# House 223: Micro Homes From $2,300 A Month In Geylang Shophouses

- **Source:** Stacked Homes
- **Published:** 2026-08-21T11:14:01.000Z
- **Author:** Hailey Khoo
- **Original:** https://stackedhomes.com/3-geylang-shophouses-being-transformed-into-200-sq-ft-micro-homes/
- **Topics:** Commercial & Industrial, Investment & Capital Markets

## Featured rationale

The concept signals potential demand from professionals needing three- to 24-month stays and could expand flexible accommodation between cheaper shared co-living and costlier serviced apartments.

## AI summary

ABIEL will open 15 self-contained 200 sq ft micro-homes in three Geylang conservation shophouses in September 2026, charging $2,300 to $2,700 monthly.

## Original article

ABIEL Property Investment Fund, a Singapore real estate investment firm, has unveiled plans to convert a trio of Geylang Road shophouses into self-contained micro-residences. The investment firm has a solid track record in Singapore of acquiring and managing shophouses and industrial assets, and a residential asset has been on its radar for some time now.

When Stacked toured 81 Aljunied Road – a new industrial property developed by ABIEL – in June this year, Maureen Li, the founder and chief executive of the investment firm, shared that they were also working on a new concept. At the time, she described it as sitting somewhere between that building’s managed-workspace model and co-living.

One thing she did make clear was that Abiel had no interest in adding another undifferentiated co-living product to a market.

This week, ABIEL unveiled its first branded residential concept, which will be housed in three adjoining conservation shophouses at 223, 225 and 227 Geylang Road. The investment firm acquired the properties for $18.68 million.

The upper floors will be converted into House 223: which consists of 15 fully self-contained homes. These residences span a total of 12,957 sq ft across five floors. Each unit is around 200 sq ft and comes with its own kitchenette, bathroom, washing machine, workspace and sleeping area.

The development is expected to open in September 2026, with rents ranging from $2,300 to $2,700 a month. It aims to target short- to mid-stay visitors who need accommodation in Singapore for three to 24 months.

Singapore’s rental rules leave medium-term professionals with few options

Singapore has strict regulations on rental properties, which are intended to protect housing supply for citizens and permanent residents. As a result, private residential properties require a minimum lease of three months, while HDB flats require a minimum lease of six months. Short-term rentals on platforms like Airbnb are not allowed.

This leaves an accommodation gap for a specific group: professionals in Singapore for more than a few weeks but less than a year or two. “There are plenty of long-lease housing options in the market, as well as high-end serviced apartments. But what is missing are the options in between,” says Li.

She explains that someone on a nine-month posting to Singapore usually ends up in a sublet arrangement that was never designed for them, and that sublet is a flat that a local family could have rented.

On the other hand, House 223 is designed for the length of stay that this group of tenants usually spend in Singapore, offering them high-quality accommodation that meets their needs without taking housing off the market, she says.

Some of the intended target audience include doctors on medical fellowships, consultants on engagements, executives posted here to set up regional offices, or graduates on rotational programmes. These professionals usually cannot justify hotel rates spread over months, and they are also not settling in long enough to sign a two-year lease, given the non-permanent posting.

ABIEL believes that House 223 fills that gap with medium-term rentals ranging from three to 24 months. Each unit is fully furnished and move-in ready, with no added furnishing costs or utility subscriptions to set up on arrival.

Communal spaces at House 223 are scarce

The shophouses at 223, 225 and 227 Geylang Road will retain their existing ground- and second-floor tenants, which are currently leased to restaurants and entertainment and nightlife operators. Meanwhile, House 223 occupies the three floors above, in line with the spirit of prevailing conservation rules: busy and commercial on the street level, but quieter up top.

ABIEL has an in-house team who designed the new interiors and the new exterior façade, with a project architect and specialist engineers handling the broader building work. The design draws from three aesthetics: industrial loft, mid-century modern and Japanese minimalism.

Visitors can expect warm wood details, charcoal and forest-green tones, stone surfaces and exposed steel. Rather than packing every corner with built-ins, ABIEL aims to make the 200 sq ft feel more intentional than cramped.

Although each unit is efficiently sized and entirely private, the rooftop space is open and designed to facilitate interaction. The only communal space in the residence is on the rooftop, where residents have access to an edible kitchen garden to pick their own herbs and vegetables, an outdoor barbecue, a long communal dining table, reading corners, and hammocks.

