Singapore’s The Assembly Place Leaps 26% in Trading Debut as Rental Residential Heats Up

Shares of The Assembly Place made a strong trading debut Friday on the Singapore Exchange’s Catalist board, leaping 26.1 percent to close at S$0.29 ($0.23).

The co-living operator’s stock began trading at 9am under the symbol TAP and soared 34.8 percent above its initial public offering price of S$0.23 before easing later in the session. The company founded by managing director and CEO Eugene Lim became the third rental residential listing on an SGX board in recent months, following Centurion Accommodation REIT in September and LHN Group’s Coliwoo in November.

TAP uses an asset-light model to manage and operate 3,422 keys across 100 property assets in Singapore. The living sectors it serves include residential co-living, hotels, serviced apartments, student housing, foreign healthcare professionals’ accommodation and inter-generational living.

“We are very encouraged by TAP’s robust share performance on our trading debut, and believe it reflects the trust and confidence our investors have in TAP and our vision for the future of community living,” Lim said in a release. “As a publicly listed company, we will build on this momentum by continuing to innovate and execute strategies that deliver value to our shareholders and the communities we serve.”

Malaysia Expansion on TAP

The Assembly Place serves customers ranging from young professionals and expatriates to tertiary and upper-primary and secondary school students, foreign healthcare professionals and seniors. Its brands include TAP, Campus by the Assembly Place, Stay by the Assembly Place, Social by The Assembly Place and Commune managed by TSTAP. 

While the current portfolio is Singapore-based, TAP expects to expand into Malaysia in 2026 and has secured a site in Kuala Lumpur’s Bangsar suburb, with plans to operate the property as a hotel with community living elements.

TAP’s cornerstone investors in the IPO, which raised net proceeds of S$10.8 million, included local firms Apricot Capital, Asdew Acquisitions and Cache Capital. Lim previously detailed the company’s management philosophy during a panel discussion at Mingtiandi’s Singapore Forum in 2024.

“Because we are not asset-heavy, keeping operation costs down is very important for the business and also from the asset owner point of view,” Lim said then. “So running a low-cost operation is important — equally important as running a very efficient, operational team. So with all this in place … even if revenue does not go up, as costs go up, we try our best to maintain costs at a very efficient level so that our IRR return is met.”

Oxley Origins

Before founding The Assembly Place in 2019, Lim was director of marketing and sales at SGX-listed developer Oxley Holdings, overseeing the launch of more than 10 projects.

In 2024, TAP raised S$5.3 million (then $3.9 million) from a pre-Series A funding exercise anchored by Apricot Capital, as it sought to expand its portfolio from a then-current 1,800 keys.

In addition to Apricot, investors in the pre-Series A round included Cache Capital, owned by Loi Pok Yen; KM7 Capital, managed by directors Kelvin and Melvin Ng; and Darrell Lim, director at Bright Point Capital.

TAP had also raised S$5.6 million from a 2021 seed funding round led by chairman Eric Low, who is also executive director and deputy CEO of Oxley Holdings.