Winter is coming to the iconic Grey Gardens, now for rent

<img alt="A co-working space. Phichat Phruksarojanakun/Shutterstock" src="/documents/10204/0/shutterstock_1051332527-%281%29-compressor.jpg/a1f82c72-e90b-46b3-9c34-f11b7acb9aaf?t=1546499130165" style="width: 1400px; height: 640px;" />Sand in your toes, a light sea breeze ... It wasn’t too long ago that the cliché of a coworking space in Asia centred on dreadlocked digital nomads island-hopping through a professional gap year. And while small business owner-operators can still plug in from a beach shack in Canggu to confer with their factory in Guangdong whilst managing sales in Atlanta, research by Colliers reveals the share of freelancers and independent workers using flexible workspaces dropped by 15 percent over the three years ending in 2017. It’s not that fewer are living the laptop life; no, the flexible workspace market has exploded in Asia-Pacific over the past five years thanks to the enthusiasm of far bigger players on both the supply and demand sides. Big international operators are moving aggressively into the region, including WeWork, which opened its 200th location globally in Singapore in 2017 and is sending its coworking tentacles across Southeast Asia. Major property owners are getting into the act, partnering with flex-space companies and launching their own brands. Governments, noting the benefits of entrepreneurs to their economies, are adding their backing. And multinationals, employing what is referred to as a hub-and-spoke or core/flex approach, now consider flexible spaces an integral piece of their permanent operations, either locating entirely in such real estate or shipping younger, more mobile departments to such “off-sites”. Taken together, it’s little surprise that JLL Research found flexible space stock across Asia-Pacific charting a compound annual growth rate from 2014 to 2017 of 35.7 percent (compared with 25.7 percent in the United States and 21.6 percent in Europe), and the total stock managed by major operators growing by 150 percent. <div class="pull-quotes-container">Everyone is familiar with the dotcom-boom-era ping pong tables, in-house baristas, and—for the luckiest ducks—free beer. They’ve been joined by a sophisticated suite of options appealing to a more diverse, and increasingly corporate, clientele</div> Thailand alone has seen coworking spaces grow from four in 2012 to 132 in 2017—a figure expected to increase by 25 percent in 2018, according to Phattarachai Taweewong, senior manager at Colliers. By 2030, JLL predicts flexible space to comprise 30 percent of corporate commercial property portfolios across Asia-Pacific. Everyone is familiar with the dotcom-boom-era ping pong tables, in-house baristas, and—for the luckiest ducks—free beer. Such mancave perks haven’t gone the way of AOL IMs in this generation, but they’ve been joined by a sophisticated suite of options appealing to a more diverse, and increasingly corporate, clientele. More than letting networking happen organically, flexible work firms are purposefully creating programming and designing interiors to facilitate interaction. Hubba, Thailand’s homegrown first coworking space, has four distinct outlets in Bangkok each catering to different fields, from tech start-ups to artisans and craftsmen. Hubba offers a spectrum of useful seminars (Powerpoint pointers, customer-journey mapping), as well as personalized assistance with management, staffing, and even design. Spaces, another popular player in Bangkok, prides itself on style and flexibility, letting clients reserve anything from a locker to an enclosed area for a team. Their Chamchuri Square location won Best Co Working Space Development at the Property Guru Thailand Property Awards 2018—just a little piece of the global coworking operator founded in Amsterdam in October 2008. “And then Lehman Brothers collapsed,” the founders write on their website. “We thought this would be the end of it for us. But actually, we fit right in that spirit of age. Because of the crisis, everybody was re-thinking work.” <img alt="Artist’s impression of Spaces Chamchuri Square, winner of Best Co Working Space Development at the 13th PropertyGuru Thailand Property Awards" src="/documents/10204/0/SPACES-CHAMCHURI-SQUARE-%281%29-compressor+%281%29.jpg/bd56bf05-7b44-4009-9903-5c9fdcf5eaab?t=1546499897860" /> The Executive Centre (TEC), a pioneering Hong Kong-based flexible space provider founded in 1994 by Paul Salnikow, who had been seeking short-term office space for a Japanese firm expanding to London, credits the GFC as a gamechanger. “Prior to the financial crisis, TEC interacted with multinationals only when they were opening an office in far-flung locations,” says Pebble Lee, global public relations manager. Today, in Hong Kong alone, 67 percent of their clients are multinationals, including Apple, Morgan Stanley, Facebook and Twitter. TEC now has 20,000 members in Grade A offices in CBDs across 30 markets, having added 23 locations in 2017, and is expecting 30 percent annual growth from 2018. Beyond such prestige fittings as height-adjustable standing desks by 9AM, Herman Miller chairs, and Timothy Oulton furnishing, TEC is about all about innovation, their Hong Kong headquarters a “test kitchen—a place to trial new design concepts, products, and technologies,” Lee says. However, potential barriers belie the stunning growth of coworking spaces in the region. “Corporate culture in Asia tends to be more hierarchical, and not always in sync with the casual, flexible atmosphere,” says JLL research. “According to one industry observer, ‘In many markets across Asia Pacific, space is a reflection of status.’ Large organizations place high value on retaining brand identity and culture. Such concerns, along with the need to protect trade secrets and secure IT infrastructure, must be addressed.” It’s why the most sophisticated players act not only as builders, gatekeepers, event-planners and consultants, but also full-time IT departments, and in the case of WeWork, corporate fit-out contractors and developer partners. <img alt="The common areas at a WeWork co-working space in Sanlitun, Beijing" src="/documents/10204/0/20180522_WeWork_Sanlitun_-_Common_Areas-7-compressor.jpg/602f832b-9c5c-47ea-afd9-2ca967c54ca6?t=1546500194327" /> And those developers are coming in hot. A handful of large landlords control the supply (in Singapore’s CBD, the 15 largest landlords control 75 percent of Grade A office buildings; in Hong Kong East, three landlords run 80 percent of office buildings), entering the flex-space market themselves. Swire in Hong Kong—which has created its own brand, Blueprint, and inked deals with WeWork and The Great Room—and Ascendas in Singapore, says JLL, have realized they “can add value to their buildings and maintain or even extend their relationships with tenants by offering a diverse portfolio of core and flex space.” Even hotels have followed suit, looking at their business centers as community lounges, particularly in cities not recognized as regional commercial capitals. In Yangon, Shangri-La Group has opened a branch of FlySpaces. The new Shangri-La Hotel, Colombo, has a gorgeous new space called Co-nnect, with pods, private offices, meeting rooms with smart boards for both hotel guests and residents of the capital looking for a prestigious address to conduct business. <a href="http://property-report.com/detail/-/blogs/better-together-making-the-most-of-mixed-use-developmen-4" target="_blank">More: Making the most of mixed-use developments</a> While it’s easy to be cynical about the corporatisation of what was once considered a hippy-dippy industry, you might say global expansion has brought the coworking market full-circle. In a recent survey by TEC, members say they value their community as defined by connecting, networking, and collaboration. The firm will soon roll out a client portal, MyTEC, enabling members worldwide to connect directly, give advice, help grow their businesses, and maybe start new ones. The way they might have found common ground while chilling in hammocks in a wired-up beach shack. It may not be sand-between-the-toes, but it is pie-in-the-sky community-minded. And isn’t that the whole point? This article originally appeared in <a href="https://magzter.com/TH/PropertyGuru-International-(Thailand)-Co.,Ltd/Property-Report/Business/" target="_blank">Issue No. 151</a> of PropertyGuru Property Report Magazine

