify that outlay will depend on the unit mix. Industry operators report that two-bedroom and three-bedroom configurations are the constrained segment, often booked six months ahead by relocation agents acting for multinational tenants. Studio and one-bedroom inventory, by contrast, faces sharper competition from the broader condominium rental market.

For foreign buyers tracking Singapore's residential market more broadly, the Claymore Road project is a reminder that the prime central region continues to attract institutional capital despite the cooling measures introduced in 2023, which lifted Additional Buyer's Stamp Duty for foreigners to 60 per cent. Developers have pivoted toward yield-bearing formats, including serviced apartments, branded residences, and build-to-rent schemes, that bypass the residential purchase tax structure while capturing the same underlying demand for prime-district accommodation. The economics now favour holding and operating rather than building and selling.

Completion timelines for the project have not been publicly disclosed, though comparable schemes in the Orchard area have typically required three to four years from site assembly to operational launch. When the units arrive, they will join a small but growing roster of long-stay options in District 9, and offer relocating families an alternative to the conventional choice between a Marriott suite and a two-year condominium lease. For the foreign-resident reader, it is one more datapoint suggesting that Singapore's central core is being quietly reshaped around the longer-stay, higher-spend tenant.