A new offering of hotel branded residences with Starwood’s Sheraton brand has come into the Phuket real estate market.
With 116 one and two bedroom units, sized between 53 to 124 square meters, the pricing point starts at THB8.9 million.
Guaranteed yields are reportedly on offer at 5-7%.
Part of the Sheraton Grand Bay Resort, the project is in Ao Po, on the islands east coast.
The developer is Thailand’s Apex Group, with CBRE leading sales.
While the general state of the island’s property market remains challenging, prime branded units such as MontAzure Twinpalms Residences is nearing the 50% sales level.
For the moment, ocean views or oceanfront real estate and small sized investment grade seems to be holding most of the market traction.
One of Southeast Asia’s leading property personalities John Birt has passed away.
Birt was best known for his extended time in Koh Samui where he led the real estate firm SVH (Samui Villas & Homes).
For more than a decade I often called in on John when visiting the island and never tired of his views on the market and rich historical context.
He is best remembered as one of those legendary expatriates who came East and never left.
A graduate of the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst in the UK, he served in the Gurkha Brigade for over a dozen years in India, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Nepal amongst other postings.
In the 1980’s he took to property and joined what was Richard Ellis International Property (now CBRE) and in 1988 came to Thailand and formed the Bangkok office of First Pacific Davies.
From 1996 onward he started his own firm and advised a number of pioneering developments in Koh Samui. From 2001 onwards he headed up SVH and become and well known authority on island property.
John was a throwback to an earlier age and can best be described as an Old World gentleman with a great sense of New World storytelling and keen personality.
His cremation will take place on Sunday May 29th in Koh Samui at the Bophut Tha Ram Wat. For more details contact Khun Pai by email at [email protected]
C9 Hotelworks, Horwath HTL and Mayer Brown JSM are delighted to invite you to a private “by invitation only” seminar focusing on investment in the hospitality & leisure sector in Vietnam. The Vietnam market is seeing a recent rebound and the hospitality & leisure sector is particularly active amongst private equity investors. There have also been recent changes in the law on foreign investment into Vietnam.
Our seminar will cover:
- Hotel market conditions including outlook and opportunities
- Emerging opportunities in hotel branded residences, mixed use developments and yield based leisure and urban real estate offerings
- Update on foreign investment conditions and cross-border M&A issues – regulatory, legal and tax
Date & Time
Monday, 23 May 2016
4:00 p.m. Registration
4:30 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. Seminar
6:00 p.m. onwards Cocktail
The seminar is free of charge; however, due to limited seating, registration is available on a first-come, first-served basis. It will be held at the Marina Ochard Hotel in Singapore.
To RSVP and for any enquiries, please contact Andalib Karim:
[email protected] | +65 6327 0253
Local government officials have hit a series of residential villa and condo properties which have been operating without hotel licenses in the Thai coastal area of Pranburi.
According to business operators the officials are cracking down on illegal hotel accommodation properties.
Pranburi is located just south of Hua Hin in Prachuap Khiri Khan Province and has numerous resort residential properties which operate rental operations.
Currently across Thailand travel industry groups such as THA (Thai Hotels Association) are becoming increasingly vocal about the issue of illegal hotels who are becoming predatory to the sector.
In Phuket, condominium hotels and villa projects are selling properties on a widespread basis with guaranteed returns despite not complying with Thailand’s Hotel Act.
It’s expected that the island’s residential sector will facing increasing pressure from both the national and provincial government in the near future over licensing and tax issues.
One of Phuket’s largest integrated resorts, the West Sands Mai Khao has been put into the transaction market for sale.
The property includes a 575-key resort international water park, has a total area of 113 rai including a land bank for further development.
Foreign ownership of a 100% threshold is available through the Thai BOI (Board of Investment) program.
Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels are brokering the project on an exclusive basis.
Phuket International Academy which is part of the Thanyapura complex will join the United World College (UWC) program as of August this year.
The UWC global network now has 15 schools and was founded in the United Kingdom in 1962.
PIA Chief Executive Julian Whiteley previously headed UWC in Southeast Asia. An IB curriculum will be followed by the school.
International educational offerings on the island are continuing to evolve and a critical mass of expanded and new offerings are on the horizon.
Looking at the student numbers local Thai’s and a growing number from Bangkok are the largest source of enrollment at the schools.
Global serviced office provider Regus has branded a new offering with Royal Phuket Marina for an island facility.
On offer will be 37 offices and 103 co-working spaces, with two meetings rooms and a Regus Business Center as a hub.
Regus offer over 3,000 locations in 900 cities and destinations.
If you think international hotel groups are not closely watching the non-traditional accommodation market such as condo and villa products, think again.
News has come out that French giant ACCOR has taken significant stakes in two online holiday rental entities.
According to Hotels Magazine online ACCOR has acquired shareholding in Squarebreak and the Oasis Collections.
The intention is to grow both and again tap into a broader basis of diverse products, as historically hotel chains have had difficulty institutionalizing niche products.
What’s key is given AirBnB’s success is that this sector is quickly moving past niche.
We’d like to update news on Laguna Hotels and Resorts new Angsana Vacation Club timeshare unit as some readers have posed questions on the status of the Laguna Holiday Club.
Moving forward the new Angsana Vacation Club is a move away from LHC’s time-based program and is focused on a points-based scheme.
Existing members of LHC will continue as will the establishied entity but from a commercial focus Angana is clearly the path forward as a newly formed outfit.
Prior to the Laguna Holiday Club, the offering was called the Allamanda Vacation Club.
So in a nutshell the future is points and not weeks, though the legacy of weeks will remain in LHC.
