kopi-C with Centurion REIT CEO: Centurion’s human-centred approach to living accommodations

“If I’m sending my son somewhere,” says Tony Bin, CEO of Centurion Accommodation REIT (CAREIT), “I’d want him to be treated as well as the circumstances allow. Why should it be different for our residents?”

This philosophy now guides CAREIT’s approach to workers’ accommodation, building on the legacy of its sponsor, Centurion Corporation. 

While CAREIT was only listed on the Singapore Exchange in 25 September 2025, Bin has held roles across Centurion Group (comprising Centurion Properties, Centurion Corporation Ltd, and CAREIT). They have turned what others refer to as “dormitories” into what is now called “workers’ accommodation”.

This philosophy and approach is deliberate. Each property is branded, managed and programmed like a living community rather than an industrial facility. 

The model seeks to blend hospitality with social purpose, and it makes business logic too.

As of listing day, CAREIT’s portfolio is valued at about S$1.8 billion, spanning 14 assets and more than 26,000 beds.

At these accommodations when they first started, residents used to have access to health checks and language classes run in partnership with NGOs such as HealthServe, Methodist Welfare Services, Project Chulia Street and St Andrew’s Community Services for many years. Now, other NGOs like the Salvation Army and even NUS’s community club are involved. 

Today, CAREIT employs “resident life managers” to organise regular activities, even something as small as collecting surplus bread rolls nightly from generous bakeries for distribution.

“We've created social interaction,” Bin says. “These are all the little things we do that set us apart." 

At the same time, renewal rates exceed 85%, and roughly 60 per cent of their residents stay for more than five years. 

“You can say you know a lot of things, but in reality you rely on a good team,” he says. “It’s important to build trust and harness collective wisdom.”

A market built on resilience

Behind CAREIT’s positioning lies an asset class that has proved resilient. After all, CAREIT’s business is underpinned by simple supply and demand. 

In Singapore, there are about 450,000 work permit holders, but only 150,000 purpose-built beds available for them. The rest stay in other dormitories such as Temporary Occupation Licence Quarters, Factory Converted Dormitories and Quick Built dormitories.

“The ratio of migrant workers to beds is more than three to one,” Bin notes, “And so we believe strong demand will continue for a while.”

This shortage keeps occupancy high and rents steady. Unlike office or retail leases that renew every few years, worker-housing contracts are reviewed annually due to the high demand, giving CAREIT regular opportunities to adjust rents in line with the market. 

“There’s some upside every year,” Bin says. “Our demand is strong and renewal is continuous.”

In addition, CAREIT’s accommodation business also extends beyond Singapore. Through its portfolio of student housing in the UK and Australia, the company has built a second growth engine in markets where university enrolments and demand for purpose-built housing remain strong. These overseas assets provide diversification, but Singapore continues to anchor the business.

“Roughly 70 per cent of our cash flow is Sing-dollar based,” Bin explains. “Even for our foreign deals, we hedge currency and use interest-rate swaps so there’s certainty to the returns.”

This balance—steady domestic income paired with selective exposure to developed overseas markets—gives CAREIT both stability and room to grow. For investors, the formula is simply: essential housing, recurring demand, and predictable cash flow.

The journey to becoming a sector pioneer

Centurion Group’s path to this niche leadership has been anything but linear. The group’s controlling shareholders first turned to real estate in the late 2000s, and Bin was asked to join in 2007 to “kick-start real estate investments in Centurion Properties”. 

He recalls starting “from a very humble strata titled office space in Middle Road,” having left “a nice office in Fifth Avenue.”

Centurion Group’s first project, Kovan Residences, was launched amidst the global financial crisis. Soon after came its first workers’ accommodation in Toh Guan in 2008, a light-industrial area in Jurong East, Singapore. 

“When I visited the first workers accommodation, it was really a cultural experience,” he says. “The workers’ accommodation then was not what it is today. This was like 1G—what you see here now is 3G or 4G.”

The next milestone was with a project in Mandai, developed together with Lian Beng Group. The site combined industrial and workers accommodation elements—a way to spread risk ie developing a multi storey industrial building for strata sale, while securing steady long-term income.

In 2011, the company took a major step by carrying out a reverse takeover (RTO) of SM Summit, a listed company on the Singapore Exchange (SGX), which allowed it to inject its accommodation assets into a listed platform. 

To tie with the controlling shareholders, the company was renamed “Centurion Corporation Ltd”. The RTO laid strong foundation for expansion, further increasing its investments and strengthening its position in workers accommodation first in Singapore, then in Malaysia, and later in student accommodation in the United Kingdom, Australia, and United States. 

