Room to Grow

The executive chairman of LHN Group has a strategy to turn Singapore's old spaces into new opportunities and fuel economic renewal.

- KELVIN LIM

In land-scarce Singapore, deciding on land use and infrastructure is a balancing act between the needs of today's residents and future generations.

Against such a backdrop, it's no wonder that the government is increasingly adopting the approach of repurposing unused spaces. There is plenty of potential in recycling these abandoned or underutilised properties and turning them into productive spaces. At LHN Group, we call this adaptive reuse, or "Space Optimisation", referring to identifying old buildings, reorganising the layout, and reinvigorating it to suit modern needs.

Apart from rapidly supplying affordable space to the market, retrofitting an old building is much quicker and less costly than developing a property from the ground up. This benefits businesses, especially small and medium enterprises (SMEs) by allowing them to start up as shortly and cost-effectively as possible.

Today, Space Optimisation leverages Singapore's reputation as a top destination for establishing regional headquarters and foreign company structures across Southeast Asia. By catering to the 20 per cent of foreign-owned enterprises in the city-state, Space Optimisation brings invaluable support to these businesses, which introduce international experts, advanced technologies, and significant assets. Space Optimisation also enables foreign companies to set up and expand their operations in Singapore quickly and cost-effectively through its flexible serviced offices, self-storage, and corporate housing solutions.

Further, surrounding neighbourhoods of revitalised buildings can benefit from improving rental yield and occupancy rates. By injecting renewed life into such architecture and encouraging footfall, nearby businesses (F&B or otherwise) can experience the ripple effect of more customers and, in turn, more sales.

URBAN RENEWAL IMPACT