Our recent press conference and launch event at the Okura Prestige Bangkok for Hotel101 in Niseko highlighted some fundamentally important criteria to look out for when investing in any property, but particularly in a new and unfamiliar market overseas.

Hotel101 brought their new development for sale in Thailand in response to the growing number of Thai visitors to Japan – 497,700 in the first half of 2023 according to the Thai Tourist Authority (TAT) – and to Niseko in particular, which welcomed 128,000 Thai visitors between May 2022 and April 2023.

As the number of tourists to a particular overseas destination increases, so too does their interest in local real estate, and Niseko has been attracting buyers from all over the world, particularly since the end of the Covid-19 pandemic and the opening-up of international borders.

In order to entice buyers, however, not only does a development itself have to be attractive, the destination and the real estate market also have to be compelling. In this regard, in the case of Japan and Niseko, all the most important boxes are ticked:

• No residency requirements for foreigners to buy real estate

• No restrictions on foreign ownership of real estate

• Most residential developments are freehold

• Japan enjoys political and economic stability

• Japan has a sound legal & regulatory system

These positive market fundamentals have been reinforced by additional market conditions highlighting special windows of opportunity currently open for investors in Niseko.

The first opportunity is underlined by the fact that Niseko is attracting large and sophisticated investors in the form of family offices and real estate funds. Large investors are not only drawn by Niseko’s current buoyant real estate market, but also by planned infrastructure developments, in particular the bullet train line from Tokyo due to open in 2030. These investors do their homework, so private buyers can be reassured that they are following in the footsteps of seasoned professionals.

The second opportunity is to take advantage of the current weak Japanese Yen which has fallen more than 17% against the Thai Baht in the past 2 years, and more than 6% in the past year alone. We don’t know when the fall will bottom-out, but the significant gains in value of the Thai Baht at present already represent an attractive investment opportunity.
 

In addition to the right market fundamentals and current windows of opportunity, the third important factor investors should consider is, of course, the development itself. In this regard Hotel101 has a particularly attractive advantage in that it is the lowest priced entry level real estate investment opportunity in central Niseko.

Not only does Hotel101 present the lowest risk in terms of financial outlay, it is also the simplest model for foreign investors, providing a completely hands-off freehold investment with a transparent rental management agreement and unobstructed remittance of regular monthly income overseas. Indeed, Hotel101’s tagline is ‘Investing Made Simple’ which says it all.

Investing in Hotel101 is further simplified by the fact that all rooms are offered at the same price of JPY 36,260,000 or US$ 259,000 (THB 9,025,295 ). Each 21 M2 ‘Happy Room’ comes fully furnished and follows a global standard layout and fit-out adopted by Hotel101 in every country in which it operates. Buyer-friendly payment plans are also available allowing investors to make instalment payments during the construction period up to December 2026, or benefit from a further discount in return for a larger deposit.

We invite you to join us at our pre-launch sales event for Hotel101 at the Okura Prestige Bangkok on 11-12th November, and contact us now for details of special early-bird promotions.