Property Ownership In Phuket

[grantbkk]

From Page 2 of The Nation 28 May 2007

Island is Lalvani's brainchild

UK-based media tycoon Gulu Lalvani said it was he and not Microsoft chairman Bill Gates who was behind the plan to build a doughnut-shaped luxury island off Phuket that would house resorts and be connected to his own marina.

The Pakistan-born billionaire, who owns Binatone - one of the world's largest manufacturers of digital cordless phones - said Gates was linked to the project because he and his wife Linda frequently visited Phuket on their yacht.

After two years of construction Lalvani's Royal Phuket Marina is now complete. It can hold 350 yachts. The Bt7-billion man-made island he plans off Sapam Beach in tambon Koh Kaew will be able to hold 400 yachts, the flamboyant tycoon said.

The island will be named "Zoran" after his youngest child. It will contain 30-40 villas, a condominium, restaurants, cafes and shops, Lalvani said. He said there would be five penthouses with private docking areas. The 65-rai island will be built three kilometres off the coast.

Lalvani said he decided to build an island because constant dredging of waterways to enable yachts to be docked at the marina had left a large amount of earth. His marina was built to accommodate large yachts of up to 40 metres in length and the minimum depth required is six metres.

Lalvani said Phuket's potential as a tourist resort would get a boost after it received the Asia Maritime Capital Award.

He said Phuket still needed more brand-name retailers as well as tourist attractions tailored to high-end tourists. The number of foreign tourists visiting Phuket rose 40 per cent in the first quarter despite political instability, he added.

My question is, who owns this development project? From what I have read Mr. Lalvani says he does. Is he still using nominees or is it all in his Thai girlfriend's name? Is it really safe to buy into this marina project without clear laws and information from the current government? What are the readers experiences with the current high-end Phuket property market?

[astral]

or is it all in his Thai girlfriend's name

A project of this magnitude will be under a holding company, and will probably have BOI approval as well.

Before you invest I would suggest you ask a lawyer to establish exactly what the situation is.

[steveromagnino]

My question is, who owns this development project? From what I have read Mr. Lalvani says he does. Is he still using nominees or is it all in his Thai girlfriend's name? Is it really safe to buy into this marina project without clear laws and information from the current government? What are the readers experiences with the current high-end Phuket property market?

Gulu Lalvani AFAIK does not have a Thai girlfriend, it is a corporation so most likely this is in a company name; the apartments themselves can be in foreign names as it is legal for foreigners to own condos as are built and offered in RPM.

That said, there is no way the marina can hold 500 boats. The times i have been there, it is possibly holding 50 boats in the main marina area, and the section through the lock looks like (and it has been a while since i looked) big enough for at most another 100 boats, more likely another 50. Add another 50 on the hard and that is somewhere in the realm of 200 boats, not 500.

My dad designed marinas, and this is not big enough to squeeze in 500.

You need to look at the site yourself and decide yourself whether you think the remaining buildings will get built, and whether you like the ambiance of the existing section. The other developments with similar ownership structure would be Raimon's The Heights and Kata Gardens; no problem legally there either as foreigners can own condos. Just make sure you are in the first 49% :-) and no problem at all. For RPM the existing section is already built, so you can look and buy physical concrete, and not off the plans which is good. You can also see they have invested a lot in the infrastructure which is also good. However, whether you think this side of the island set in from the coast will ever be popular based on a marina that is quite far inshore through the mangroves is something which only each person can decide for themselves; price wise the units are certainly not high by Phuket standards. A lot of PR and advertising from Gulu to sell to date (total guess here) 100 units; compare that to Raimon in the same time, selling two projects on the opposite side probably 200 units at a guess, at around 20-100% higher price. So in the ball park.

You can guess that given his Telco background Gulu would be friends with the former PM.

[sriracha john]

Island is Lalvani's brainchild

From the "Zoran Island Will Be A New Man-made Island Built By Tycoon" thread:

Island is Lalvani's brainchild

Edited May 29, 2007 by sriracha john