I'm back on the bus, the Airbus that is headed from Singapore to Manila.
Paging through the inflight magazine, flashy advertisements for a new condo project Azure which is adorned with their celebrity designer Paris Hilton? The tagline reads "life's a beach".
Next page is a silhouette of a real designer Philippe Starck and the Acqua development which apparently is done by the firm Yoo, but a tagline says "inspired by Stark." No idea who did the actual designing on this brand on brand overlay.
We live in the age of celebrity skin and you cant really fault real estate projects that are just trying to get a leg up. Tune into the montage of celebrity cooking shows, reality television and anything with a brand affiliation is trumpeted.
As we all know, this age, as in all others that have come before will also pass. And we will once again be relegated to the age of architects without their own media empire and perhaps a simpler world where excellence, creativity and professionalism rises above marketing.
Or maybe not? Who know, but I'd certainly take a Starck condo any day over a day at the beach with Paris.
Real estate folks always love new terms to describe what often becomes a same same mash-up.
Reading the International Herald Tribune last week the use of the French term "pied a terre" came up.
In a nutshell this is a second home, often a holiday house or secondary residence.
I'm not sure how popular the catch phrase will be, but it least it's different.
Desmond Hughes has separated from the Limcharoen Hughes and Glanville after 10 years operating and managing the practices across Asia – the separation was completed on 31st January. Desmond has formed a new law firm Hughes Krupica in partnership with Robert Krupica and Pongsak Daengkaew, with Khun Pongsak joining the firm officially on 19 February.
Desmond said "These are exciting times for us launching a new law firm to focus on key areas of business and expertise: Real Estate; Hospitality and Leisure. Our main base is Phuket and we want to focus on being available for our clients directly when they need us, providing them with cutting edge services through our own investment in internal IT systems for Client Relationship Management; Billing; Data Storage and Retrieval via the Cloud. We are working on that system now and will be deploying this in stages. We believe our clients not only deserve high quality legal services, but also want to experience seamless and administratively efficient systems when using our firm. Companies should always look at improving themselves and keeping up with the times"
Robert said "I have spent the last 3 years plus working closely with clients; agents; developers and a wide spectrum of business people in Phuket. I believe HughesKrupica is ideally positioned to bring additional value to legal services provision through its dedicated team of advisers and support staff. We truly understand the way the investment climate, property, hospitality and leisure markets have changed in Phuket and Thailand, and I believe this is the kind of knowledge our clients will appreciate when dealing with us. We will avoid over stretching, over-expansion and will not be adopting a 'rotation of lawyers' scheme between Phuket and other countries and Bangkok. There is enough business, and valued clients in Phuket to keep us busy focussing on the.m"
Khun Pongsak said "I have chosen to join Hughes Krupica because I have confidence in its ability to secure business and that the firm is committed to improving its systems for the benefits of clients. As a Thai lawyer I have worked in Phuket for 5 years, and am looking forward to starting my new role as a Partner in HughesKrupica next week"
HughesKrupica have secured 150 square meters of space at the Boat Lagoon in Phuket and will be fitting this out in preparation for a full launch in March. Their website will be live next week. HughesKrupica will expand to other destinations to accommodate clients, but will recruit appropriate staff to do so, maintaining its strong focus on Phuket to ensure quality of services are maintained.
Please contact: [email protected]
The international law firm formerly operating under the name Limcharoen Hughes & Glanville has nowrebranded to Limcharoen.
Senior Partner Christian Glanville has been appointed as COO of the group of firms and will be overseeing thefirm's continued operations in Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia. A new team of Thai and foreign lawyers has been assembled for Phuket and will be working from its new office premises at Royal Phuket Marina.
"We will continue to provide our clients in Phuket with professional legal services, especially in the propertyand hospitality business which has been our expertise in Phuket and Samui for over 10 years. Besides, we will
continue our firm's expansion into other locations and will open an office in Jakarta early 2nd quarter of 2013.
Beyond our current focus, we will put emphasis on foreign direct investment related work across those locationswhere we operate as we have identified valuable synergy effects and growing client demand for this in theadvent of ASEAN economic community in 2015" says Kris Limcharoen, the firm's CEO
For more information www.limcharoen.com
This week's fire which substantially damaged the Nai Yang Peninsular resort development is a sad reminder of the potential downside risk of investing into over-heated property markets.
Launched in the mid 2000's as the NaiYang Peninsular Phuket, the project consisted of a condo hotel and villas. In 2006 a management agreement was announced with the global Hyatt chain, under their Regency brand.