Common grounds: the year in co-working spaces

<img alt="The Golden Bridge is lifted by two giant hands in the tourist resort on Ba Na Hill in Danang, Vietnam. Quang nguyen vinh/Shutterstock" src="/documents/10204/0/shutterstock_1152454088-compressor.jpg/4f08053b-085b-4c75-8a7c-2949990f1434?t=1546414490784" style="width: 1400px; height: 640px;" />Secondary markets may not offer the same dynamic business environment as Asia’s major cities. But with Chinese money pouring into the region and sunny seaside resorts developing into worthy digital hubs they offer fertile ground for big returns. In Cambodia, secondary markets have grabbed international headlines in the past year. Sihanoukville, on the southern coast, has been the poster-child for Chinese investment. Also growing in appeal is Poipet, a lesser-known city bordering Thailand. Speak to any tourist or expat who has at some point crossed the border into Poipet, and they’ll rarely have anything good to say about the place. In the absence of any real industry, Poipet has long been synonymous with rip-off merchants, scammers, gamblers, and other unsavoury sorts—a place where visitors cannot wait to leave and where respectable businesses fear to tread. But things appear to be changing. Since economic zones were launched, and a railway line linking Bangkok to Poipet and Phnom Penh completed last July, the city’s property market has taken a surprising turn. “Many investors from the outside are eyeing Poipet as a great investment destination,” says Hor Kunthea, CEO of Sokha Residences Group. Poipet, with its 30 odd casinos and a growing manufacturing industry, is seeing an expanding Chinese and Korean expat community, mirroring the early rumblings of Sihanoukville’s growth spurt. Sixteen real estate projects were completed in 2017, putting more than 1,500 units onto the market. Adding to this, Poipet governor San Sean Ho has announced the government will build a golf course, an artificial river, a giant garden, and floating market. <div class="pull-quotes-container">In Sihanoukville, the market continues to ride its own investment boom. The sleepy town has undergone immense transformation from a faded backwater to a town jacked up on Chinese cash</div> In more established Sihanoukville, the market continues to ride its own investment boom. The sleepy town has undergone immense transformation from a faded backwater to a town jacked up on Chinese cash. Sotharoth Som, managing director of KHCN Investment and Development Co., Ltd, the developer of the 43-storey Seagate Suite project in Sihanoukville, reports rental prices across the board have gone up five to 10 times, with those closer to the city centre being most expensive. Som says foreign investors, mainly from China, are driving the boom, as they “seek the opportunity to obtain higher rental yields than what is offered in their home countries, along with capital appreciation and low barriers to entry.” <img alt="Sihanoukville’s Best Residential Development, according to the PropertyGuru Cambodia Property Awards 2018, is The Seagate Suite" src="/documents/10204/0/The-Seagate-Suite-by-KHCN-Investment-and-Development-Co-Ltd-won-Best-Residential-Development-%28Sihanoukville%29-at-the-Cambodia-Property-Awards-2018-for-web-151-compressor.jpg/140feb7c-54d2-4699-b8b8-c9545624ce84?t=1546416006849" /> “The Sihanoukville market has emerged as an alternative condominium hub to the Phnom Penh market,” adds Som, pointing out, however, that compared to Phnom Penh, it is still in its infancy. Elsewhere in Asia, secondary cities are similarly enjoying Chinese-powered boosts as ties with the country strengthen. In the Philippines, warmer relations with China have seen developers benefit from rising demand from Chinese employees and investors, while partnerships between Filipino and foreign developers are expected to increase. <img alt="Artist’s impression of The Courtyard at the Residences at The Sheraton Cebu Mactan Resort by Appleone Mactan Inc. (AMI), which took home the prize for Best Luxury Condo Development (Cebu) at the Philippines Property Awards 2018" src="/documents/10204/0/The-Residences-at-the-Sheraton-Cebu-Mactan-Resort-by-AppleOne-Mactan-Inc.-%28AMI%29-won-Best-Luxury-Condo-Development-%28Cebu%29-at-the-Philippines-Property-Awards-2018-%282%29-compressor.jpg/369bf1c1-12b0-4670-96f9-b52428e516d8?t=1546415703153" /> “Leasing of condominiums in the secondary market remains strong, resulting in lower vacancy and arresting the decline in rents,” states a recent market update by Colliers International, a real estate services company. “Developers should look at housing opportunities in Cebu, Pampanga, and Laguna as offshore gaming firms have started to operate in these locations,” the company advises. Quite like Poipet, Davao City on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao is emerging an unlikely investment haven. The president’s former mayoral city once had a reputation for gun crime; today, property prices are rising. Units on Davao’s Dahican Beach, for example, now sell for PHP10,000 (USD185) to PHP12,000 per square metre compared with PHP1,000 and PHP1,500 per square metre in 2015.  “They know that locators from outside are scrambling for any available space here in the city, not only because the President is from here, but because movement of businesses into Davao City has been going on for several years now,” Adrian Tamayo, a Mindanao expert, told the Business Mirror. Meanwhile in Da Nang, Vietnam, holiday homes and tourism-related properties are in high demand. The city’s latest attraction, a 150-metre golden bridge cradled by two enormous stone hands jutting out of the rocky highlands, has become a social media sensation.  <a href="http://www.property-report.com/detail/-/blogs/rising-dragon-boom-times-continue-in-vietnam-real-esta-3" target="_blank">More: Boom times continue in Vietnam real estate</a> “The main supply [in Da Nang] is in the hospitality and tourism segment,” according to Peter Frieske, founder and managing director of Central Vietnam Realty. Tourism, he says, is rising sharply and analysts predict it will continue to do so.  Currently one of the top destinations for Chinese and South Korean visitors in Vietnam,  Da Nang received more than five million visitors in the first seven months of 2018—up 30 percent over the same period in 2017, according to the Da Nang tourism department. Of this figure, more than 1.8 million were foreign arrivals, which are up by 54 percent. “The majority of developers are building resorts, with property for sale or condotel villas that are in some way offered with management programmes focusing on returns on investment rather than lifestyle residential properties. When it comes to quality residential projects, the supply is very low,” points out Frieske, adding this is due to the lack of industry in such places. In Phuket where the market has languished in recent years—year-on-year sales dropped 36 percent in 2017—analysts are optimistic 2018 might yield better results. <img alt="The Botanica Luxury Villas won the highly competitive Best Villa Development (Phuket) category at the 2018 Propertyguru Thailand Property Awards" src="/documents/10204/0/Best-Villa-Development-%28Phuket%29-winner-for-2018-is-Botanica-Luxury-Villas-by-Botanica-Luxury-Phuket-Co.%2C-Ltd-for-web-151-compressor.jpg/0d1c6751-6bf3-4c63-8430-4b92cde23c40?t=1546415949403" /> Knight Frank’s Lalita Siriboon, associate director of research, says Phuket’s condominium market is expected to improve in line with Thailand’s economy and as the expat population on the island grows. “Demand across the market will continue to be driven upwards by international homebuyers, investors, and expatriates, especially those from Mainland China, Russia, and Australia. Besides, we expected to see a larger portion of buyers from South Korea,” she says, adding there are also government efforts to raise the profile of Phuket as a digital hub and “Smart City,” which is forecast to boost real estate in Phuket by 2020 when the project is to be completed. Unlike capital cities where business and industry will always give people a reason to live there, the jury is still out on Asia’s secondary markets. As it is, investors need to carefully decide whether these “capital contenders” really are a place to call home, or just precariously thriving off clever marketing. This article originally appeared in <a href="https://magzter.com/TH/PropertyGuru-International-(Thailand)-Co.,Ltd/Property-Report/Business/" target="_blank">Issue No. 151</a> of PropertyGuru Property Report Magazine

2018: the year in secondary property markets

<img alt="One of the top winners at the 2018 Asia Property Awards (Malaysia) is LBS Bina Group, whose LBS Skylake Residence won Best Mass Market Development (Condo) among other honours" src="/documents/10204/0/LBS-Skylake-Residence%2C-won-Best-Mass-Market-Development-%28Condo%29-for-web-compressor.jpg/ce043b3a-f941-4e8e-8c3f-88cb5bba93bb?t=1546244522761" style="width: 1000px; height: 667px;" />Spanning roughly a third of the earth’s landmass, the Asia-Pacific region is home to more than 60 percent of the world’s population—and its rapidly growing cities are beginning to feel the pinch.   The urgent need to create quality affordable housing on limited land has become a defining issue across the region, where soaring property prices and stagnating incomes have left many struggling for a place to call home.   But 2018 brought several breakthroughs on this critical front. Recent elections ushered in new administrations in Hong Kong, New Zealand, and Malaysia, all promising to cure their respective housing crises as a top priority.   Innovative design and urban planning firms have cropped up across Asia, breathing new life into mass housing developments and putting sustainability front and centre.   Singapore’s public housing scheme, created in the 1960s, still shines as the region’s gold standard. Today, more than 90 percent of the city-state’s 5.6 million residents are homeowners. While the Singapore model isn’t easily exportable, many of its neighbours are finding their own unique solutions.   Malaysia suffers no shortage of innovative developers; with more land and lower costs than neighbouring Singapore, the Southeast Asian nation seems to be enjoying a steady emergence from its years-long property malaise.   <a href="http://www.property-report.com/detail/-/blogs/better-together-making-the-most-of-mixed-use-developmen-4" target="_blank">More: Making the most of mixed-use developments</a> Political headwinds may have helped. In May, Malaysian voters decisively ousted the administration of former Prime Minister Najib Razak, who was deeply embroiled in the 1MDB embezzlement scandal. The new government of Mohammad Mahathir, who returned to power at the age of 93 on a promise of cleaning up corruption and shoring up investor confidence, swiftly began a wholesale undoing of Najib’s policies.  Home-grown firms were more than ready for change, and have seized the opportunity. LBS Bina Group, based in Kuala Lumpur, is among the most prolific when it comes to creating large scale, community-oriented housing, launching successful projects in the Klang Valley, Johor, and Kuala Selangor.   LBS Bina swept this year’s Property Guru Asia Property Awards, recognized as Malaysia’s Best Developer and making off with a cache of other honours for innovation in mass-market condominiums, corporate social responsibility, and sustainability.   Having already gained a strong foothold, the firm now seeks to lead the way by lowering construction costs through an industrialized building system of pre-cast concrete that reduces the need for labour. Ong Wei Ling, a spokesperson for LBS Bina, says the method results in “cleaner, neater, and safer construction sites” completed in a fraction of the time, “helping developers deliver value to investors or buyers awaiting their dream home.”  Other firms such as UEM Sunrise Berhad, one of Malaysia’s largest developers, and OCR Berhad Group have been among the most strident designers of affordable housing, the latter serving as project manager for the massive Yayasan Pahang development in Mukim Penor. Once completed, it is expected to create roughly 25,000 units. <img alt="Citiesto by Kien A Corporation won Best Affordable Condo Development (Ho Chi Minh City) at this year’s Propertyguru Vietnam Property Awards" src="/documents/10204/0/Citiesto-by-KIEN-A-Corporation-for-web-151-compressor.jpg/e31235f8-535d-4ba9-bff8-7a3d7b04126e?t=1546244571355" /> Smaller than the U.S. state of Rhode Island, with nearly seven times the population, Hong Kong is home to about 7.4 million people crammed into 2,754 square kilometres packed with high-rises divvied up into miniscule units. Year after year, this semi-autonomous region of China is named one of the most expensive cities in the world, a vital gateway between East and West that costs an average of USD28,000 per square meter.  “The Hong Kong problem is quite unique and is complicated by the fact that Hong Kong just doesn’t have enough land,” says David Ji, director and head of research and consultancy for greater China at Knight Frank. “They have to squeeze as much out of it as they can.” This conundrum has put Hong Kong’s policymakers in the uncomfortable position of having to either create new landmasses or convert older properties for new use.   <img alt="Topped by an exclusive rooftop garden, Star Polaris 23 by Borey Peng Huoth Group won Best Affordable Condo Development in Phnom Penh this year" src="/documents/10204/0/Star-Polaris-23-by-Borey-Peng-Huoth-Group-for-web-compressor.jpg/6ecefbf3-e21a-4c56-b225-1a0cc998322b?t=1546244589690" /> Chief Executive Carrie Lam, who assumed the territory’s highest office in 2017, has said solving the city’s housing crisis is among her top priorities. While plans to build affordable housing on roughly 1,700 hectares of artificial islands—a project called Lantau Tomorrow Vision—have come under criticism, she may have few viable alternatives to land reclamation. Property experts say Lam has made strides with long-term housing goals, but is bound to face opposition because she has yet to come up with short-term solutions to help the many Hong Kongers who need homes now.   “A comprehensive proposal has been tabled, which has never happened before, and as a long-term proposal this is a positive step,” says Ji. “But all these measures are planned far in the future, we’re looking at five to 10 years down the line, and buyers still find it difficult to get on the property ladder.” While prices have risen for 20 consecutive months, Ji says he expects some relief by year’s end.   <div class="pull-quotes-container">People are rethinking affordable housing—not as a burden that nobody wants to build, but trying to put affordable housing into private developers’ plans</div> Several governments in the Asia-Pacific have also moved to limit foreign ownership—due in part to concerns about Chinese expansionism—but experts say these policies are misguided. New Zealand’s recent ban on foreign residential sales prompted the International Monetary Fund to warn that the policy was discriminatory.   When Malaysian premier Mahathir suggested curbing foreign ownership of units in the USD100 billion Forest City project, the idea sent a chill through the investment community. “Permitting foreign investors to buy new housing obviously increases demand for housing,” says Brendan Coates, a fellow at Melbourne-based think tank the Grattan Institute, “but supply also increases if foreign investors enable developers to build more housing than otherwise.”   China’s own reform of land and financial policies are working to keep investors well within its borders. Outbound capital limits have led many Chinese to invest closer to home, while land use regulations have been altered to require a percentage of mixed-income housing on large scale property developments to meet growing demand.   “I think in the greater China region, people are rethinking affordable housing—not as a burden that nobody wants to build, but trying to put affordable housing into private developers’ plans,” says Ji, of Knight Frank. “The trend is changing from ‘whoever pays the highest price gets the land,’ to a more targeted, controlled use of property.”  This issue originally appeared in <a href="https://magzter.com/TH/PropertyGuru-International-(Thailand)-Co.,Ltd/Property-Report/Business/" target="_blank">Issue No. 151</a> of PropertyGuru Property Report Magazine

