Singapore’s robust recovery in travel has captured the attention of many of the region’s wealthiest hoteliers. At least 10 billionaires, including Hong Kong’s Pansy Ho and Indonesia’s Sukanto Tanoto, are currently investing S$6 billion ($4.4 billion) to build new hotels and expand their businesses across the city-state. ) or more.
Singapore’s main shopping district on Orchard Road will be home to some of the city-state’s newest hotels as part of plans to revitalize the area. UOL Group is already busy developing the site of the Faber House building on Orchard Road into a 19-storey hotel that promises to offer 200 rooms for guests. And that project was launched just before UOL opened another hotel a few blocks away.
Located just behind the Thai Embassy, Pan Pacific Orchard first opened in June. This luxury hotel with 347 rooms has four outdoor terraces and over 7,300 square meters of greenery covers the 23-storey building. The nature-inspired hotel is run by Singaporean banking and real estate billionaire Wee Choo Yeo and is one of his flagship properties at UOL.
Pan Pacific Orchard is Pan Pacific Group’s newest flagship hotel.
Provided by UOL Group
Last February, Indonesian billionaire Mokhtar Riady’s OUE reopened Hilton Orchard, formerly Mandarin Orchard. The 1,080 rooms have been extensively renovated with designs that reflect Singapore’s agricultural heritage.
Nearby on Orange Grove Road, fellow Indonesian billionaire Bakhtial Karim’s Invictus Development is building a 143-room boutique hotel under its trendy brand, The Standard. The property is scheduled to open next year right next to Shangri-La.
Just off Orchard Road, COMO Metropolitan Singapore is set to open this month. The 156-room hotel and shopping complex was developed by COMO Hotels & Resorts, a Singapore-based company founded by Ong Bensen’s wife, Christina He Ong, managing director of Hotel Properties.
Singapore’s new accommodation lineup is expanding and stands to benefit from the country’s strong post-pandemic recovery. The number of visitors to the Lion City in July doubled to 1.42 million from a year earlier, supported by the return of Chinese tourists, according to data from the Singapore Tourism Board. The government expects as many as 14 million tourists to visit the country this year, spending up to S$21 billion.
And these visitors are driving room prices to record levels, according to a report from travel management company FCM Consulting. Average room rates have risen to S$880 per night so far this month, compared to last year’s levels, as the city-state hosts a spate of high-profile international events such as the F1 Singapore Grand Prix. It is said to have increased by 27%.
“Singapore is a fully essential business/financial center and a popular tourist destination supporting high rates.”
Robert Hecker, Managing Director of hotel consultancy Horwath HTL Asia Pacific
Hotels near F1 circuits can now charge premium rates, with room rates at the iconic Marina Bay Sands (MBS) for the September 15-17 race weekend up from S$800 a night last month. It cost S$2,000. MBS is building a new tower that will add an additional 1,000 suites to his current inventory of 2,561 rooms as part of an expansion plan that includes the construction of a 15,000-seat entertainment arena.
On the other side of Marina Bay, IOI Properties, run by Malaysian billionaire brothers Lee Yoo Choo and Lee Yosen, is developing a hotel as part of a mixed-use residential and commercial project.
Indonesian billionaire Sukanto Tanoto’s Pacific Eagle Real Estate opened Singapore’s first hotel in July in Tanjong Pagar, on the edge of the central business district at Raffles Place. His 304-room Mondrian Duxton Singapore near Chinatown was built at a cost of S$400 million.
Mondrian Singapore’s rooftop pool overlooks the Raffles Place Central Business District.
Provided by Mondrian Singapore
Robert C. Hawk, Mondrian Duxton’s general manager, is optimistic about the hotel’s future. “We have to compete with other cities regionally, but Singapore feels like the center of the world at the moment,” he said.
Across from Keppel Harbour, billionaire Asok Kumar Hiranandani’s Royal Group is working overtime to complete construction of the luxury all-villa Raffles Sentosa Resort and Spa on Sentosa Island in time for its grand opening next year. doing.
Royal Group also plans to redevelop Min Arcade, a dilapidated shopping mall on Cascaden Road near Orchard Road, into a boutique hotel. On the same street, Pansy Ho’s Shun Tak Holdings is set to open the 142-room Artisen Singapore in November, which will feature a rooftop pool where guests can swim in a 25-metre cantilevered infinity pool. There is a garden.
Also in November, billionaire Kweku Lembeng’s City Developments and Hong Leong Group will open the First Edition Hotel in Singapore. This is a 204-room boutique hotel that is part of a luxury mixed-use development that includes residential condominiums at Boulevard 88 next to the Four Seasons Hotel.
Elsewhere in Singapore, billionaire Chew Chong Ngeng, who made his early fortune at Hotel 81, a budget hotel chain in the city’s red-light district, is rapidly expanding into the mid-market. Chew’s Worldwide Hotels, led by his daughter Carolyn, bought the 542-room Park Royal in Kitchener, near Little India, from Weeds UOL Group in July for S$525 million and renamed it Novotel Singapore. The brand name is changing. The company plans to invest an additional S$1.1 billion to open two new hotels in the Lion City by the end of the year.
“The outlook is very positive,” Carolyn said in an interview published in the September issue of Forbes Asia. “It’s just that with high interest rates, many investments require a very long term horizon.”
—With additional reporting from Gloria Hallite and Jessica Tan.
