The development of Crowne Plaza Residences at Karon Beach is nearing completion, with the luxury beachfront apartments due to open soon. Show units are now available for viewing.

The upcoming opening of the Crowne Plaza Residences coincides with a rebound in Phuket's real-estate market.

The property offers leasehold apartments covering 125 square meters of living space. Rates for a furnished two-bedroom unit start from Bt13 million.

Buyers will have a 30-year lease with options to renew it for another two 30-year terms.

There are five buildings in all for the residential phase, each rising three floors.

The development is being built on the seaside frontage of the hotel where tall buildings are forbidden under setback regulations.

The recent boost in property sales in Phuket has turned around the fortunes of developers after the December 26 tsunami disaster.

Many sites have reported a dramatic upsurge in visitors.

The value of prime sites has also risen markedly over the past few months, disregarding much of the local political bickering in Bangkok.

But buyers are now even more demanding, preparing to pay more for quality investments.

"A property backed by a global hospitality brand is doing even better," said Bill Barnett, managing director of C9 Hotelworks, the project's sales and marketing representative.

"Response to the Crowne Plaza Residences Karon Beach has been extremely upbeat. Buyers are hungry for quality projects and willing to pay premium prices for branded products, as the potential return significantly outperforms those available from non-branded products," Barnett said.

The apartment development is managed by the adjacent Crowne Plaza Karon Beach Hotel, which is part of the Intercontinental group of hotels, and owned by Siam Resorts Company under the umbrella of LaSalle Investment Management Inc.

LaSalle Investment ranks among the major global real-estate groups.

The outfit is a member of the Jones Lang LaSalle Group which manages more than US$26.4 billion (Bt997 billion) of public and private assets for leading institutional, corporate and individual investors.

Itthi C Tan

The Nation

PHUKET