Affordable housing sets the agenda in Asia-Pacific

<img alt="The lake at Celadon City, winner of multiple PropertyGuru Vietnam Property Awards this year, including Best Mixed Use Landscape Architectural Design" src="/documents/10204/0/Sustainability-year-end-special-151-for-web-compressor.jpg/f63c772c-a71a-4a89-bcde-b2cab331756b?t=1545891457562" style="width: 1000px; height: 667px;" /> Ten years ago, sprawling conurbations like Saigon or Manila—notorious for their infrastructure and environmental challenges—weren’t obvious destinations for seeking out bastions of sustainability. Today, these cities are seeing the rise of world-class projects displaying green credentials, enticing middle-class apartment-seekers who are forming an increasingly sizeable tranche of society in Vietnam and the Philippines. By 2020, Vietnam’s average annual per capita income is predicted to almost double, from USD1,735 in 2016 to USD3,400. With its large population of citizens under 35 transitioning from a primarily rural economy to an urban one, Vietnam’s property market is proving a lucrative environment for developers, tenants, and both local and foreign buyers, with investors from China, South Korea, Singapore and Malaysia pumping huge sums into the building sector. In Ho Chi Minh City, two companies are paving the way for sustainable real estate. Gamuda Land, the property development arm of Malaysia’s leading engineering and construction group, started building its 82-hectare Celadon City in 2010, making it the first nature-inspired enclave within this traffic-choked megalopolis.  Prioritising sustainable living from the outset, Gamuda introduced such innovations as a rain harvesting system that utilises energy-efficient water tanks to collect rainfall around the property and transfer water to irrigation areas. The integrated township in Tan Phu district, home to 7,300 apartments across four precincts that can accommodate 25,000 people, won the Best Mixed Use Landscape Architectural Design gong at the PropertyGuru Vietnam awards this year. <a href="http://property-report.com/detail/-/blogs/can-green-buildings-turn-the-tide-in-climate-acti-10" target="_blank">More: Can green buildings turn the tide in climate action?</a> “Celadon City has more than 16 hectares dedicated to lush parklands [that afford] residents the privilege of enjoying nature,” says communications executive Tran Nam Phuong, adding that the Cultural Village, Central Park, the Celadon Sports & Resort Club, and other gathering places within the property offer a sense of community. It’s a concept that’s proven influential, as demand for green living spaces are increasing.  A similar success story is Gamuda City, another landmark project in Southern Hanoi, which confronted the Yen So lake area’s chronic water pollution, garbage disposal, and sewage issues head on. Far beyond building a condo, the development effected the complete rehabilitation of a polluted suburban wasteland, leading to significant public health benefits. Making major inroads into HCMC’s sustainable building boom is CapitaLand Vietnam, whose luxurious, 102-room D1MENSION development in Cau Kho is the first boutique housing development in Saigon—one among CapitaLand’s 13 green estates in the city. Themed projects including De La Sol, D2eight, and d’Edge Thao Dien offer new condominium alternatives to young professionals. “CapitaLand remains committed to building a greener future for Vietnam,” says CEO Chen Lian Pang. “Lowering our environmental footprint creates value for our stakeholders. We incorporate environmental sustainability in all stages of a project, [from] design and construction to operations.” A key wealth creator in the country, the Singapore-headquartered company—which scooped 13 PropertyGuru Vietnam awards this year, including Best Developer, Best Condo, and Special Recognition for Sustainable Development—has built almost 5,000 apartments across six other cities, from Halong to Nha Trang. <img alt="Winner of Best Green Development at this year’s Propertyguru Asia Property Awards (Sri Lanka), Clearpoint Residencies Rajagiriya come with self-sustaining gardens instead of ordinary balconies" src="/documents/10204/0/Clearpoint-Residencies%2C-Rajagiriya%2C-Sri-Lanka-by-Maga-Engineering-%28Pvt%29-Ltd-%26-Milroy-Perera-Associates-%28Pvt%29-Ltd.-won-Best-Green-Development-%282%29-compressor.jpg/98d681e9-5b00-41ed-9632-44756bcba7ae?t=1545891791227" /> In Metro Manila—another densely populated Southeast Asian city with a burgeoning  middle- and affluent class—Taguig-based ArthaLand is a home-grown leader in marrying sustainable credentials with cutting-edge architecture. The property arm of the Century Pacific group has carved a niche in the Philippine market by exclusively focusing on properties that adhere to global and national standards in green buildings. Being the only development in the Philippines to have received the coveted gold certification in the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program, its flagship dual-towered Arya Residences in Bonifacio Global City is a milestone in the country for its design and eco-friendly features. Arya Residences’ construction naturally channels the breeze, its balconies and ledges lending natural shade into the units, adding meaningful outdoor space even as daylight reaches 75 percent into the indoors. Interiors are decorated using paints and resins with low volatile organic compound emissions, while built-in fixtures and appliances deploy advanced technology to reduce environmental impact and usage cost. Winning this year’s “Special Recognition in Sustainable Development” at the PropertyGuru Philippines Property Awards, ArthaLand emphasises human advantages. Arya Residences encourages its residents to live a more environmentally conscious, cost-efficient, and healthy lifestyle. Their advertising tagline,  “Green is the new luxury”, is echoed by Raymond Rufino, chairman of the Philippine Green Building Council. “[Sustainability should be more than just achieving efficiency and cost-effectiveness for your property,” says Rufino. “The new frontier for green buildings is improving the health and wellbeing of the people who live, work and play [within your property]. This is a more powerful argument to support going green.” Angie de Villa-Lacson, ArthaLand president and CEO, stresses sustainable architecture has a ripple effect not just for residents, but the property sector at large. “Standardising green measures is a major step in encouraging developers to take sustainability seriously,” she says. “Greening should go beyond landscape and waste management. To fully reap the benefit of sustainability, developers should be able to measure the inputs and outputs of our buildings’ eco-friendly features.” <div class="pull-quotes-container">There has never been a better time for investors to go green. And with developers around Asia adopting sustainable practices,the real estate scene in the region has rarely looked more mindful</div> Further west, Sri Lanka is proving another sustainability powerhouse, largely due to Maga Engineering, the country’s largest construction company whose work covers healthcare, hospitality, transport, and water supply. As the builders of the world’s tallest vertical garden and the first LEED Platinum-rated clothing factory, Maga comes forearmed with impressive green credentials. Its Clearpoint Residencies in the Colombo suburb of Rajagiraya is its most forward-looking residential project to date. Clearpoint’s 171 apartments come with a self-sustaining garden instead of a balcony; its planted terraces and tree plantations absorb sound, boost oxygen levels, provide shade, and reduce heat. Other eco-boasts include cross-ventilated apartments, solar panels, and an automated drip-irrigation system that keeps terraces watered.  “Each apartment functions as its own microhabitat, creating a synergy between occupants and their environment,” says sustainability director Mega Kularatne, pointing out that while Clearpoint demonstrably occupies the high-end housing category, innovations inside and outside the building—including waste water recycling which reduces main water usage by 45 percent—actually serve to reduce homeowners’ maintenance costs. With the future of the planet a pressing concern, there has never been a better time for investors to go green. And with developers around Asia adopting more sustainable practices, the real estate scene in the region has rarely looked more mindful. This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.magzter.com/TH/PropertyGuru-International-(Thailand)-Co.,Ltd/Property-Report/Business/" target="_blank">Issue No. 151</a> of PropertyGuru Property Report Magazine

