100 hotels on Koh Samui forced to sell up due to COVID-19 crisis

[rooster59]

100 hotels on Koh Samui forced to sell up due to COVID-19 crisis

 

Image: The Bangkok Insight

 

The head of a tourism business association on the once popular holiday island of Koh Samui has painted a grim picture of the devastation wrought by the coronavirus pandemic.

 

Worasit Pongkhamphan said that since the beginning of April 100 hotels have advertised that they are for sale. 

 

Banks won't extend loans and the situation has been further exacerbated by agents not paying for rooms for months.

 

Tourism has been decimated on the island for the last two months, reported The Bangkok Insight, as the country was locked down and international flights - the lifeblood of Samui, ceased.

 

Now Worasit has called for government bailouts to help the industry on Samui where there are 600 registered hotels and 30,000 rooms that employ 70,000 people. 
 

Source: The Bangkok Insight

 

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[ezzra]

Any one with cash at hand can make a killing now buying properties at rock bottom price and when things will look up, and they will, will at least double their money...

[petermik]

Just the tip of the iceberg...many more to follow...time will prove the idiocy of the governments handling of the Covid situation  

 

[CNXexpat]

14 minutes ago, rooster59 said:

where there are 600 registered hotels

600 only. Plus 600 unregistered plus thousands of Airbnbs. 

[Jonny1959]

Back to the 90's.

Take the hotels away and plant palms.

Samui was a very beautiful island in the 80's and 90's.

Now it is only expensive and overpriced.

 

[trainman34014]

When you have hundreds of Hotels too many there are going to be casualties; as usual nothing is regulated properly with Common Sense, everything is geared to Greed.

[apophyss]

Chineese will come buy all...

[smedly]

I wonder who is buying them up on the cheap

[mr_lob]

40 minutes ago, apophyss said:

Chineese will come buy all...

Sadly yes, and in many struggling parts of the World. China to the rescue!

China is asshoe!

[miamiman123]

10% unemployed Thailand said

hehehehe 

[Quickmill]

1 hour ago, ezzra said:

Any one with cash at hand can make a killing now buying properties at rock bottom price and when things will look up, and they will, will at least double their money...

I hope it will be as you said, at least for the people in need to sale their hotel, because i suspect it will be very hard to sale an hotel, with the expectation of lack of tourists, unless their own even the land...with proper chanod..just my point of view

[phantomfiddler]

46 minutes ago, apophyss said:

Chineese will come buy all...

In Pattaya it,s the Indians, buying up everything and just letting them sit there unused. All I can think of is money laundering. I went into one restaurant 4 times over 6 months and was told that the cook was not in !

[Trentham]

1 hour ago, Jonny1959 said:

Back to the 90's.

Take the hotels away and plant palms.

Samui was a very beautiful island in the 80's and 90's.

Now it is only expensive and overpriced.

 

I first went to Koh Samui in 1984. Stayed at Lamai Beach in a bungalow with a palm frond roof. 50 baht per night for 2 people and another 50 baht each for 3 meals a day. It was magic. All the food was fresh caught in the sea or grown in their own garden. If I ordered a pina colada they would scramble up a palm tree to get a fresh coconut. Beautiful beyond words.

[Chelseafan]

6 minutes ago, miamiman123 said:

10% unemployed Thailand said

hehehehe 

 

Sorry, but how is that funny?

 

[mickymouse1]

2 hours ago, ezzra said:

Any one with cash at hand can make a killing now buying properties at rock bottom price and when things will look up, and they will, will at least double their money...

Give me an example of 1 resort/ hotel that is going cheap!!! I know few but not cheap as you might think.

[crazykopite]

I think there is a lot of exaggeration going on here the only so called hotels up for sale would be flea pits that should have been knocked down years ago Samui is full of well known international hotels Who might well have to reduce staff levels but will survive .

[CNXexpat]

2 hours ago, Jonny1959 said:

Back to the 90's.

Take the hotels away and plant palms.

Samui was a very beautiful island in the 80's and 90's.

Now it is only expensive and overpriced.

 

LOL. Take all the cars away from the streets everywhere in the world and live in the past. Who cares about jobs in the tourism industry. 

[steven100]

is this the same as a fire sale ....  

[BritManToo]

3 hours ago, ezzra said:

Any one with cash at hand can make a killing now buying properties at rock bottom price and when things will look up, and they will, will at least double their money...

What if borders never open again?

What if tourists can no longer easily travel?

How much money will they make then?

[cheapcanuck]

I'm in Lamai now. One in eight business have gone under. For rent signs are everywhere. Be it bars, restaurants,  message parlour, stores including 7/11's. Hotels are no different. Many have closed down never to reopen. Some hotel owners are taking advantage of the downturn by completely renovating their properties. It will very interesting to see this Ban in a year from now. To see who survived the 2020 year.

[Nice Boyd]

3 hours ago, ezzra said:

Any one with cash at hand can make a killing now buying properties at rock bottom price and when things will look up, and they will, will at least double their money...

Thais never go rock bottom 

[Nice Boyd]

2 hours ago, apophyss said:

Chineese will come buy all...

Just like they did in Sinoukville, Now they r gone Ghost Town 

[chilli42]

I guess they are fully leveraged or they  would not be selling.  The size of the mortgage will determine the bottom end price .... at least until the bank takes over and auctions the property. I would tend to agree with another poster.  There may be a few properties for sale but doubt they are going for fire sale prices yet.

[Jenkins9039]

3 hours ago, ezzra said:

Any one with cash at hand can make a killing now buying properties at rock bottom price and when things will look up, and they will, will at least double their money...

You could 'put the same money' into other investments (equities, crypto, etc) and make the same money in less time due to the volatility, and without the risk associated with not actually owning it (risk outside of reasonable control).

 

Best thing Thailand needs, is a hard, harsh, down-to-earth reset.

Baht will continue to appreciate due to their offshore holdings, but domestically it will collapse, then the baht will follow (eventually), also its better to invest in South America where you can own, and will see growing demand over the next decade for tourism, I know i am currently looking at a beachside residence there, stability in Panama, Brazil for much of the living requirements, a home away from home perhaps, but the return on investment has a better outlook due to its proximity to the US and retiree's.

[gearbox]

1 hour ago, smedly said:

I wonder who is buying them up on the cheap

Nobody...unless they like catching falling knifes. I think many shops have closed permanently as well.  AFAIK the 3 months government handout money finish this month. Uncharted waters for Samui. 

[Bender Rodriguez]

imagine, you have a few billions of "illegal" obtained money

and you want to invest...

 

you want to pay full price or you want to create a fake pandemic that many businesses will have to close & sell

 

and you can buy everything at an enormous PANIC discount ...

 

there are always people that will profit of the misery of others, they are at the top of the ivory tower...

 

when they did their bidding, the plandemic will be over and the profits can start 

[hotchilli]

3 hours ago, ezzra said:

Any one with cash at hand can make a killing now buying properties at rock bottom price and when things will look up, and they will, will at least double their money...

Watch the Chinese money flooding in !

[samuiwonder]

The hotels will not sell well, to anyone, as most are on a land lease anyway. With no income, eventually the landlords will just take them back over. 

[ExpatOne]

Curious how many Chinese are buying businesses as they are being forced to sell. They should be banned from foreign investments for the next 5 to 10 years.

[ChipButty]

If you wanna buy cheap wait until the bank has reprocessed