The Ascott Limited, the lodging business unit of Asian real estate firm CapitaLand, has signed contracts to manage 14 properties with more than 2,000 rooms across China, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand and Saudi Arabia. Three of the 14 new properties are under its coliving Lyf brand in the cities of Fukuoka in Japan, Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia and Shanghai.
Under a partnership with Japanese real estate company NTT Urban Development Corporation, a subsidiary of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation, Ascott will manage Lyf Fukuoka as well as jointly explore serviced residence opportunities in Japan. The 131-unit Lyf property is slated to open in 2020. Meanwhile, the 160-unit Lyf Hongqiao Shanghai in the central business district of Hongqiao is set to open in 2022. The Lyf Raja Chulan Kuala Lumpur in the city's Golden Triangle commercial hub is scheduled to open in 2020.
Ascott has eight Lyf properties with more than 1,600 units under development in Singapore, China, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines. Ascott also is ramping up for the opening of its first Lyf property, the Lyf Funan Singapore, in the fourth quarter this year.
"Millennials already account for a quarter of Ascott’s customer base and with our Lyf brand, we can seize opportunities presented by the booming millennial generation, set to become the largest spending travel demographic in the near future," said Ascott CEO Kevin Goh. "Besides Singapore, China, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines where we will be opening Lyf properties, we are also looking to bring Lyf to other potential markets including Australia, France, Germany, Indonesia and the United Kingdom."
The 14 new properties mark Ascott’s first foray into Changchun, the second largest city in Northeast China, and deepened its presence in Foshan, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Shenzhen, China; Frankfurt, Germany; Fukuoka, Japan; Gurgaon, India; Jakarta and Semarang, Indonesia; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Pattaya, Thailand; and Al Khobar in Saudi Arabia.
Among the 14 new properties is the 100-room Ascott Riverpark Tower Frankfurt, the first Ascott the Residence brand in Germany. The property is slated to open in 2022.
Meanwhile, the 118-room Citadines Hong Quan Road Shanghai will open through Ascott’s alliance with Chinese operator Huazhu Hotels Group and Huazhu’s subsidiary CJIA Apartments Group. Citadines Hong Quan Road is the sixth property under the alliance and is slated to open in 2019.
Under a strategic alliance with Thailand-based developer Ananda Development, Ascott will manage the 324-room Somerset Blue Coast Pattaya. The Lyf Sukhumvit 8 Bangkok, set to open in 2020, is also one of the properties signed under this partnership.
"In addition to the 14 new properties, we secured our first property in Australia under our recently launched Citadines Connect brand of select-service business hotels," Goh noted. "We will fast-track Ascott’s expansion to achieve our global target of 160,000 units by 2023."