Innovative firms blaze trail for sustainable real estate in Asia

<img alt="M+S Pte Ltd took home a multitude of awards at the South east Asia Property Awards (Singapore) 2016, including Best Mixed-Use Development for the sprawling Marina One Project" src="/documents/10204/0/MIXED-USE-YEAR-END-SPECIAL-FOR-WEB-compressor.jpg/db78649c-3ab0-45c5-ba02-a715c4bc87a7?t=1545888548740" style="width: 1010px; height: 667px;" />From Singapore to Ho Chi Minh City, Southeast Asian developers are seeing the benefits of mingling business with pleasure. Self-contained communities that offer residences, retail, offices, and green spaces are emerging as the new development paradigm across a region where old ideas of city zoning are being eroded by vertical mixed-use mega-projects.   Singapore’s newly opened Marina One residential and office development has added a tropical, green heart to the CBD in the form of a 65,000-square-foot garden designed in collaboration between Ingenhoven Architects and landscape specialists ICN Design.   Jakarta’s District 8, a development of 11 towers across 4.8 hectares of the Sudirman Central Business District, has also reached completion. Developed by the Agung Sedayu Group, it brings residences and a public park right into the heart of South Jakarta’s financial zone.  In Bangkok, TCC Group’s One Bangkok (in partnership with Golden Land and Frasers Property Limited) is a USD3.5 billion development that covers an area one third the size of the adjacent Lumphini Park and encompasses living and work space for 60,000 people, including residential buildings, office towers, retail zones, and publicly accessible parks and green spaces.   “Vertical communities often deal with the high density mandated for many Asian city centres,” says Ping Jiang, the design principal at EID architecture. His firm designed the 320-metre-tall OCT XI'AN International Centre (OXIC) in Xi’an, China, where parks, piazza-style common areas, and even terrace streets are positioned over multiple storeys of two skyscrapers.    <a href="http://property-report.com/detail/-/blogs/amid-urban-sprawl-and-overpopulation-indonesia-turns-to-model-mixed-use-complex-5" target="_blank">More: Amid urban sprawl, Indonesia turns to model mixed-use complexes</a> In contrast to sprawling development, Jiang points out, “vertical communities create synergy between different uses and foster dynamic neighbourhoods. By integrating business, leisure, retail, and residential spaces, the design of a vertical community is strategically organised to create a vibrant, permeable urban destination to live, work, and visit.”   Analysts at JLL real-estate services predict vertical living solutions will dominate the Asian market. “As cities become more developed, and densities become higher, it makes sense to build more mixed-use developments,” says Regina Lim, head of capital markets research, Southeast Asia.   “Mixed-use developments bring together complementary uses,” she continues. “Retail shops benefit from the natural catchment of offices or hotels or apartments while the residents and workers enjoy the convenience. As maintenance management schemes become more sophisticated, they allow effective property management of these integrated projects. Apartments with these amenities sell well.”  But not all trends in Asian mixed-use are vertical. Throughout the Philippines, developers continue to favour township-style projects, for which huge land footprints provide fertile ground to design integrated communities from the ground up.   Megaworld Corporation has long been at the forefront of building from scratch new towns whose components stretch from serviced condominiums and rows of townhouses to malls, leisure facilities, and shopping districts.   <img alt="A view of Le Quest, winner of Best Mixed Use Development at the PropertyGuru Asia Property Awards (Singapore) 2018" src="/documents/10204/0/Le-Quest-compressor+2.jpg/8c40fe6e-596e-48e9-b638-7300655f2415?t=1545889041719" /> This year alone, Megaworld has announced new residential and commercial developments for its townships in Manila, Pampanga, Pasig City, and Bacolod City, while also rolling out a “smart township” initiative to future-proof its existing townships.   Starting with Davao Park District, the “iTownship” programme will see the 11-hectare development fitted with fibre optic infrastructure, bike lanes and rental systems, LED-powered lighting and signage, solar-powered street lamps, and vertical open spaces and gardens.  While townships have traditionally been confined to once rural areas, UAA Kinming Group’s New Manila Bay – City of Pearl is being developed on a huge tract of reclaimed land along Manila’s shoreline. Projected to open in 2024, City of Pearl broke ground in August 2017 and, when completed, will take up 407 hectares of reclaimed land and connect directly to Roxas Boulevard, a major thoroughfare.   For comparison, Thailand’s under-construction One Bangkok mixed-use project—itself a huge project for a capital city centre—covers just 18 hectares. “There are many townships in Asia, but those townships are in the middle of nowhere,” says Nicholas Ho, deputy managing director of Ho & Partners Architects, the Hong Kong-based lead designer of the project. “This township is extremely prime in terms of its location—it’s right smack in the middle of town, with 360-degree views.”  Ho reveals that retail, in the form of a three-kilometre riverfront shopping strip, is not “just a mall” but engages with the central park and the riverside, “so that it becomes a thematic integrated entertainment complex.”  Similarly in Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh City’s Thu Thiem New Urban Area will cover a vast 657-hectare site across the Saigon River from the central District 1. Touted as the capital’s new financial zone, it will not only encompass office towers for some 217,000 employees, but also enough residential units for a population of 145,000.    It’s not only in urban areas, however, where ambitious mixed-use projects are breaking the mould. On the tree-lined shores of Phuket’s Kamala Beach, the USD67.5 million luxury MontAzure development comprises hotel-managed condos, a lifestyle mall, a 200-room InterContinental Hotel, and Cafe del Mar, which is already part of the development's unique beachfront attractions.   <div class="pull-quotes-container">We are spoiled by the compactness of urbanisation, a precursor of mixed-use design. Urbanisation has happened on a global scale and it’s all because we crave connectivity</div> “Developers are realising that if they build a core concept, it adds value to the project, rather than simply selling parcels of land,” says Martin Palleros, founder and director of Tierra Design and the architect behind The Residences at MontAzure. “It’s all about what you can offer the community, and not just in terms of the property components,” he adds.   Nicholas Ho believes that driving Asia’s demand for such integrated developments is an urge to feel connected. “In Asian society, people crave for connectivity a lot more than the rest of the world,” he explains. “We are spoiled by the compactness of urbanisation, a precursor of mixed-use design. Urbanisation has happened on a global scale and it’s all because we crave connectivity.”  Successful mixed-use schemes have the capacity to create diverse, vibrant neighbourhoods in which people can live, work, and socialize. They bring round-the-clock life to central business districts. They provide private land parcels with pedestrian-friendly solutions and interlink disparate downtown neighbourhoods.   Ho predicts this integrated, community-driven approach to development will gradually become the new normal. “The future of mixed-use is going to shift the existing paradigm,” he says. “We will gradually move from the two extremes of urbanisation, urban and suburban, towards one. The walls of living and work spaces are coming down.”  This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.magzter.com/TH/PropertyGuru-International-(Thailand)-Co.,Ltd/Property-Report/Business/" target="_blank">Issue No. 151</a> of PropertyGuru Property Report Magazine

Better together: making the most of mixed-use developments

Winter is coming to the iconic Grey Gardens, now for rent

Few stars shine as brightly in the great Hollywood-Gotham constellation of socialites as Edith “Big Edie” Ewing Bouvier Beale and Edith “Little Edie” Bouvier Beale: aunt and cousin, respectively, to Jackie Kennedy Onassis. Their East Hampton estate, Grey Gardens, made famous by the Albert and David Maysles' 1975 documentary of the same name, is yours now to rent — minus its decrepit past.

Now home to former Washington Post columnist Sally Quinn, the three-storey property at 3 West End Road has been painstakingly renovated for the lucky tenant at USD6,600 a month via Corcoran Group.

The New York City-based real estate agency had listed Grey Gardens for USD19.995 million in February. It marked Grey Gardens' first time on the market since Little Edie sold the property to Quinn and her husband, Washington Post executive editor Ben Bradlee, in 1979.

The 6,652-square-foot (618 square metres), shingle-style home, laid on a 1.7-acre plot with views toward Georgica Beach, has seven bedrooms and 6.5 bathrooms and features a heated gunite pool and Har-Tru N/S tennis court.

