New Singtel headquarters to feature 20,000 sq m of retail and lifestyle space
Set to be completed in 2028, the new building at its Exeter Road site will feature a sheltered arcade, the biggest elevated urban park in Singapore and a pet-friendly area.
The S$3 billion (US$2.3 billion) redevelopment will comprise two 20-storey towers with a total gross floor area of more than 110,000 sq m.
The first few floors will be open to the public with amenities including a gym, auditorium, medical centre, eateries and retail outlets.
Meanwhile, 80 per cent of the space will be dedicated to Grade A offices - the highest quality of office space available.
Singtel is the project's co-developer and anchor tenant, occupying 30 per cent of the space. Its new flagship store will also be situated there.
An underground walkway will link Devonshire Road to Killiney Road and Exeter Road.
Minister for National Development Chee Hong Tat said on Tuesday (Jul 8) that the redevelopment of the Comcentre is expected to invigorate the surrounding area and provide more amenities.
'The revitalised Comcentre will serve as a vibrant community hub with new public spaces and improved connectivity, bringing people from all walks of life together, supporting local businesses,' he said during a groundbreaking event.
Singtel Group CEO Yuen Kuan Moon said the centre integrates 5G+ network slicing technology and smart building infrastructure.
'(This creates) a place … for businesses to use the latest technologies to develop new products and solutions and thrive,' he added. 'Overall, it will be a state-of-the-art technology building for the future.'
GREEN BUILDING
Singtel's Comcentre started operations as the telco's headquarters in 1979, and its redevelopment was announced in 2022.
A joint venture between Singtel and Australian developer Lendlease, the new Comcentre is set to be Singapore's first carbon-neutral commercial development.
Every phase, from design to construction to day-to-day operations, is targeted at reducing carbon emissions.
The project aims to achieve a 70 per cent improvement in energy efficiency compared to its 2005 baselines.
It will also generate 1,000 megawatt-hours of renewable energy on-site annually from green technologies such as solar panels.
Lush greenery will feature on the ground floor, at an open terrace on the fourth floor as well as the rooftop.
'As we work towards realising Singapore's vision for more ambitious sustainability standards in the built environment, I hope the Comcentre can serve as a shining example of how commercial success and environmental sustainability can go hand-in-hand,' said Mr Chee.
The centre is also on track to be the first in Asia to achieve three major green-building certifications.
Mr Tony Lombardo, Lendlease Group's CEO and managing director, said that 90 per cent of material from the demolished building will be recycled.
He said the project 'not only redefines the workplace, but also sets a new benchmark for sustainable and connected living in Singapore and beyond.'
Building and Construction Authority CEO Kelvin Wong hailed the project as a milestone on the sustainability front.
'In the Singapore green building master plan, we have goals for 80 per cent of buildings to achieve super low energy as well as 80 per cent (improvement in) energy efficiency by 2030,' he said.
'This project helps us achieve new steps and progress towards those goals.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CNA
4 hours ago
- CNA
I made an investment mistake. How do I recover from it?
Have you ever made an investing mistake, one that you really regretted? One of my earliest and most painful investing lessons was when I bought into SingPost in 2015. I thought the company had solid fundamentals and growth potential, based on what my broker told me. He urged me to buy, saying it was such a no-brainer move that he had already persuaded his parents to invest in it as well. At around S$2 (US$1.55) a share, he made it sound like a steal. But shortly afterwards, the stock kept sliding. Today, it's worth around S$0.60, which is a staggering 70 per cent loss from when I first bought into it. Maybe you've been in the same boat as me. Perhaps you didn't act decisively enough in the recent market crash, and you're kicking yourself now when you see stocks fly and the indexes hitting new all-time highs. Or maybe you bought into a stock that tanked overnight or went all-in on a cryptocurrency project that collapsed overnight. Now you're staring at the red numbers in your portfolio, wondering what went wrong and asking yourself: "How do I bounce back from this?" LEARNING FROM INVESTMENT LOSSES The sinking feeling of sadness, frustration and despair when you lose money can be traumatising, but here's the truth you need to hear: no investor, no matter how experienced, has a 100 per cent win rate anyway. We've all made mistakes. When it comes to investing, those mistakes can be particularly painful, not just because it is our money on the line. Making the wrong investment choices can also hurt our confidence and make us question our beliefs in our own decision-making. Just ask the 700 investors who bought into a bogus cryptocurrency mining investment here, or the 947 investors who fell for the