Small private islands near Phuket
for the ultra rich
By Jon Fernquest |
Luxury residential real estate is a booming market in Phuket.
More than 17 projects are in the pipeline with a total of 969 units worth more than 20 billion baht.
The trend is for these luxury residences to be managed by hotels that have experience in dealing with this market segment.
Phuket is adding two new marinas, adding 800 new yacht berths. This will make the island competitive with the Malaysian island of Langkawi in providing services to wealthy yacht owners.
The rainy low-season period in Thailand between June and September is a period of hot weather in the Middle East. More and more people from the Middle East are traveling to Phuket to escape from this hot weather. Soon Phuket may have no low season. Phuket has also attracted institutional investors from Bangladesh and Pakistan.
Small private luxury islands: Hollywood stars love privacy
Smaller "private" islands that surround Phuket have been become a focal point for property developers recently. Project investments total around 20 billion baht.
Since Koh Tapu Phang Nga Bay near Phuket first gained notoriety as "James Bond Island" in the 1974 James Bond film The Man with the Golden Gun, the small islands near Phuket have had an exotic allure to them. (See poster from the film on the right).
"World celebrities, Hollywood stars and people in the ultra high-end segment love privacy and prefer buying a resort on a private island where no one can interfere with them. That's why many property developers move to small islands."
1. Koh Lone: 125 rai Taj Exotica Resort and Spa
The largest investment on Phuket's neighbouring islands is from the huge Indian conglomerate Tata Group's Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces on Koh Lone, located on southeastern Phuket near Chalong Bay.
The Indian-based hotel firm is investing almost 10 billion baht to develop Taj Exotica Resort and Spa on 125 rai, comprising a 100-room hotel worth two billion baht to be operated late next year. It will also include 19 villas priced between 128-384 million baht a unit, which is the first time the Taj has ever sold villas.
2. Koh Raet: Jumeirah Private Island Phuket
The second largest is an investment of Prime Minister Samak's nephew Dilokpol Sundaravej and a Canadian partner that is developing Jumeirah Private Island Phuket worth around six billion baht on Koh Raet northeast of Phuket.
3. Koh Maphrao: 62 villas
Another investment is on Koh Maphrao where a British investor late last year started developing The Village worth two billion baht. Of the total 62 villas for sale at prices between 18-45 million baht, 17 units are remaining.
4. Koh Mai Thon: 180 rai, hotel and villas
This year there will be a development of a hotel and villas worth around two billion baht on a 180-rai site on Koh Mai Thon, southeast of Phuket. The owner is a group of local Phuket investors that are asking for a Board of Investment approval to allow the investment of foreign investors.
Other small islands in the Gulf of Thailand have followed the trend of developing small islands into a private hotel and villas, including Koh Kood near Koh Chang where Six Sense opened Soneva Kiri resort. On Koh Tao near Samui an overseas fund will start an investment and new hotel developments have started on Koh Phangan.
Booming Phuket land prices
Land prices on Phuket's west coast with good sea views climbed by 30-40% year-on-year but there is no availability of such plots of land for future development.
Land prices per rai in the western area average 35 million baht while they are 17 million baht a rai in the eastern area. However, the selling price of residential units in the east is about 130,000 baht per square metre while those in the west are 100,000 baht per sq m.
Read a Bangkok Post article about luxury villas near Phuket.
(Source: Bangkok Post, business, 24-07-08, page B1, KANANA KATHARANGSIPORN, temp-link)
Vocabulary:
a villa - a large house for holiday use
in the pipeline - already planned or started, currently working on the project (See glossary)
a market segment - a smaller market with specialised needs within a larger market (See glossary)
a yacht - a large boat for recreation and leisur, usually owned by rich people, start at 32–35 feet (10–11 m) and go up to hundreds of feet, can either by powered by sail or by engine (See Wikipedia on yacht and luxury or superyacht)
marinas - a sheltered harbor where boats and yachts are kept in the water and where services geared to the needs of recreational boating are found (See Wikipedia)
yacht berths - places to park your yacht
institutional investors - companies with large amounts of money to invest as part of their business, such as insurance companies, pension funds, or mutual funds
a focal point - the thing that people are paying the most attention to, that they are concentrating on
James Bond Island - the small but famous island of Koh Tapu [nail island] in the Phang Nga Bay near Phuket where the James Bond movie The Man with the Golden Gun was filmed in 1974, now popular as a tourist attraction (See Wikipedia also see a list of islands in Thailand)
exotic - unusual and interesting because it comes from a strange far-away place
an allure - the excitement, interest, and attraction that something creates (for example, the allure of fast and dangerous sports cars)
an exotic allure - an attraction to something based on its being from a strange and distant place
ultra - extreme (for example, his political views were ultra conservative)
high-end - very high quality goods and services for wealthy people
ultra high-end segment - the market segment of very welathy people
a conglomerate - a large business with several different companies
Tata Group - the largest private company in India, a multinational conglomerate based in Mumbai, India, has businesses in steel, automobiles, information technology, communication, power, tea and hotels (See Wikipedia)
