Luxury Lifestyle Resort in Thailand offers Guaranteed ROI

West Sands Luxury Resort in Phuket Thailand

A “luxury lifestyle resort” in Phuket, Thailand is offering a guaranteed 10% return on investment for five years as an incentive to woo reluctant buyers. The West Sands Resort was launched mid-2008 and includes 98 villas, 336 condominiums and a water park. They won two “Thailand Property Awards” for their commitment to being environmentally friendly whilst providing luxurious and affordable residences with comprehensive and well-managed facilities. Details as to what that means exactly are rather sketchy, as no one seems to be able to determine what “environmentally friendly,” means when applied to a luxury resort that must usually be traveled thousands of miles to, to enjoy.

The guaranteed ROI has apparently been very successful.  Asia Property Report state that Phase 1 of the project sold out in September and the response was good enough to extend the offer on a first come, first served basis through early 2009.

This is not a entirely new idea and was used successfully to entice many British buyers into several Eastern European markets, only to discover that with no solid domestic demand, income dried up immediately after the five year period ended. As a short term incentive, it seems very attractive, but take a look at likely demand after the “holiday” period is over to determine whether this is a good investment or not.

West Sands themselves are also claiming that “capital appreciation is currently running at around 15%,” which I find a little hard to believe at the moment. As always, one should do one’s homework before investing in luxury property in Thailand.