“We are not building the rooftop simply for the view,” says Li. “It is meant to be used throughout the day, such as a place to enjoy coffee next to the garden in the morning, or a barbecue with people you have only just met in the evening”.

Getting acquainted with neighbours and new people is one of the hurdles that people on overseas postings usually face, on par with adjusting to a new culture. The rooftop is Abiel’s answer to that: a space designed so that socialising happens when residents actively seek it out, not because the layout of the building makes running into people unavoidable.

House 223 is up against fierce competition in Singapore’s flexible accommodation market

The flexible accommodation market in Singapore is well past its fragmented and nascent stage. Today, established players dominate the market here, such as Coliwoo, The Assembly Place, and medium sized players like Cove and Hmlet.

While Abiel has been deliberate about positioning House 223 as something distinct from co-living, the overlap in the target tenant profile and price range will inevitably lead to comparisons.

Established co-living operators in the market, like Cove and Hmlet, offer private furnished rooms at $1,000 to $1,600 a month, including utilities and wifi. However, the kitchens, laundry rooms and living areas are still shared. For professionals who do not mind sharing those spaces, the price point is much lower than House 223.

At first glance, Figment – a more upmarket brand of flexible accommodation – seems to be the most direct comparison to House 223. Operating a portfolio of 28 conservation residential shophouses in Singapore, Figment’s monthly rents range from $2,200 to $4,700. It also targets a similar demographic of executives and creative professionals.

But unlike House 223, each Figment property houses around four to six residents, and all of them share the common areas. Figment’s pitch leans heavily into community, with private dining events and a members’ club for co-working. Residents get a private room, typically with an en-suite bathroom, but the kitchen and living spaces are communal.

Figment has built its brand on the heritage interiors and architectural character of its properties, with residents living in the actual conservation shophouse. This gives Figment its boutique quality and appeal in the market.

Notably, Figment also has a property in Geylang, sitting at the lower end of its pricing range. According to its website, monthly rents at its Geyland property – which is located at 17 Geylang Lor 24A – start from $1,900 per month.

House 223’s cross-section shows the commercial and residential components. Source: Abiel Property Investment Fund

Based on what we can examine from a cross-section of House 223, it seems like the residential component appears only in the extension built behind and above the conserved shophouse, not within the heritage space itself. The conserved section will still be occupied by the commercial tenants.

On the other end of the price list are established serviced apartment operators like Ascott, Fraser Suites and Somerset. These hospitality-backed brands offer fully self-contained, professionally managed turnkey units that are in locations generally closer to the central business district or Orchard Road. Rooms like studios typically start from $4,000 a month and go significantly higher for larger units. But they are also geared towards corporate relocation packages.

With its room rates going for $2,300 to $2,700 a month, House 223 is almost double the cost of entry-level co-living options. And from what we can see so far, its differentiating factors are self-contained units: no shared kitchen, no shared laundry, no chance encounters with a flatmate.

The same playbook with a different asset class

Overall, from our perspective, we see Abiel’s strategy at House 223 closely mirroring the approach it took for 81 Aljunied Road: find an asset others have overlooked, identify a poorly served segment in that market, and build specifically for that gap.

At 81 Aljunied Road, the freehold “Business 1” plot had sat on the market for years before Abiel came in and built a nine-storey industrial building with designer interiors. It now commands about $8 psf a month in rent compared to the $3–5 psf that comparable properties in the area are asking.

Likewise, Abiel acquired its Geylang shophouses when the area drew comparatively little interest from institutional investors. Although 15 units is not a large collection for a medium-term rental property, at $2,300 to $2,700 a month per unit, the income at full occupancy would be an appealing start for its residential portfolio.

Geylang is still the kind of address that raises a few questions, but the neighbourhood has changed considerably over the past decade. Older residential blocks have given way to new condos, the late-night F&B scene has drawn a wider following, and more walkable streets are planned around Geylang Road under the Historic East Corridor initiative.

House 223 also sits closer to Kallang with a better proximity to city-fringe neighbourhoods. In a previous interview with Stacked, Li mentions that Abiel leads with the physical asset and works backwards to find its best use.

Whether the same model that has worked well for Abiel for its other shophouse and industrial properties can be successfully replicated in its new micro-residences will become clear after the project welcomes its first visitors in September.

