Services
A value proposition for
assisted living
Perspective on the real problem
Singapore’s assisted-living market is divided between subsidised and premium options, leaving a gap for the middle-income majority. A privately backed, non-profit venture aimed to prove market viability, shift perspectives on aged care, and support regulatory updates. The first priority was understanding what “assisted living” means to middle-income residents and stakeholders, since their values would drive adoption and commercial viability.
Clarity by working through options
To replace assumptions with evidence, the team conducted ethnographic research and qualitative measures of residents’ beliefs, values, and decision drivers that influence their choices. These insights enabled stakeholders to evaluate options, future resident expectations, care models, day-to-day operations, funding strategies, and policy implications against a coherent value proposition that served as True North. Alignment of residents, operators, funders, and regulators around a common understanding.
Confidence to decide and act
Stakeholders saw that older adults can clearly express their needs when engaged in the right way, countering prescriptive care norms. A pivotal insight was that future residents consistently prioritised purpose and meaning in life above functional care or social programming. This insight clarified what must be true for adoption and pricing, guided service and operating design, and provided a defensible basis for regulatory discussion. Decisions would be anchored in how residents actually choose to live rather than in assumptions about how they should live.