In recent years, the company has further ventured into China and Hong Kong.

Over time, what began as a handful of local projects for the company evolved into a global portfolio of more than 70,000 beds across multiple countries. This year, that portfolio reached another milestone with the listing of CAREIT on the Singapore Exchange.

Doing more of what works

For CEO Tony Bin, this most recent listing of CAREIT is a way to deepen Centurion Group’s strategy. 

In the near term, CAREIT is doubling down on what works well—managing purpose-built worker and student housing in stable, developed markets.  Its investment mandate has also been broaden to include other similar assets in the Living Sector such as Built To Rent, senior housing, and so on. 

About two-thirds of its current portfolio is based in Singapore, with the rest spread across the UK and Australia, providing a mix of steady local income and overseas growth.

Over the next few years, the company is focused on organic expansion, enhancing existing assets, refreshing leases, and carrying out asset enhancements in key properties such as Westlite Toh Guan and Westlite Mandai, which together will add more new beds. 

Bin also sees potential in asset enhancement initiatives in some of the assets within UK portfolio, exploring ways to improve yields and create more value for investors.

CAREIT hopes to play a larger role as a “platform for partnership”. 

“We want to leverage the goodwill and brand quality that have been built over the years,” Bin says. “Hopefully other PBWA owners can see us as a platform to monetise their assets and join us.”

As Bin puts it, the goal is simple: “To grow, but in a disciplined and sustainable way.”

Leadership in practice

“When I visited the first workers accommodation, it was really a cultural experience,” he says. “The workers’ accommodation then was not what it is today. This was like 1G—what you see here now is 3G or 4G.”

Bin’s management philosophy is pragmatic but unmistakably human-centered. Trained in estate management, he later moved through the financial industry in corporate banking and capital markets before returning to real estate, first into retail malls, real estate development and then into workers and student accommodation.

“After the first few years in the industry,” he says, “I realised real estate is not just nuts and bolts. There’s a software part.”

He is self-effacing about personal style—“I’m not used to talking about myself,” he admits—but clear about principles: trust, accountability, and compassion. 

“You can say you know a lot of things, but in reality you rely on a good team,” he says. “It’s important to build trust and harness collective wisdom.”

That ethos often manifests in small, personal interventions. He tells of a young man, once a competitive rugby player, who suffered a head injury and lost cognitive function but showed a gift for art. Recognising his talents, Bin decided to hire him to paint murals across the workers accommodations. 

To him, such gestures signal the right intent. 

“In a position of authority and influence, there are things I can do to transform the environment and the work that I do,” he says. “As we do well, we also do good.”

CAREIT’s brand stands for both performance and purpose. Its high occupancy and renewal rates reflect a well-run business, while its focus on resident welfare shows a deeper social commitment. 

Centurion Group’s approach is in line with national standards. 

“We, if I may say, initiated certain standards and ways of how these assets are run. At the same time, the government also plays a strong leader role, making the final decision on what it expects of players to have. We are glad there is a convergence. Though Covid was a rather unfortunate period, yet, the silver lining was that it helped reshaped standards for foreign workers accommodation,” Bin says. 

Read also: Centurion Accommodation REIT - Visible growth and attractive dividend yield

About Centurion Accommodation REIT 

Centurion Accommodation REIT is Singapore’s first pure-play purpose-built living accommodation real estate investment trust (REIT), with a portfolio that provides exposure to Singapore’s purpose-built workers’ accommodation (PBWA) sector, as well as the purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) markets in the UK and Australia. 

The REIT has an initial portfolio of 14 assets—five PBWA assets in Singapore, eight PBSA assets in United Kingdom, and one PBSA in Australia—with an aggregate appraised value of S$1.84 billion. With the acquisition of EPIISOD Macquarie Park, a PSBA asset located in Sydney Australia, the Enlarged Portfolio - the Initial Portfolio and EPIISOD Macquarie Park - will comprise 15 assets valued at approximately S$2.12 billion. 

Centurion Asset Management Pte. Ltd. is the manager of Centurion Accommodation REIT, and a wholly owned subsidiary of its Sponsor, Centurion Corporation Limited.

About kopi-C: the Company brew

kopi-C is a regular column by SGX Research in collaboration with Beansprout, a MAS-licensed investment advisory platform, that features C-level executives of leading companies listed on SGX. These interviews are profiles of senior management aimed at helping investors better understand the individuals who run these corporations.