The furnished-apartment platform quietly rewiring corporate housing across Asia.
MetroResidences curates furnished serviced apartments and monthly rentals for people who need to live in a city for a while - not a night, and not forever.
Founded in Singapore in 2014 by James Chua and Lester Kang, the company sits in the gap between a hotel and a bare apartment lease. It selects apartments by quality, location, budget and size, then layers on the services that make a place livable from day one: weekly housekeeping, maintenance, front-desk support and optional add-ons.
The short version
A business traveller posted to Singapore, Tokyo or Sydney books a professionally managed apartment near their office. A property owner lists a unit and earns more than a traditional agency would deliver. MetroResidences runs the matchmaking, the marketing and much of the operations in between.
Minimum stays typically start around three months, with flexible monthly options for relocating professionals and expats.
Corporate mobility is a logistics headache dressed up as a real-estate problem. Companies deploy staff on multi-month projects; expats arrive with two suitcases and no idea where to sleep. Hotels are expensive and impersonal over long stays. Peer-to-peer listings are a gamble on a stranger and rarely come with reliable service.
MetroResidences removes the friction: vetted apartments, transparent terms, and real support behind the booking. Its customers are multinational companies deploying staff, newly arrived expatriates, and urban professionals who want a home that works on night one.
Over 500 to 800 corporate clients - including names reported as Samsung and National Australia Bank - and more than 115,000 room nights booked to date.
Fully furnished apartments for stays under a year, with front-desk and maintenance support, weekly housekeeping and add-on services. Minimum stays around three months.
Flexible month-to-month furnished rentals for business travellers and relocating professionals across Asia-Pacific cities.
Long-term leases launched across 280+ buildings in Singapore and Tokyo, targeting expats and local residents after business travel slowed.
Third-party management and marketing for property owners, who reportedly earn an estimated 30-40% more revenue than through a traditional letting agency.
MetroResidences runs a two-sided marketplace layered with a managed-operator model. It matches property owners with corporate and individual tenants seeking month-plus stays, earning roughly 10-25% commission on bookings with no listing fees, and sells paid services on top - housekeeping, maintenance, furnishing.
Crucially, both sides can win at once: owners earn more than a standard agency delivers, while tenants get a ready-to-live home. When a marketplace pays off for buyer and seller together, it doesn't need to shout.
Where the model creates value
Figures are approximate, drawn from public reporting; illustrative, not audited.
Early press dubbed MetroResidences the "Airbnb for business travel." The founders leaned the other way - toward professional management rather than peer-to-peer chaos. The difference shows up in the parts you can't screenshot: the housekeeping schedule, the maintenance response, the front desk that answers, the apartment that's genuinely near your office.
It also curates rather than aggregates. Instead of dumping every available unit online, it edits - selecting apartments by quality, location, budget and size. In a market drowning in options, the edit is the product.
Where it fits in the market
MetroResidences occupies the middle ground between traditional serviced-residence operators (think Ascott / Citadines) and short-term listing platforms. Proptech peers include Rentberry, Discover ASR and Adobha, alongside conventional corporate-housing agencies.
| Round | Amount | Date | Lead Investors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seed | ~US$0.7M | Jan 2016 | 500 Durians (500 Global) |
| Series A | S$4M (~US$2.8M) | Apr 2017 | Rakuten Ventures / Rakuten Capital |
Total raised is roughly US$3.52 million. Rakuten's 2017 investment was framed as much for market access as for capital - a route into Japan and other Asian cities. "With this partnership, we hope to gain faster market access into the Asian cities where we want to scale," said James Chua at the time.
James Chua and Lester Kang launch the platform to match corporate tenants with furnished serviced apartments.
Early capital from 500 Global's regional fund grows the Singapore inventory.
Over 1,000 apartments rolled out for longer leases, broadening beyond short corporate stays.
Investment funds regional expansion into Japan and Hong Kong.
Operations span Singapore, Japan, Australia and Hong Kong, serving 800+ corporate clients.
Launches Residential Rentals across Singapore and Tokyo for expats and local residents amid a business-travel slump.
Sets strategy and leads the company's regional expansion. Public spokesperson for its funding and growth, based in Singapore.
Runs operations for the platform, focused on the service and property-management engine that keeps apartments livable at scale.