The Thai-based developer of the project Phuket Peninsula Co., Ltd. at the time had another hospitality led property in Koh Samui, the Samui Peninsula (now operating as the Q Signature Samui) under a different company structure. It was also engaged in timeshare sales in Samui through a well-known international affiliation.
At that time Phuket unit buyers were offered leasehold units with a cumulative term of 90 years and 12% guaranteed return for five years (60% of the purchase price). Reportedly a number of sales were made on this basis.
Over the next few years despite being near completion and the fact that Hyatt appointed a General Manager and started pre-opening work, the development encountered financial difficulties. Eventually Hyatt exited from the project.
Enter the Thai-listed leasing company Mida Assets PLC which according to documents filed with the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) had a secured interest in the project and a dispute between a Director of Phuket Peninsular Co., Ltd and Mida triggered an extended legal case. A similar case took place in Koh Samui and an impending bank default created more complications. Years passed as various court actions between the parties came and went.
A few weeks ago we contacted the company office of Mida who said that court action between the parties had been settled and plans were set to be announced shortly about the future of the Phuket and Samui projects.
Another set-back was encountered last year when the high-profile investigation by Thailand's Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation into Sirinath National Park included the property in media reports as which had possibly encroached into public land. There remains no final outcome to this investigation.
At this juncture it's unclear if what has been classified as an accidental fire of the main resort building will be able to be rebuilt and restored. Based on information obtained from Mida, the future of the project looks to be with them going forward.
For many of the unit investors who have paid for units since 2006, the seven year itch of uncertainty looks not to be resolved any time soon.
While I can thankfully count on all my fingers and toes the number of estate and project defaults on the island over the past 12 years, there is little satisfaction for purchasers who have lost or tied up their investments.
While Phuket, like Bali and other resort markets are continuing to see a cycle up in their real estate sector, it's a good time to take a reality check that when a buying trend heats up, investment schemes which seem to good to be true, typically are exactly that. Double digit guaranteed returns over a sustained period in a hotel-led residential project should be a warning sign to potential purchasers.
Likewise there is a vast difference between experienced hotel asset owners and property developers who neither have the financial backing nor experience to execute this type of project. Increasingly global hotel brands are shying away from projects which are overly dependent on residential sales. That given there are quality mixed use projects here like Amanpuri, Trisara and Banyan Tree, which has demonstrated sustained returns and capital appreciation.
Over the years I have received a continued chain of mail from buyers in these types of investment schemes which have gone off the rails. My best advice remains to carefully engage in learning the market, obtaining sound legal advice, mitigating risk by buying from experienced developers with strong financial backing and understanding that these types of investments are not premised on quick over-market returns but a long term outlook.
Singapore is again leading the pack in terms of long-term infrastructure with the announcement of two new MRT lines in the planning phase.
By 2030, 80% of the country's households will be within a ten-minute walk from a station.
That's phenomenal and far-reaching given the current rise in South East Asia of the middle class and new car gridlock.
Singapore's government initiated transportation plan was revisited in 2011 at a time when the island state's growth has continued to move forward.
While Hong Kong and Singapore have proactively instituted actions to cool down their overheating property markets, Thailand's government looks to stay on the sidelines.
According to industry reports there 80,000 residential units were sold in 2013. The Nation newspaper has reported that inventory of existing products at year-end exceeded 100,000 units.
Listed developers are saying that the outlook for 2013 is robust with end users and not speculators dominating the transaction market.
Debt to equity ratio's for the basket of leading real estate firms remains under two times, as developers are strongly lobbying this as a healthy underlying fundamental.
Arguably over the past 18 months Phuket has seen a rise in low-cost condos, which have swept up by buyers looking to cash in on the domestic housing boom.
Thai-based listed real estate firm Nusasiri is looking at diversifying development risk in their mega property offering called The Grand Kingdom.
The 10 billion baht project will house a retail shopping center, amusement park and condominium complex.
It's expected the project will be complete within 2015.
Nusasiri's strategy is set to capitalize on both the rising Pattaya property sector and both domestic and international visitor traffic.
The eastern seaboard property market is heating up with the development of the Cartoon Network's first Asian theme park.
Located in Bang Saray the first phase of the project is budgeted at over THB1 billion and is expected to open this year.
The developer is Amazon Falls Company Limited.
Expectatons are that the park will attract 800,000 visitors in the first year.
A knock on effect has been a boom in land prices in Bang Saray and the first signs of high rise development are coming fast into the market.