Famously condemned by the sanitation department, the house made a lasting first impression on its acquirers. “It was the most disgusting mess I had ever seen,” Quinn recounted to the Post in 2009. “I tripped over a cat skull walking in, the stench was beyond anything I had ever smelled, the floors were in such terrible condition that my foot went through one of the boards, and when I plunked on one of the keys of the piano, the whole thing collapsed.”

More: This Hollywood producer's house is a desert mirage of starburst

Quinn immediately set out to restore the titular gardens to its original design. Former owner Anna Gilman Hill had made it “truly a gray garden”: planting "only flowers in pale colors" amid the sand dunes and importing cement walls from Spain, Quinn discovered.

The house went on to host various luminaries over the years, from Lauren Bacall and Paul McCartney to Norman Lear.

Quinn decided to exit Grey Gardens after Bradlee's death in 2014. “It’s a magical place and we had a magical life there, but that part of my life is over now,” she told The Wall Street Journal. “I want to move on.”

Tenants can still live vicariously through the house's former owners. A glass animal collection, among other effects by Little Edie, remains in Quinn’s office. The entryway, made famous in the flag-dancing scene in the documentary and the Jessica Lange-Drew Barrymore starrer that followed, retains the original banister.

Grey Gardens was built in 1897, with a design by Arts and Crafts architect Joseph Greenleaf Thorpe.

More images of the new Grey Gardens here, courtesy of Corcoran:

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<img alt="The growing skyline of Phnom Penh. Bou Kanika/Shutterstock" src="/documents/10204/0/shutterstock_794780221-compressor.jpg/0bd331c3-73be-49af-9729-e612b7ccc0b8?t=1547812843285" style="width: 999px; height: 667px;" />Condominium stock in Cambodia is on the upswing, with potential to grow this year, according to a new report by CBRE Cambodia via <a href="https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50569202/condo-supply-up-19-percent-in-q4-2018-cbre/" target="_blank">Khmer Times</a>. A total of eight new condominium projects were completed in the fourth quarter of last year, bringing 2,234 units to the residential sector and raising condo supply by 18.9 percent. The mid-range segment accounted for 40 percent or majority of all completed units in the quarter, although the largest completed project is categorised as affordable. Fears of a glut remain, however, as this barrage of units has not had noticeable effects on sales and rental rates within the sector to date, according to Ann Sothida, director of CBRE Cambodia. <a href="http://www.property-report.com/detail/-/blogs/sihanoukville-6-top-spots-in-cambodia-s-coast-with-the-mo-9" target="_blank">More: 6 top spots in Cambodia's coast with the most</a> “Whilst this inflow of condo supply is a sign of strong market growth, fears of over-saturation within the condo sector in the mid and high-end segments persist,” Sothida said. This uptick in condo stock completion is expected continue in the first and second quarters of 2019, due to delayed constructions from the fourth quarter. Six new condo projects, , totalling around 2,000 units, were launched during the fourth quarter. The increase in condo stock came amid a drop in the number of the approved construction projects, which sank <a href="https://www.phnompenhpost.com/post-property/phnom-penh-office-space-grows-11" target="_blank">19 percent in 2018</a>, according to the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction. Around 2,867 projects were approved, down from 3,052 projects in 2017.

Phnom Penh condo supply rises 19%: CBRE

This Indian city is the world’s most dynamic

<img alt="Attendees of the 2018 PropertyGuru Cambodia Property Awards raise a toast during the televised gala dinner" src="/documents/10204/0/kpa-2019-r-lead-image-compressor.jpg/5f3c509f-f11b-42f2-ae7f-d83dbc83eae8?t=1547636587974" style="width: 1000px; height: 667px;" />Real estate consumers in Cambodia are being encouraged to nominate their favourite new properties for the fourth annual edition of the PropertyGuru Cambodia Property Awards, which will be announced at an exclusive gala dinner on Friday, 3 May 2019 at the Sofitel Phnom Penh Phokeethra ballroom. Presented by global brand Kohler, the prestigious competition aims to celebrate excellence in real estate development, design and innovation within the industry that has grown rapidly over the last four years, fueled by interest from local and foreign investors, political stability and an improved national economy. There are competitive categories open for residential projects in Phnom Penh, Greater Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, and Sihanoukville, whilst the commercial categories are open for office, retail, hotel, mixed-use, serviced apartment, and industrial development. <h4>New categories for niche segments</h4> In addition, the independent panel of judges is also looking for nominees in the Best Entertainment Development, Best Educational Development, Best Medical Development, and Best Gaming Venue awards. The new categories have been added to reflect the growth of niche segments in the sector. This year’s special awards include honours for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Sustainable Development, Design and Construction, Building Communities, Customer Care, and Positive Construction Practices. The special award for Public Facility is open to facilities or infrastructure projects led by the public sector. Key dates for the 2019 edition are: <ul> <li>5 November 2018 – Nominations and Entries Open</li> <li>1 March 2019 – Nominations Close</li> <li>8 March 2019 – Entries Close</li> <li>25 March to 5 April 2019 – Site Inspections</li> <li>8 April 2019 – Final Judging</li> <li>3 May 2019 – Gala Dinner and Awards Ceremony</li> </ul> <img alt="Nito H. Lim, managing director and co-founder of NI Development Co., Ltd. receives the prize for Best Retail Interior Design at the 2018 awards" src="/documents/10204/0/kpa-2019-lead-image-compressor.jpg/be49dc5c-526a-4777-8a03-09a75f4dbf04?t=1547636749895" /> <h4>Televised awards, topnotch support, transparent judging process</h4> Nearly 400 guests attended the televised 2018 awards night, including the strong delegation led by H.E. Dr. Pen Sophal, the Secretary of State of the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction, which has supported the Cambodia Property Awards since its first presentation in 2016. This year’s independent panel of expert judges is headed by incumbent chairperson Sorn Seap, Founder & Director, Key Real Estate Co Ltd. The supervision of the awards and judging process is overseen by BDO Cambodia, part of the world’s largest network of auditing and accounting firms. The 2019 PropertyGuru Cambodia Property Awards is supported by platinum sponsor Kohler; gold sponsor Hitachi Elevator; official airline partner Emirates; official magazine PropertyGuru Property Report; media partners BizKhmer, Construction & Property Magazine, Master Media, and Southeast Asia GLOBE; and official supervisor BDO. For more information, email <a href="mailto:awards@propertyguru.com">awards@propertyguru.com</a> or visit the official website: <a href="http://asiapropertyawards.com/">AsiaPropertyAwards.com</a>

PropertyGuru Cambodia Property Awards cast wider net on nominees for 2019 edition