fraudulent nickel investment scheme – including venture capitalists and private bankers. But what matters from here is not harping on the mistake; instead, it is what you do next. With my SingPost experience, I took great pains to ask myself: "What is the lesson to be learnt here?" Reflecting deeply on this question, I realised that I had put too much trust in "stock tips" from professionals and failed to do my own in-depth research and analysis before I made a decision. I learnt that I had to pay more attention to competitors in the same space, because SingPost clearly was no match for them. I also realised that just because someone is licensed as a professional, doesn't mean that they can't get it wrong sometimes. The lessons I learnt from this mistake, as well as others I've made over the years, have helped me to become a better investor over time. STOP LIVING IN THE PAST In the aftermath of an investment gone wrong, it's tempting to slip into a downward spiral of regret and beat ourselves up for losing money. In trying to make sense of things, we can end up obsessing over all the "what ifs". We think over and over: "Why did I trust that advice? Why didn't I exit sooner? How could I be so foolish?" But hindsight is always 20-20. There's no point in always looking in the rear view mirror – we have to focus on the road ahead in order to keep moving forward. Our success will depend on our ability to invest for the future, while adapting and charting a new course of action whenever a failure occurs. That's why the far more productive approach is to extract the lessons from the losses. What does it reveal about ourselves as investors? Does it reveal biases and assumptions we didn't know we had, for instance? Does it show any gaps in our thinking and reasoning? In the wake of an investing mistake, here are some questions I now focus on: Was this a failure in due diligence? Did I blindly follow someone else's advice without doing my own homework? Was this something I could have predicted ahead of time, with the knowledge and information I had? There are some investment losses that can only be attributed to bad luck or a black swan event that no one can predict. For these scenarios, there is no point in beating yourself up over it. But when the loss occurred because of a gap in our process, then the onus is on us to learn to correct it. YOU ONLY NEED A FEW BIG WINNERS Remember: no one has a perfect track record in investing. Not American hedge fund manager Ray Dalio. Not investment fund founder Cathie Wood. Not even Warren Buffett. The investing legend has famously admitted to some big blunders, such as buying Dexter Shoe Company with Berkshire Hathaway shares, or losing hundreds of millions from holding onto computer giant IBM for too long, believing it would be able to reinvent itself. Just like us, the greatest investors in the world have taken hits to their portfolio. But what sets them apart is their ability to learn, adapt and stay in the game. Here's a secret: what matters isn't avoiding mistakes entirely but ensuring that your winners more than make up for your losers. Even if a few of our investing positions go to zero, we still have other positions in our portfolio. And the gains from these other counters can often overshadow the losses incurred by the rest. This was my own experience, as I watched stocks I own – like iFast, DBS and Meta – grow into multi-baggers over time. These multi-baggers are investments that multiply in value, delivering returns of two times, five times, or even 10 times our original capital. They're the outliers in our portfolio that can more than make up for past mistakes, and can significantly accelerate our wealth when held with conviction over the long term. I've owned iFast since it was S$1 a share, and DBS at under S$14. Today, they've increased in value by more than 800 per cent and 300 per cent respectively – and are still growing as we speak. These alone more than make up for what I lost with SingPost and other mistakes. STAY IN THE GAME This is the beauty of investing: your downside is capped, but your upside knows no bounds. If you invest S$1,000 in a company and it fails, you lose S$1,000. But if you invest S$1,000 in the next Apple, Nvidia or Tesla while it is still undervalued – something with the potential to grow five or 10 times bigger over time – that single investment can not only cover multiple losing counters but also put you ahead. That's why I choose to focus on fundamentally strong companies, buying into them when the market is pessimistic or irrational. And I don't lose sight of this even when luck turns against me, or when I get things wrong sometimes. At the end of the day, what matters is your entire investment portfolio rather than obsessing over the outcome of each individual position. So as Idina Menzel sings: "Let it go". Let your losers go, but not the lessons. Double down on your research. Look for opportunities. And keep your emotions in check. Investing isn't about getting it right every single time. It is about staying in the game, learning as you go, and making better and better plays as you grow. Not every loss is our fault. But if we don't take every opportunity to learn, we'll have no one to blame but ourselves.