## Chinese translation

> Translation model: openai_codex_cli

### House 223：芽笼店屋内月租从新币2,300元起的微型住宅

Abiel Property Investment Fund 将三栋受保育的芽笼店屋改造成 House 223，提供 15 套独立完整、面积 200 平方英尺的住宅，面向中期租赁，月租从新币2,300元至新币2,700元，计划于 2026 年 9 月开业。

新加坡房地产投资公司 ABIEL Property Investment Fund 公布计划，将三栋芽笼路店屋改造成独立完整的微型住宅。这家投资公司在新加坡收购和管理店屋及工业资产方面拥有稳健的业绩记录，而住宅资产也已在其关注范围内有一段时间了。

今年 6 月，Stacked 参观由 ABIEL 开发的新工业物业 81 Aljunied Road 时，该投资公司的创始人兼首席执行官 Maureen Li 分享说，他们也在推进一个新概念。当时，她将其形容为介于该建筑的管理式工作空间模式与共居之间。

她明确表示的一点是，Abiel 无意在市场上再增加一个缺乏差异化的共居产品。

本周，ABIEL 发布了其首个品牌住宅概念，将设于 223、225 和 227 Geylang Road 三栋相连的保育店屋内。该投资公司以新币1,868万元收购了这些物业。

上层楼面将被改造成 House 223：由 15 套完全独立完整的住宅组成。这些住宅横跨五层，总面积为 12,957 平方英尺。每套单位约 200 平方英尺，并配有自己的小厨房、浴室、洗衣机、工作区和睡眠区。

该项目预计于 2026 年 9 月开业，月租介于新币2,300元至新币2,700元。其目标客群是在新加坡需要三至 24 个月住宿的短至中期停留访客。

新加坡租赁规定让中期专业人士选择有限

新加坡对租赁物业有严格规定，旨在保护公民和永久居民的住房供应。因此，私人住宅物业要求最低租期为三个月，而组屋/HDB 单位要求最低租期为六个月。Airbnb 等平台上的短租并不被允许。

这为一个特定群体留下了住宿缺口：在新加坡停留超过几周、但少于一年或两年的专业人士。“市场上有很多长期租约住房选择，也有高端服务式公寓。但缺失的是介于两者之间的选择，”Li 说。

她解释说，一个被派驻新加坡九个月的人，通常最终会进入一个本来并非为他们设计的转租安排，而这个转租单位是一套本可由本地家庭租住的公寓。

另一方面，她说，House 223 是按照这类租户通常在新加坡停留的时间长度而设计，为他们提供符合需求的高品质住宿，同时不从市场上抽走住房供应。

部分目标客群包括参加医学专科培训的医生、项目顾问、被派来设立区域办公室的高管，或参加轮岗计划的毕业生。这些专业人士通常无法合理承担连续数月的酒店价格，而鉴于派驻并非永久性质，他们也不会在当地安顿到足以签下一份两年租约。

ABIEL 认为，House 223 以三至 24 个月的中期租赁填补了这一缺口。每套单位都家具齐全、可拎包入住，抵达后无需额外添置家具或开通水电等公用事业账户。

House 223 的公共空间有限

位于 223、225 和 227 Geylang Road 的店屋将保留现有的一楼和二楼租户，目前出租给餐厅以及娱乐和夜生活经营者。与此同时，House 223 占据其上方三层，这符合现行保育规则的精神：街面层繁忙且商业化，上层则更安静。

ABIEL 拥有内部团队，负责设计新的室内空间和新的外立面，并由项目建筑师和专业工程师处理更广泛的建筑工程。设计汲取三种美学：工业阁楼、世纪中期现代风格和日式极简主义。

访客可以期待温润的木质细节、炭灰色和森林绿调、石材表面以及外露钢材。ABIEL 并非用内置装置塞满每个角落，而是希望让 200 平方英尺的空间显得更有意图，而不是局促。

虽然每套单位都面积高效且完全私密，屋顶空间则开放并设计为促进互动。住宅内唯一的公共空间位于屋顶，住户可使用可食用厨房花园采摘自己的香草和蔬菜，也可使用户外烧烤区、长形公共餐桌、阅读角和吊床。

“我们建造屋顶并不仅仅是为了景观，”Li 说。“它是为了全天使用，例如早晨在花园旁喝咖啡，或是在晚上与刚认识的人一起烧烤”。

认识邻居和新朋友，是海外派驻人士通常面临的障碍之一，和适应新文化同样重要。屋顶是 Abiel 对此给出的答案：一个经过设计的空间，让社交在住户主动寻求时发生，而不是因为建筑布局让人不可避免地遇见他人。