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<img alt="" src="/documents/10204/0/wintersports-piece-lead-image-compressor.jpg/cdc9fe91-ff40-436c-ad8e-a2ed87c71d2d?t=1545622183758" style="width: 1400px; height: 640px;" /> The skier lowers her goggles and begins her descent, leaving a spray of powdery snow in her wake as she glides down the piste. At the foot of the slope, she heads for a hot drink, chats with friends, and takes the chairlift back to the top for more. A typical scene for a ski resort, except here both slopes and snow are man-made, the venue—at Harbin in northern China—is undercover, and while outside it is a hot summer’s day, indoor temperature is maintained at below freezing by fans and an underground cooling system. Welcome to the world of winter sports in 2018. Due to rising incomes, the growing appeal of a Western lifestyle, and the utilisation of advanced technology, there’s a new generation of skiers and snowboarders in Asia. Resorts such as Niseko in Japan are enjoying increased visitor numbers. Situated in Hokkaido, Japan’s northernmost island, it is one of the world’s snowiest ski destinations with an average of 15 metres of usually dry, light powder every winter, brought in by storms from Siberia. Across the world brand new resorts are springing up, sparking interest in what was at one time fairly exclusive seasonal sports—a good thing as this once robust global industry faces challenges like never before. <a href="http://www.property-report.com/detail/-/blogs/6-cool-reasons-why-niseko-luxury-is-on-top-of-the-wor-6" target="_blank">More: 6 cool reasons why Niseko is on top of the world</a> “Climate change is affecting the winter sports industry—from poor season starts to extreme weather conditions, skiers and snowboarders are finding it hard to predict the best time to hit the slopes,” explained Paul Tostevin, Associate Director at Savills, which published Ski Spotlight in 2017. Long-time favourites Zermatt in Switzerland, Vail in Colorado, U.S., and Saas-Fee, situated in the Swiss Alps near the Italian border, top the 2017 report as the most “resilient”, followed by Aspen (Colorado again), Breuil-Cervinia in Italy, and Heavenly in Lake Tahoe, on the border of California and Nevada. Savills’ ‘ski conditions resilience index’ includes such measures as season length and altitude, as well as snowfall. Resorts such as Zermatt have come top despite the fact snowfall has been consistently lower than average in the Alps the last four seasons. Things looked brighter for North America, as last season (2016-2017) delivered larger snowfall than normal. The Pacific Northwest received 110 percent of its normal snowfall, and the figure was 115 percent in the Northeast states. The increase has been a boon, but snowfall in any given season is at the mercy of the weather gods; add to this an ageing population of ski enthusiasts, coupled with changes in how leisure time is spent, and the outlook for winter resorts is not wholly positive. <div class="pull-quotes-container">Unreliable ski seasons are being countered by investments made to attract visitors year-round, and an increase in snowmaking, a technology that is advancing rapidly</div> It’s quite a change for an industry that once provided a booming economy for the resorts mentioned; and one that encompassed lucrative residential property and second home investments. But, said Tostevin, the industry is fighting back. “Unreliable ski seasons are being countered by investments made to attract visitors year-round, and an increase in snowmaking, a technology that is advancing rapidly.” The same report revealed Austrian resorts have spent EUR1 billion (USD1.2 billion) in snowmaking equipment in the last decade, such that “snow-starved slopes can be topped up.” Today, no less than 60 percent of Austrian slopes are covered with artificial snow. Early this year, organisers behind Pyeongchang Winter Olympics employed U.S. company Snow-Making, Inc. (SMI), which mounted 100 snow cannons on towers and carriages in Jeongseon, and deployed an additional 10 mobile snow guns for portable use. Though the city was undeniably wintery during the event—temperatures regularly dropped below –10 degrees Centigrade—it was actually too cold for adequate snowfall. <img alt="Although it hasn’t been the easiest time for the ski industry, established resorts such as Zermatt in Switzerland continue to draw in investors. Samot/Shutterstock" src="/documents/10204/0/shutterstock_314015915-compressor.jpg/a089303f-c6c9-4363-9760-55a5866968a9?t=1545801305807" /> South Korea hosted the Summer Olympic Games in 1988, which kickstarted the country’s transformation into an economic powerhouse and a global leader in the electronics industry. In the case of the Pyeongchang Games, one of the organisers’ stated goals was to help the country become a top winter sports destination in Asia. While Pyeongchang’s legacy remains to be seen, interest in skiing from key emerging markets like China is rising fast. “Middle classes in China, Eastern Europe and Latin America are the skiers of tomorrow and may offset a decline in some mature source markets,” Tostevin asserted. This is echoed by Carrie Law, CEO of Juwai.com, a China-based international real estate website. “China is the world’s largest beginner ski market, which promises huge future growth, and the ski property industry is nascent,” she explained. “The downside of this is that there are relatively few long-time skiers in China. Chinese don’t aspire to the ski-chalet second home as much as to a beach, vineyard, or sophisticated urban lifestyle. “Our research shows that about 18 percent of Chinese skiers have skied overseas, the top destinations being Japan, South Korea, and Switzerland, but there are only about 12 to 15 million Chinese skiers. And most are beginners, rather than experienced skiers who grew up with the sport and in the mountains.” <div class="pull-quotes-container">For the time being, ski areas are considered more as ski playgrounds than as mountain resorts, and one-time skiers account for a considerable portion of skier visits</div> Laurent Vanat, a seasoned skiing expert who produces an annual report on the sport, put things more bluntly: “There is no culture of skiing. Most Chinese skiers do not ski more than once per season. Some ski areas even have paid employees to help skiers get up after they fall and to retrieve their equipment!” In China, added Vanat, “skiing is consumed as a kind of entertainment product rather than a sport that requires repeated practice. For the time being, ski areas are considered more as ski playgrounds than as mountain resorts, and one-time skiers account for a considerable portion of skier visits. Skiing is nevertheless becoming more and more popular among Chinese between the ages of 25-35. About 80 percent of skiers are under 40.” In 2016, China’s State Council approved the 2016-2020 National Fitness Plan, which laid out ambitious targets for fitness levels and increased sports participation. It includes promoting winter sports on a large scale, utilising the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics to spark interest amongst residents. The aim is to have 300 million people participating in a form of winter sports by 2025. It’s an ambitious goal, especially given China’s topography. While there is mountainous terrain, many peaks are too small to be suitable for skiing, or are too steep. But these limitations have led to some creative solutions. Muchengjian Colliery, situated in a western suburb of Beijing and which once produced coal, is being turned into an air-conditioned year-round ski course with an indoor ski tunnel and trails on the slopes above. It will form part of a winter sports park scheduled to host snowboarding events during the Winter Games. <img alt="Niseko in northern Japan is known for the consistency of its snowfall and the quality of its powder: two elements that ensure it remains one of the most alluring winter sports destinations in Asia" src="/documents/10204/0/shutterstock_538073608-compressor.jpg/f1bbeaa6-c07a-458d-85f4-217fbb0a23e4?t=1546246669980" /> The location of nearby Nashan resort means it enjoys only a smattering of the white stuff in any given season, but is home to 29 state-of-the-art snow-making machines. And last summer, the northern Chinese city of Harbin opened the world’s largest indoor ski resort. The Harbin Wanda Indoor Ski and Winter Sports Resort, which cost CNY40 billion (USD6.3 billion) to build and features slopes that can accommodate 3,000 people at a time. The vast resort also houses a shopping centre, cinema, outdoor theme park, ice hockey rink, theatres, and hotels. It remains to be seen if the Olympics-focused drive, and the increase in resorts in China and beyond, will result in a huge uptake in winter sport participation in Asia. Certainly rising incomes and a desire to escape smoggy cities means numbers are up, but winter sport enthusiasts are—for now—as likely to go abroad for their fix. “There is definitely a huge increase of customers from other Asian countries outside Japan,” said Wu Acme, marketing manager at Niseko resort in Japan, which enjoyed 313,838 visitors last season. “The top three countries for visitors were Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore, with China and Thailand rapidly growing as well.” And while new technology and promotional drives may encourage some to try out skiing or snowboarding, it seems a much more basic ingredient may still have the biggest draw: real snow. Wu Acme added: “I wouldn't necessarily say the increase in visitors from Asian countries is because of the Winter Olympics. We have added equipment such as lifts in two of the resorts to better accommodate our beginner customers and we have famous athletes visit, so people see it being promoted. “But really Niseko has become a popular destination mainly because of the amazing quality of snow.” This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.magzter.com/TH/PropertyGuru-International-(Thailand)-Co.,Ltd/Property-Report/Business/295140" target="_blank">Issue No. 148</a> of PropertyGuru Property Report Magazine

Winter sports hubs halt their slide

<img alt="" src="/documents/10204/0/quick-off-the-blocks-150-compressor.jpg/7b166688-d995-4fae-ad43-da973d6148e9?t=1545406645895" style="width: 1400px; height: 640px;" /> With the click of a mouse, an apartment unit in the Ukrainian capital may have become the axis of a forthcoming revolution in real estate. In less than 20 seconds, without the stroke of a pen or even a handshake, roughly USD60,000 worth of the cryptocurrency Ethereum was zapped into the virtual wallet of a seller some 6,100 miles across the globe to complete the first-ever online real estate deal using blockchain technology.  This transaction could have a ripple effect not only on the housing market in the former Soviet state, which is slowly recovering from a staggering slump coinciding with the war on its eastern frontier, but also on how investors think about property worldwide. Besides offering quick, secure, remote transactions for ordinary consumers, proponents of blockchain have long envisioned a future where even hard assets like real estate could be tokenized and swapped with the ease of stocks and bonds. “The buyers don’t even need to visit the country where they would like to buy property,” says Alexander Voloshyn, the chief technical officer of San Francisco-based start-up Propy, which facilitated the sale to TechCrunch founder and erstwhile consultant to the company Michael Arrington. Ukraine, which in a bid to lure investors has recently amended regulations on foreign ownership, seemed like an ideal testing ground for a decentralized online property market. “It’s like Amazon,” Voloshyn explains, “but for real estate.” Blockchain-based real estate sales have been in trial stages for years in several countries including Honduras, the United Arab Emirates, Sweden, the U.S. and the U.K., but Ukraine was the first to seal a deal. The country is among the world’s top four exporters of IT products and services, according to the IT Ukraine Association, and produces some of the sector’s most sophisticated developers. Voloshyn, who studied in Kiev, and Propy CEO Natalia Karayaneva saw an opportunity early on when they founded Propy as an electronic title registry, and partnered with the Ministry of Justice in 2017 to explore introducing blockchain to the country’s land reform agenda. <div class="pull-quotes-container">The buyers don’t even need to visit the country where they would like to buy property. It’s like Amazon, but for real estate</div> “Here you’ve got a system that’s more secure, more transparent, and in emerging parts of the world, provides more stable ownership titles than the existing systems in some countries,” says Tom Bill, head of London residential research at Knight Frank. Like many in the industry, he says there are a few clear reasons blockchain is appealing to governments such as Ukraine’s. “In theory it is tamper-proof, and yes, it is a more secure way of trading assets.” Conditions are perfect for experimentation in Ukraine, as the new government seated in 2016 has undertaken bold reforms; the administration sees new tech as both enticing to foreign investors and conducive to its sweeping anti-corruption drive. Years of political unrest are beginning to stabilize following a popular uprising in 2014 that saw a pro-Western government replace an administration closely aligned with Russia. Both land ownership and information technology play central roles in the country’s economic renaissance. Ukraine suffered a serious blow after the global financial crisis, when its property market was at its peak. The years since saw a steady return to normalcy, only to take a nosedive in 2014 amid political instability that led to the ousting of pro-Kremlin former president Viktor Yanukovych and the War in Donbass between the Ukrainian government and pro-Russian separatists. In the wake of the conflict, devaluation of the country’s hryvnia currency led to a 68.8 percent drop in housing prices from their 2008 zenith. In the current government’s view, things can only improve. <a href="http://property-report.com/detail/-/blogs/5-takeaways-on-fintech-from-the-propertyguru-asia-real-estate-summit-2018" target="_blank">More: 5 takeaways on fintech from the PropertyGuru Asia Real Estate Summit 2018</a> The country is also riddled with corruption, an area where blockchain could, in theory, be immensely helpful because all transactions are public. Ukraine ranked 130 out of 180 countries in the latest annual corruption perceptions index by Transparency International—putting it on even footing with Iran, Myanmar, and Sierra Leone. Viktor Nestulia, director of the Innovation Projects Program at TI Ukraine, says blockchain use for real estate “has great potential, but in the future,” when financial reforms are more advanced and incomes elevated. “For the moment, in most cases [blockchain] will not bring any additional value,” he says. “Rather the opposite: it just increases the cost of ownership.” But Voloshyn says the blockchain model is “suitable for the progress of developing countries,” where industrial leapfrogging can catapult new generations to the frontline of innovation. “Bringing financial opportunity to deserving but underserved parts of the world is one of the motivating factors behind Propy’s stated strategy,” he says. In Ukraine, where the IT sector is highly sophisticated despite the country’s economic strain, blockchain could lure more foreign capital. Globally, mainstreaming the process could also fundamentally change investment strategy and allow money to move more freely. Many real estate professionals see the transition to blockchain transactions as inevitable, if perhaps not imminent, because it advances the industry on two fronts. On the one hand, it makes buying and selling faster and more transparent for conventional transactions (Arrington’s purchase in Kiev took less than 48 hours to complete all seven steps from the creation of a “property object” to a successful payment). These simple and speedy transactions would benefit consumers who could afford to buy property and have access to the technology. <a href="http://property-report.com/detail/-/blogs/this-disruptive-tech-will-have-a-deep-impact-on-the-global-economy-in-six-yea-3" target="_blank">More: This disruptive tech will have a deep impact on the global economy in six years</a> But the big-picture goal, experts say, is using blockchain to liquefy property. The ease of transactions would make it possible for investors to seamlessly buy and sell units, or tokenized property assets, at lightning speed—just as they would with stocks. While the use of blockchain to streamline small transactions could become ubiquitous in the not-too-distant future, Bill, of Knight Frank, says the idea of tokenizing property “would require changing the mindsets of investors everywhere.” Not everyone thinks it’s a good idea, but it is a generally agreed upon forecast. “It’s not only possible, but likely,” says Mark Zilbert, executive vice president of the real estate firm Brown Harris Stevens. “But I predict that real estate brokers will both collectively and individually resist the blockchain,” he surmises, “fearing that it will make them irrelevant.” This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.magzter.com/TH/PropertyGuru-International-(Thailand)-Co.,Ltd/Property-Report/Business/316198" target="_blank">Issue No. 150</a> of PropertyGuru Property Report Magazine

