Capitol Kempinski Hotel – the missing link in place

By Timothy Tay

/ EdgeProp |

March 8, 2019 1:00 PM SGT

Guests at Capitol Kempinski Hotel in Singapore will instantly recognise the luxury hotel’s brand ambassador, “the Lady in Red”, who ensures that hotel guests will have a memorable stay.

The 157-room luxury hotel, soft-launched in October last year, was the missing piece to complete Capitol Singapore’s integrated development offering. The integrated project includes the historical Capitol Theatre, the 39-unit Eden Residences Capitol and a four-level retail podium called Capitol Piazza, which is linked directly to the City Hall Interchange MRT Station in the basement level.

The opening of the Capitol Kempinski Hotel Singapore was the missing piece to complete Capitol Singapore’s integrated development offering (Picture: Perennial Real Estate Holdings)

After operating for six months, Capitol Kempinski Hotel has achieved an average occupancy rate of about 50%, with average daily room rates of around $500 a night, says DBS Research in its Feb 14 report on Perennial Real Estate Holdings, which fully owns the property.

The historical Stamford House has the 624 sq ft Stamford Suite, one of four suite room types available at Capitol Kempinski Hotel (picture: Samuel Isaac Chua/The Edge Singapore)

Perennial is in the middle of refreshing the retail offerings in the retail mall. The repositioning exercise of Capitol Piazza is still ongoing, with the opening of new retail F&B concepts, such as new restaurant 15 Stamford by Alvin Leung by the eponymous Michelin-starred chef. Two Kempinski F&B concepts, German delicatessen Berthold Delikatessen and Berlin urban lifestyle-inspired restaurant and bar Freida, are also located within the hotel.

Other new tenants at the Piazza include Taiwanese bubble tea retailer Tiger Sugar’s first outlet in Singapore, as well as optical store 999.9 and boutique jeweller SJC.

Global workspace provider IWG is also opening the Asian flagship location of its premium workspace brand No18, at a 20,600 sq ft space on the second level of Capitol Piazza. It is scheduled to be operational in September.

The bar at Capitol Kempinski Hotel (Samuel Isaac Chua)

At its FY2018 results briefing on Feb 13, Pua Seck Guan, CEO of Perennial Real Estate Holdings, estimated that the repositioning exercise will be completed by mid-2019.

According to DBS Research's Feb 14 report, Perennial is “on the right track”. It is expected to achieve a yield of 4% to 5%, “comparable to the market” over the next couple of years, given the changes and refurbishments taking place in recent months.

Perennial Real Estate Holdings has just relaunched Eden Residences. To date, 16 units have been sold at an average price of $3,000 psf, says the DBS Research report.

Eden Residences was first launched in October 2012, and was completed in 2015. It is a 10-storey, newly built luxury project with a mix of three- and four-bedroom apartments sized from 2,100 to 3,380 sq ft. There are also two garden villas of 2,723 to 3,520 sq ft and penthouses from 4,080 to 6,470 sq ft.

Eden Residences Capitol is the 39-unit, luxury residential component of the Capitol Singapore (Perennial)

The last recorded transaction at Eden Residences was for a 3,348 sq ft, four-bedroom unit on the ninth floor. It fetched $10.26 million ($3,065 psf) in December 2015.

Today, four-bedroom units are priced from $10.2 million, while three-bedroom-plus-study units are priced from $8.5 million.

Dominic Lee, head of PropNex Realty's luxury team, says that completed luxury developments like Eden Residences tend to appeal to Chinese property hunters today. “They appreciate new, completed developments where they can choose to move into immediately or to invest in for the long term,” he observes.

This was the case at South Beach Residences, another 99-year leasehold luxury condo located above JW Marriott Hotel, which was launched last September. It has sold about 55 units to date. A lot of the buyers were said to be foreigners, particularly Chinese, with some buying multiple units.

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