Randy Lynch, founder and seasoned traveller of U.S. based luxury travel firm Kipling & Clark has compiled a list of his favourite hotels in the Asian region which has now been released by the guide.

The list features the top ten luxury hotels in all of Asia where wary travellers can rest their bodies after a hard day of sightseeing or shopping. We have listed them in order of rank below:
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Thai resort style developments have lured many sport stars into their fold in recent years. The latest to join the gang of Thai investors is Kimi Raikkonen. The Ferrari racing Finn has invested his money into a luxurious beach front unit in Phuket, Thailand’s largest and most popular island.

Raikkonen who lives in Switzerland has apparently paid a hefty US $1.5m for his upmarket private villa in the sought after Serenity Terraces.

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Mid to low-price Bangkok condominium developers will be under pressure this year as liquor tycoon Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi enters this highly lucrative housing segment.

TCC Capital Land announced plans to launch its first non-luxury development, offering units from around £21,000 in Soi Sukhumvit 101/1.

TCC Capital Land is a joint venture between Singaporean-based CapitaLand and TCC Land, which is Charoen’s property development division. The middle-market condominium segment will be handled by S&S Residential.

“A large property firm is negotiating to form a joint venture or buy a major stake in a smaller company, which focuses on lower-middle-income-market condominiums,” said an un-named industry source.

“The buyer wants to strengthen its competitive edge against others, particularly TCC Land, which owns a land bank worth up to Bt100 billion nationwide.”

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^{Bangkok at night}

Small and medium-scale property developers in Bangkok are being forced to sell their projects to larger developers as they start to face difficulties in obtaining financial support for construction. This is according to Visanu Suchatlumpong, vice-president of Asian Property Development Plc.

“Financial institutions did not approve project loans as they considered their (smaller developers) branding was not strong and their products might not be saleable,” he said.

But he also played down the role the global credit crunch was having, saying, “Some of them did not meet financial institutions’ conditions that required them to have sales of at least 40%.”

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Debenham Tie Leung (DTZ) recently released a report based on an extensive survey that shows Bangkok as the fifth cheapest office space in the world. The report – DTZ’s eleventh annual “Global Office Occupancy Costs Survey 2008” ranks Bangkok at 133rd in terms of costs per office workstation, with a cost of $2,840 per annum.

DTZ is a global real estate advisor who works to create leading edge property, investment and business solutions worldwide.

The survey puts Surayaba in Indonesia at the bottom of the chart with a cost of $1,550 p.a. Next is Manila at $1,670, Jakarta at $2,170, Tianjin at $2,830, follwed by Bangkok in fifth place.

The survey confirms Richard Ellis’ assessment that London is still the most expensive office market in the world, even discounting the West End. The DTZ report assesses London’s cost per workstation per annum at $27,540. Paris is second at $20,690, Central Tokyo at $18,430.

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A lavish Gala Dinner was held at the Royal Orchid Sheraton in Bangkok on Saturday night, to announce the winners of the 2007 Thailand Property Awards. More than 350 of Thailand´s real estate elite were in attendance to celebrate the award.

A three phase process is used to determine the winner in each category:
First, the real estate industry were invited to nominate companies in the 12 categories. Nominees could not nominate themselves, nor nominate in a category where there may be a conflict of interest. This phase closed on 31st August with over 260 nominations received.

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The Bank of Thailand admitted it had intervened in the currency market late last week, after a sudden weakening of the Baht, caused by foreign investors shifting their money out of Asia, worried that Citigroup would be downgraded when the full effect of the US sub-prime mortgage crisis took hold.

One potential upside of the situation at the moment is to make Thailand’s property market a far more attractive investment opportunity. The baht reached 34 baht to a US dollar this week. Combined with political uncertainties over the upcoming election causing softening prices the Thai property market seems to be shifting into overdrive.

Clayton Wade, managing director of Premier International, a Thailand-based residential and commercial property consulting group, made some interesting comments in a recent interview with The Bangkok Post. “With the recent downturn in economic indicators and consumer confidence, many local investors have switched money from the stock market to a more secure sector – the Thai property market.”

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Southeast Asia consists of two geographic regions: the Asian mainland, and island arcs and archipelagoes to the east and southeast. The mainland section consists of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam; the population of which are primarily Tai and Austroasiatic peoples. The dominant religion is Buddhism, followed by Islam. The maritime section consists of Brunei, East Timor, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Singapore. The dominant religion is Islam followed by Christianity.

South East Asia is making great efforts to bring the region in line with other more well developed property markets, but there are still some anomalies to take into consideration when buying a villa in the area.

Under Indonesian law, only Indonesian private citizens, not companies, are allowed to own the freehold rights to land. Indonesian companies and foreign individuals are entitled to leaseholds, rights of use, rights of exploitation and rights to build.

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Redang Island, Malaysia [Photo credits to Lukman Kusuma on Flickr]

A recent survey by CB Richard Ellis(pdf) highlights that Thailand has increasing competition on its hands as the pre-eminent retirement and second home (RSH) location in Southeast Asia. The report also finds that retired people relocating abroad is a fast growing trend. Already more than 5% of UK state pensions are remitted outside the country. The picture in terms of the relative attractions of different countries and the pros and cons of each of them is fast changing.

Clearly some of the advantages are good climate, lower living costs and superior lifestyle. New build properties and relatively cheap labour costs will have obvious attractions to retired people. According to the 2006 Mercer cost of living survey, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok and Manila were respectively 114th, 127th and 141st on the list of world cities ordered by cost of living. What may not be so obvious is that a lower cost of medical treatments may make the move to this part of the world less of a risk than it would seem and give countries such as Thailand and Malaysia an edge over, say, Australia, as retirement relocation destination. Furthermore, these countries seem to be entering into a Dutch auction in terms of the amount of local bank account balances they require of foreign residents. Gradually, too, the restrictions on foreign ownership of property are beginning to be relaxed. However, in this connection, the ‘Malaysia, My Second Home’ regime under which foreigners are normally given permission to purchase properties outright is a lot more relaxed than Thailand’s, where 30 year leases for foreign residents are the norm.
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Now the practice has come under the spotlight as an unexpected side effect of last September’s coup. Ignoring protests from the international business community, the leaders of the government installed by the military have ordered rigorous enforcement of the law restricting foreign shareholders to 49% control of companies in protected sectors such as property.

The aim was to punish the family of Thaksin Shinawatra, the ousted prime minister, who reaped a tax-free fortune by selling off their telecoms empire to the Singapore state investment agency through nominee shareholders. But the clampdown on the use of voting shares has sown confusion throughout the economy.

“Property owners will need to consult their lawyers,” says one estate agent. “It’s possible that the nominees could demand control of the holding company to comply with the law, and nobody knows who would arbitrate the price if owners were forced to sell down their voting shares.” There are no reliable figures for the number of British homeowners in Thailand, but one experienced estate agent estimates it is in “the high thousands”, with about a third of those owning villas. More than 700,000 Britons visit every year.
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