To jumpstart real estate sector, Ukraine embraces crypto records

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<img alt="Lang Co beach near Hue, Vietnam. Thana Nattribhop/Shutterstock" src="/documents/10204/0/shutterstock_466971455-compressor.jpg/6480c1b7-608d-4efb-b70b-1c95a8a11415?t=1545110966609" style="width: 1000px; height: 667px;" />The fortunes of Lang Co are set to change in the next few years. The small coastal village in Vietnam’s Hue province is home to Laguna Lang Co, a 280-hectare integrated resort that will, by 2021, host an international-scale casino complex. Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc consented earlier this year to allowing the casino operations, set to feature some 500 gaming machines and 50 table games. Investment into the project will reportedly total USD2 billion, the minimum required capital for a casino resort to operate under a three-year trial for gambling by locals.  The initial salvo of residential components in the resort includes the Banyan Tree Residences, launched last week. The 40 villas, each with its own outdoor infinity pool, are splayed on a jungle-clad mountainside and look out to the resort's three-kilometre-long private beach. <a href="http://www.property-report.com/detail/-/blogs/vietnam-s-special-economic-zones-a-trojan-horse-for-chinese-influenc-1" target="_blank">More: Are Vietnam's Special Economic Zones a Trojan horse for Chinese influence?</a> “These days there are multiple investment opportunities in Vietnam, but not many property owners can say that they have a home that is built on a mountainside overlooking one of the most beautiful bays in the world. Here they can,” said Gavin Herholdt, managing director of Laguna Lang Co.   Occupants can choose from one- to three-bedroom villa layouts spanning from 152 to 260 square metres, respectively. The heights of the villas stand at anywhere between 45 and 85 metres. Interior elements of the residences pay subtle hoamge to the traditional architecture of nearby Hue, Vietnam’s former imperial capital. “Our aim with these residences was to showcase the harmony that can be achieved between nature and design,” said Herholdt. Laguna Lang Co is also home to the Angsana Lang Co resort as well as a championship golf course designed by Nick Faldo. See images of Banyan Tree Residences: <img alt="" src="/documents/10204/0/3_BanyanTreeLangCo_Three_Bedroom-Sea-view_Hill_Pool-Villa-%286%29-compressor.jpg/fac993f1-20b2-49e7-b26f-80149191b862?t=1545111068960" /> <img alt="" src="/documents/10204/0/2_Banyan-Tree-Lang-Co-Hill-Villa_2018%284%29-compressor.jpeg/0d8db190-3863-4899-82d2-e3d7e3088811?t=1545111052766" /> <img alt="" src="/documents/10204/0/1_BanyanTreeLangCo_Three_Bedroom-Sea-view_Hill_Pool-Villa-%281%29-compressor.jpg/2f3b2a51-ba7a-4779-809f-a8e545cee3bb?t=1545111041455" />

Where to live in a future Vietnamese casino resort

<img alt="Front view of the award-winning building proposal CUBO" src="/documents/10204/0/CUBO+-+winning+entry+of+RICS+Cities+for+our+Future++%28front%29+for+site.jpg/c6318d38-4165-4f74-a820-448dca4d8bf8?t=1543546953179" style="width: 1185px; height: 667px;" />An affordable, expandable housing solution to Manila’s squalid living conditions won the Cities for Our Future challenge by The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).   Earl Patrick Forlales, 23, from the Philippines wowed judges with his take on the local “bahay kubo” or stilt house, beating more than 1,200 entries worldwide. Like its forerunners, CUBO is made of bamboo, treated and laminated, allowing builders to keep construction costs down to just GBP60 (USD77) per square metre. <img alt="Artist's impression of the CUBO kitchen" src="/documents/10204/0/CUBO+-+winning+entry+of+RICS+Cities+for+our+Future++%28kitchen%29.jpg/55661fac-494b-4a20-b4ec-79dd854e597c?t=1543547190938" /> With features like a tilted roof that captures rainwater and reduces heat gain, CUBO proposes a dignified alternative to typical dwellings in Manila’s sprawling slums. Multiple units can be configured together in such a way that residents can take advantage of communal kitchens, bathrooms or offices. Construction of CUBO should take no more than four hours after the arrival of an installation team. Bamboo is abundant in the Philippine islands, where it thrives even on poor-quality soil and can be harvested annually without leading to soil degradation. <a href="http://www.property-report.com/detail/-/blogs/this-vietnamese-townhouse-is-actually-a-brick-ca-6" target="_blank">More: Stylish Hanoi home has holes in the walls</a> Forlales offers CUBO as a low-cost housing option for below-minimum wage earners in the overpopulated metropolis. At an estimated rental cost of just GBP0.20 a day, a CUBO unit could turn a profit within 5.1 years. “This is a huge step forward to helping the people of Manila,” Forlales said in a statement. “The state of housing in the city is at crisis point, and will undoubtedly get worse with this new influx of workers. <img alt="Artist's impression of a bedroom in CUBO" src="/documents/10204/0/CUBO+-+winning+entry+of+RICS+Cities+for+our+Future+%28bedroom%29.jpg/f4c1e5fa-2562-4a80-b8e4-d2ab40d91323?t=1543547588812" /> “CUBO started as nothing more than an idea, conceived while spending time at my grandparent’s house – it is incredible to think that it now will become a reality.” Forlales’ prize money of GBP50,000 will allow him to start work on CUBO next year. He hopes to replicate the homes in areas across Southeast Asia, Latin America and Africa. Find more images of CUBO, courtesy of <a href="https://www.rics.org/asean/about-rics/where-we-are/asean-and-china/" target="_blank">RICS</a>: <img alt="The courtyard at CUBO" src="/documents/10204/0/CUBO+-+winning+entry+of+RICS+Cities+for+our+Future+%28courtyard%29.jpg/9bbbc59c-e457-40b8-9f06-1de9e4ad24cf?t=1543547761633" /> <img alt="Common area" src="/documents/10204/0/CUBO+-+winning+entry+of+RICS+Cities+for+our+Future+%28common+area%29.jpg/bf95adae-097f-4478-9628-9105c5b13c0a?t=1543547810400" /> <img alt="Laundry area" src="/documents/10204/0/CUBO+-+winning+entry+of+RICS+Cities+for+our+Future+%28laundry%29.jpg/c49a0864-1ecb-4d69-bf2f-a05400ae360a?t=1543547867365" /> <img alt="X-ray render of a single CUBO unit" src="/documents/10204/0/CUBO+single+unit+colored+xray+render.jpg/167ac613-f0d7-4f4a-80c4-ab014da76213?t=1543548510892" />

