CapitaLand Ascott Trust Selling Singapore Riverside Hotel to Mainland Buyer for $282M

CapitaLand Ascott Trust has agreed to sell a 336-key hotel in Singapore’s Robertson Quay for S$360 million ($282 million), as Asia Pacific’s largest lodging REIT continues to recycle capital into higher-yielding assets and portfolio upgrades.

CLAS is divesting The Robertson House by The Crest Collection at a 4 percent premium to book value and an exit EBITDA yield of 2.3 percent, with completion of the deal expected in the third quarter of 2026, the SGX-listed trust’s managers said Friday in a release.

“The divestment of The Robertson House by The Crest Collection at an attractive price of close to S$1.1 million per key underscores CLAS’s disciplined approach to portfolio reconstitution,” said Serena Teo, chief executive of the managers, which are owned by Temasek-controlled CapitaLand Investment.

The buyer of the 1 Unity Street property, a first-time investor in Singapore commercial real estate, is understood to be a mainland Chinese individual with ties to the shipping industry, according to market sources who spoke to Mingtiandi. A CapitaLand representative said the group was unable to disclose information on the buyer.

Robertson Refresh

CLAS expects to receive net proceeds of S$341.7 million from the disposal and recognise a net gain of S$38.1 million. The asset had been valued by Colliers at S$346 million as of the end of 2025.

Situated at the southeast corner of Unity Street and Merbau Road, The Robertson House spans 11,056 square metres (119,006 square feet) of gross floor area within the riverside district of Robertson Quay. The 99-year leasehold property has a lease commencing from 27 November 2006, leaving an unexpired term of about 79 years.

Formerly known as Riverside Hotel Robertson Quay, the asset was rebranded and unveiled as The Robertson House by The Crest Collection in October 2023, with CLAS completing a renovation of the property the following year.

Under the sale and purchase agreement, the buyer is to pay a S$14.4 million deposit upon signing, after having paid S$3.6 million under an earlier expression of interest, with CLAS to deliver vacant possession of the hotel on completion.

After the disposal, CLAS will own four lodging assets in Singapore: Ascott Orchard Singapore, Lyf One-North Singapore, Lyf Funan Singapore and Somerset Clarke Quay Singapore. The 192-unit Somerset Clarke Quay, a serviced residence with a hotel licence, is under redevelopment as part of the Canninghill Piers complex and is on track for completion around the end of 2026.

The Canninghill Piers project, formerly Somerset Liang Court Singapore, is expected to begin contributing income from early 2027, with the asset offering direct connectivity to Fort Canning MRT station and frontages facing the Singapore River and Fort Canning Hill.

CLAS predecessor Ascott Residence Trust had retained part of the former Somerset Liang Court Singapore for redevelopment after selling 15,170 square metres of the serviced apartment building to a CapitaLand-CDL joint venture in 2019.

Japan Additions

The Robertson House divestment comes three months after CLAS acquired three rental residential assets in Greater Tokyo from Singapore’s Patience Capital Group for JPY 4.6 billion ($30 million), adding 233 apartments in Kanagawa prefecture.

That acquisition followed the REIT’s January 2025 purchase of two hotels in Tokyo and Kanazawa for JPY 21 billion and its August 2025 buy of three rental housing properties in Osaka and Kyoto for JPY 4 billion.

CLAS also completed the JPY 25 billion sale of Citadines Central Shinjuku Tokyo in October 2025 at a 100 percent premium to book value, with the trust saying proceeds would be redeployed into debt repayment, asset enhancements and higher-yielding acquisitions.

The REIT had S$8.9 billion in total assets as of 31 March, with 106 properties and more than 19,000 units across 45 cities in 16 countries, while Asia Pacific accounted for 56 percent of total assets. The Singapore portfolio posted a 2 percent year-on-year increase in revenue per available unit in the first quarter, driven by higher occupancy, according to the managers.

CLAS is pursuing a medium-term allocation of 25 to 30 percent of portfolio value in rental housing and student accommodation, with serviced residences and hotels making up the remaining 70 to 75 percent.

The trust also has four assets undergoing enhancement in 2026 and 2027 — Citadines Place d’Italie Paris, The Cavendish London, Sotetsu Grand Fresa Osaka-Namba and Sheraton Tribeca New York Hotel — as it looks to boost values and support future income growth.