House 223 面临新加坡灵活住宿市场的激烈竞争

新加坡的灵活住宿市场早已走过碎片化和萌芽阶段。如今，成熟业者主导着本地市场，例如 Coliwoo、The Assembly Place，以及 Cove 和 Hmlet 等中型业者。

虽然 Abiel 有意将 House 223 定位为不同于共居的产品，但目标租户画像和价格区间的重叠，必然会引发比较。

市场上成熟的共居运营商，如 Cove 和 Hmlet，提供月租新币1,000元至新币1,600元的带家具私人房间，并包含水电和 wifi。然而，厨房、洗衣房和客厅仍为共用。对于不介意共享这些空间的专业人士而言，其价格点远低于 House 223。

乍看之下，Figment 这个更高端的灵活住宿品牌，似乎是 House 223 最直接的比较对象。Figment 在新加坡运营着由 28 栋保育住宅店屋组成的组合，月租范围从新币2,200元至新币4,700元。它也瞄准类似的高管和创意专业人士群体。

但与 House 223 不同，每处 Figment 物业约容纳四至六名住户，所有人共享公共区域。Figment 的卖点明显偏向社群，提供私人餐饮活动和用于联合办公的会员俱乐部。住户拥有私人房间，通常配有套内浴室，但厨房和生活空间为共用。

Figment 以其物业的历史传承室内设计和建筑特色打造品牌，住户居住在真正的保育店屋内。这赋予了 Figment 在市场上的精品质感和吸引力。

值得注意的是，Figment 在芽笼也有一处物业，位于其价格区间的较低端。根据其网站，其 Geyland 物业——位于 17 Geylang Lor 24A——月租从每月新币1,900元起。

House 223 的剖面图显示其商业和住宅组成部分。来源：Abiel Property Investment Fund

根据我们可以从 House 223 剖面图中观察到的内容，住宅部分似乎只出现在保育店屋后方和上方建造的扩建部分，而不是在历史空间本身之内。保育部分仍将由商业租户占用。

价格表的另一端，则是 Ascott、Fraser Suites 和 Somerset 等成熟服务式公寓运营商。这些由酒店业支持的品牌提供完全独立完整、专业管理的交钥匙单位，位置通常更接近中央商业区或乌节路。单间公寓等房型通常从每月新币4,000元起，面积更大的单位价格则显著更高。但它们也面向企业搬迁配套。

House 223 的房价为每月新币2,300元至新币2,700元，几乎是入门级共居选择成本的两倍。从目前我们能看到的情况来看，它的差异化因素在于独立完整的单位：没有共用厨房、没有共用洗衣房，也没有与室友偶遇的机会。

同一套打法，不同的资产类别

总体而言，从我们的角度看，Abiel 在 House 223 的策略与其在 81 Aljunied Road 采取的方法高度相似：寻找被他人忽视的资产，识别该市场中服务不足的细分客群，并专门为这一缺口打造产品。

在 81 Aljunied Road，这块永久地契 “Business 1” 地块在 Abiel 进场并建造一栋配有设计师室内空间的九层工业建筑之前，已在市场上搁置多年。如今，其租金约为每月每平方英尺新币8元，而该区域可比物业的叫价为每月每平方英尺新币3至5元。

同样，Abiel 收购其芽笼店屋时，该区域相对较少受到机构投资者关注。虽然 15 套单位对于一处中期租赁物业而言并不算大规模组合，但按每套单位每月新币2,300元至新币2,700元计算，满租时的收入将为其住宅组合带来一个有吸引力的开端。

芽笼仍然是那种会引发一些疑问的地址，但这个社区在过去十年已发生显著变化。较旧的住宅楼已让位于新公寓，深夜餐饮场景吸引了更广泛的追随者，而根据 Historic East Corridor 倡议，芽笼路周边也规划了更多适合步行的街道。

House 223 的位置也更靠近加冷，与城市边缘社区的距离更近。在此前接受 Stacked 采访时，Li 提到 Abiel 会先从实体资产出发，再反向推导其最佳用途。

同样的模式此前已在 Abiel 的其他店屋和工业物业上运作良好，能否在其新的微型住宅中成功复制，将在项目于 9 月迎来首批访客后见分晓。