Commercial, residential buildings to find new life as hotels

Singapore

DEVELOPERS continue to jump on the hotel-conversion bandwagon, with Fragrance Group for its flagship office building in Alexandra Road and Lian Beng for Wilkie Edge among the latest to have received nods from the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA).

The trend is being fuelled by the rise in hotel land values and a perceived shortage of hotel room supply on the island; this follows URA generally having disallowed, over a four-year period, development applications for new hotels, including change-of-use proposals, on sites that are not zoned for hotel use.

The restrictions, which took effect in July 2014, were relaxed in August last year.

Savills Singapore deputy managing director of investment sales and capital markets Galven Tan, said: "Hotel land values, based on recent transactions, have exceeded those of commercial and even residential in some instances. Therefore, building owners are exploring c…