Independent Singapore
5 hours ago
- Independent Singapore
‘6,060 Malaysians have given up their citizenship for Singapore so far in 2025' — Home Minister says, and that could be just the beginning…
MALAYSIA: The causeway exodus isn't slowing down. In fact, it's accelerating — and not just in weekend grocery runs, hawker food indulgence or petrol pit stops. According to the New Straits Times (NST), over 6,000 Malaysians have already packed up their bags and given up their blue passports in the first six months of this year, swapping them for Singapore's red one counterpart. Citing Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail's written reply in Parliament, the NST reported that '6,060 people had done so as of June 30.' All have relinquished their Malaysian citizenship to take up Singapore citizenship instead. If that's a hefty number, it's indeed a lot, but it could also be just a warm-up taste of what could be a record-setting year to come. In 2024, a record-shattering 16,930 Malaysians officially switched allegiances to the Little Red Dot, blowing past the 11,500 figure in 2023. The figures show a migration trend that's anything but steady. The NST noted that 2022 saw 5,623 citizenship surrenders — slightly fewer than 7,956 in 2021 — before numbers skyrocketed during the post-pandemic period. The pre-COVID-19 peak came in 2019 with 13,362 cases, before tumbling to 5,591 in 2020 during the border-closure years. Saifuddin's written parliamentary reply, quoted by the NST , also took a walk down the historical and statistical memory lane: 'Earlier years saw 7,394 cases in 2015, 8,654 in 2016, 7,583 in 2017, and 7,665 in 2018.' The parliamentary question responded to by Saifuddin was posed by Datuk Seri Takiyuddin Hassan (PN–Kota Baru), who asked for a breakdown of Malaysians applying for Singapore citizenship from 2015 to 2025, essentially mapping a decade-long migration trend. Why the shift to the Little Red Dot? While the statistics speak for themselves, they also spark the same perennial debate: Why are so many Malaysians giving up their citizenship for Singapore? The statistics leave plenty of room for speculation. Singapore's strong currency (S$1 = RM3.50), higher salaries, and perceived career stability create an irresistible magnetic pull. In addition, the Little Red Dot's passport, among the world's most powerful, also adds to the pull's influence. For some, it's also about education opportunities, or securing a better future for their children or families. For others, it's a calculated career move, even if it means a bittersweet goodbye, a farewell to their home soil. See also Man caught urinating in HDB corridor says it was an "emergency" If the first half of 2025 is any indication, Malaysia could be on track to break last year's record. The only question is whether it's cause for concern as an economic red flag, a reflection of global mobility, or something to celebrate, or just another chapter in the Malaysia–Singapore migration history — that's a debate likely to continue well beyond the causeway.
Independent Singapore
11 hours ago
- Independent Singapore
Maid who endured poor working conditions says no to contract renewal after employer refused pay raise, denied vacation leave, and changed rest days
SINGAPORE: Fed up with her poor working conditions and stagnant pay, a domestic helper shared on social media that she's decided not to renew her contract with her employers. In an anonymous post on the Direct Hire Transfer Singapore Maid/Domestic Helper Facebook group, she explained that throughout her two years of employment, she had to pay for all her personal necessities, including toiletries such as shampoo, shower gel, and toothpaste, using her own money. Adding to her challenges, the helper said she often had to buy her own food, particularly fruits, fish, and vegetables, as the family generally provided only one proper meal per day, which was dinner. Beyond the lack of support for basic needs, the helper said that the extensive level of surveillance in the household made her feel deeply uncomfortable and intruded upon. According to her, the employer had installed '10 CCTV cameras' throughout the home, including one in her bedroom, and placed a tracker on her house key that was connected to their mobile phones. The final breaking point, however, came when her employer recently informed her that if she chose to continue working for them, she would not be given a pay raise, would be denied a one-month vacation leave (which she had requested), and that her off days would be changed. 'My day off, they said they would allow me to have two days off a month, but only on weekdays, not on weekends, which I don't like,' she wrote. 'Like, hello, I will go out alone, so it feels lonely because my friends' day off is only on Sundays. My previous contract gave me one day off a month, and it was on a Sunday, but then it suddenly changed.' 'I hope you find an employer who values and respects you as a person.' Her story drew support from other domestic workers online, many of whom said they could relate to her experience. Some encouraged her to look for an employer who would treat her with more respect and care. 'You're right to prioritise your own needs and well-being. It doesn't sound like your employer was treating you with the respect and care that you deserve,' one wrote. 'You're taking a big step by standing up for yourself and choosing to look for a new opportunity. I hope you find an employer who values and respects you as a person. You deserve it!' 'Good decision, sister..a lot of employers here [are like that] actually,' another commented. 'I hope you feel better after sharing your feelings. Since you already made up your mind not to renew, then no need to dwell too much on it. Let go and move on,' a third added. Are employers obligated to give their helpers a pay raise? Employers are not legally required to increase their helpers' wages. However, the Ministry of Manpower encourages employers to do so as a way to recognise and reward their helpers' good performance and dedication. MOM also recommends offering a 'contract gratuity,' which is a bonus paid at the end of the contract, to motivate helpers to maintain or improve their work. Read also: Maid asks if she was wrong to request S$10k loan in exchange for renewing contract