This cheap, modular bamboo home could fix Manila’s housing woes

<img alt="A tourist looks toward the Manhattan skyline from Brooklyn park. Maridev/Shutterstock" src="/documents/10204/0/shutterstock_1120574279-compressor.jpg/9deec7af-e54f-4dcd-a982-a005edbefbce?t=1547618814711" style="width: 1000px; height: 667px;" />While Chinese penchant for US residential real estate is not new, middle-income buyers from mainland China are increasingly joining their cashed-up compatriots in seeking stateside homes, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/08/chinese-middle-class-buying-up-american-residential-real-estate.html" target="_blank">CNBC</a> reported. The trend is consistent with data from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) showing that the median price of a US home sold to a Chinese buyer stood at USD439,000 in 2018, down from USD530,000 in 2017. "The Chinese people still see the United States as a safe harbor where they can take their assets and park their money not only for their money but also for the future of their children," Michi Olson, a San Francisco-based real estate agent, told CNBC. <a href="http://www.property-report.com/detail/-/blogs/a-little-known-chinese-border-town-profits-from-the-north-korea-deten-6" target="_blank">More: A little-known Chinese border town profits from the North Korea détente</a> Lenders from California to Texas have adjusted mortgage underwriting standards to serve this seemingly new set of Chinese buyers, most of whom are not used to putting down cold cash for million-dollar residences. "It is difficult to get loan approval on foreign buyers unless they put 50 percent or more down on a home, but several lenders specialize in this market now, so it is getting easier," observed Laura Barnett of RE/MAX DFW Associates. Chinese property seekers are confident with their purchases despite the unravelling trade ties between their motherland and the states, with Olson calling them "basically politically agnostic." "What I mean by that is even though there is a great tension between [the] US government and Chinese, the Chinese citizen seems to be able to separate the political turmoil with the sound real estate investment," said Olson.

It's not just crazy rich Chinese looking for US homes

<img alt="" src="/documents/10204/0/at-home-in-venice-boulevard-for-web-148-lead-compressor.jpg/eb317b59-d1d1-49d3-bcf7-89a173b9868a?t=1547034640531" style="width: 1400px; height: 640px;" /> On a well-to-do street in Venice—not the one with the gondolas, but the Los Angeles beach town where glistening bodybuilders famously pump iron in disturbingly tiny pants on Muscle Beach—the houses all follow a modest sort of protocol. All but one. Rising defiantly over rows of chaste wooden bungalows is Kulapat Yantrasast’s four-storey, concrete miscreant: part pool house, part design studio, part meditation pavilion—and part multi-storey car park. Thai-born Yantrasast has lately become the go-to architect for the United States’ finest art institutions—his practice, wHY Architecture, designed Michigan’s Grand Rapids Art Museum, reimagined the Speed Art Museum in Louisville, turned a Masonic Temple in L.A. into the Marciano Art Foundation, and is currently renovating and expanding San Francisco’s Asian Art Museum. This afternoon, however, he’s just happy to be home—at least in the next two hours before the airport. “I travel so much for work, it’s nice to have an excuse to come here,” said Yantrasast of the house he designed for himself. Wearing his hair in floppy spikes and sporting a pair of chunky, designer black-framed spectacles, Yantrasast is one of those naturally easy, upbeat people, immediately open and warm. Seated at what is technically the dining table but can also be a workbench, gazing at the pool through a wall of glass sliding doors that pull back to create an indoor-outdoor living space, he revealed, “This is my favourite place not just in the house, but the whole world.” <div class="pull-quotes-container">I really see architecture as more of a bridge than a wall. It allows you to connect to cities and nature and things, rather than close you off</div> Here the intention of his building comes to full focus. “The house is a shelter,” he said, “enclosed on three sides, but also connected to the outdoors.” Yantrasast started with the pool and the garden, and then built an intentionally “skinny” house—just 18 feet wide—“so the architecture would make room for the landscape.” The pool looks straight onto the street, where cars and pedestrians pass by, though he’s planted tall elephant grasses on one side to give his neighbours privacy. Openness and connectedness might not be what you’d typically expect of a concrete box, but it’s something Yantrasast has achieved time and again with his (also concrete) museums. It’s evident in the concrete canopy that welcomes guests into the Grand Rapids museum, or his studio art building at Claremont’s Pomona Art College, which comprises several concrete box-rooms dotted about an open-air courtyard, covered by a subtly undulating roof. “I really see architecture as more of a bridge than a wall,” related Yantrasast. “It allows you to connect to cities and nature and things, rather than close you off.” There’s a warmth about Yantrasast’s home, too, that contradicts his brut material. Several dangerously tall piles of books threaten to topple at any moment, and the shelves are chock-full of tchotchkes—anything from wood-carved African animals to plastic action figures. What draws him to such eclectic pieces? “I guess a sense of humanity is what I’m looking for,” he decided. “Objects that feel like someone is having fun with life.”   <img alt="Kulapat Yantrasast" src="/documents/10204/0/at+home+in+venice+boulevard+for+web+148.jpg/4d34b696-b41e-4e73-88f4-cd04df59bd7d?t=1547034322266" /> The home’s delicate balance of structural rigour—Yantrasast likes how concrete doesn’t conceal how the house is built—and human playfulness is a deeply personal aesthetic the architect has honed over more than two decades. Given his preferred material, it isn’t surprising to learn Yantrasast experienced his “architectural upbringing” under Tadao Ando. The Pritzker Prize-winning Japanese master who designed—among many, many others—the considered concrete museums of Naoshima “art island” and Tokyo’s singular Omotesando Hills shopping mall, practically adopted him. A summer job in Ando’s studio after graduating with an architecture degree at the University of Tokyo turned into eight years of professional partnership—and a room in Ando and his wife’s home. But, in 2003, Yantrasast decided it was time to strike out alone. And so he boarded a plane for Los Angeles. “I like the clarity and the minimalism of what I learned in Japan,” Yantrasast shared, “but towards the end of my time there, I longed for less rigour; I missed mess and fragrance and flavour. That’s my Thai roots showing! A big reason I came to America was the sense of freedom, the diversity. I liked the possibilities of what can happen when people come from different places and collide with each other.” <img alt="Yantrasast loves to entertain, and visiting guests are spoiled for choice in the home, which feels like an open multifunctional space with options ranging from lounging to vegging by the pool" src="/documents/10204/0/at-home-in-venice-boulevard-for-web-148-2-compressor.jpg/85dadfff-053e-4913-9eb6-9daaa365f2c0?t=1547034429684" /> This yearning for life’s chaos brought him to Venice, too, formerly more bohemian than today’s gentrified incarnation. “I liked the edge of it,” he mused. “I prefer things on the scruffy side.” Yantrasast’s house is by no means scruffy. But there is a certain, calculated embrace of the haphazard. The favoured spot where this chat began is on the second floor—the first contains two guest apartments—but, really, the whole building feels like one open, flowing, multi-functional space. Television, sofa, dining/work table, kitchen, books and curiosities all occupy the same open-plan room, and from here you can see into the third floor’s library/studio where there’s also an exercise bike and lots of random bric-a-brac—a Mexican wrestling mask, a rubber duck… “I built my house as a place for me to be happy and do all the things I want,” Yantrasast explained, cheerfully. “I liked the idea of one big space that I could do different things in, rather than a series of small rooms. For me, there’s no line between work and play. There’s no box I want to put things in.” Ascending a concrete staircase from this floor, one enters into a clear, polycarbonate cube, jutting unapologetically from the roof. It seems a sort of decompression chamber between indoors and outdoors, but Yantrasast conceived it for a more practical use: it lights up at night, glowing like a beacon, and illuminating the al fresco astro-turf so you can hang out here after dusk. Because Venice is low-rise, the view expands over bungalows to distant glass towers and spindly palms. It’s best viewed from “another happy place”—his rooftop trampoline. “Jumping up here, you really feel you’re in the sky,” he laughed. <img alt="The way living spaces and leisure features such as an outdoor pool link effortlessly is testament to the architect’s success in ensuring a flow to his design" src="/documents/10204/0/at-home-in-venice-boulevard-for-web-148-3-compressor.jpg/70090ac5-7f00-47bc-9f09-75812f113b40?t=1547034513875" /> By now it’s quite clear this house is Kulapat Yantrasast: a considered foundation of serious, technical brilliance, but outwardly fun, open and social. He loves to entertain in it, and that guests can do whatever they like—cook, swim, watch TV—because where some architects use design to control how a space is experienced, Yantrasast believes in being generous with choice. Choice also influences how he works. Unlike many such accomplished people, who tend to have their own strong (tunnel) vision, Yantrasast relishes collaboration. For that reason, he isn’t committed to concrete, and used various materials in the 10 homes wHY has built for clients—all of whom cold-called, asking for their services. <a href="http://property-report.com/detail/-/blogs/take-a-peek-inside-this-record-smashing-new-york-penthou-5" target="_blank">More: Take a peek inside this record-smashing New York penthouse</a> “It would be a lot easier to apply formulaic solutions, because it’s more time-consuming and less profitable when you’re always starting from scratch,” Yantrasast admitted. But if a person lives an interesting life, he said, their house should be reflect that. “People who like that process and creating something unique gravitate towards us.” Yantrasast’s house, of course, is an extension of his interesting life, and that’s why you likely won’t see it on the market anytime soon. “I didn’t actually plan on staying here—I thought I’d sell it and move on,” he confided, “but I just can’t bring myself to leave.” This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.magzter.com/TH/PropertyGuru-International-(Thailand)-Co.,Ltd/Property-Report/Business/295140" target="_blank">Issue No. 148</a> of PropertyGuru Property Report Magazine

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