CapitaLand Limited’s wholly-owned lodging business unit, The Ascott Limited has secured over 2,100 new units across 12 properties in China in the last three months.
This brings the number of new units to 5,600 across 26 properties in the country, representing a 60% y-o-y growth and a record high for Ascott.
Globally, Ascott secured new contracts for over 3,700 units across 22 properties, with the majority of it from China at 60%, and the rest in other countries including its foray into Austria and expansion in Indonesia.
Ascott says it is seeing “strong recovery” in China on the operations front. Its apartment revenue in September 2020 performed close to 95% of that in September 2019.
Ascott has also been maintaining a steady stream of openings as they see continued demand for extended-stay properties.
According to the group, Ascott’s base of long-stay corporate guests and the strong domestic leisure travel market has enabled its serviced residences in China to “achieve robust occupancy rates”.
In September 2020 alone, close to 75% of its guests in China were domestic travellers. Its properties in tier one cities such as Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai and Shenzhen achieved an average occupancy rate of over 86%.
Ascott’s Chongqing property, Ascott Raffles City Chongqing achieved a high occupancy rate of 80% in August 2020 despite the pandemic and the city’s experiencing the worst floods in decades. The property’s high occupancy continued into September when it celebrated its first anniversary with a cheque presentation ceremony to the Chongqing Charity Federation in support of flood relief efforts.
“The Covid-19 pandemic has brought the resilience and flexibility of Ascott’s business model to the fore. In 2020, we have signed more than 9,300 units in 48 properties worldwide while expanding in China at a record rate,” says Kevin Goh, CapitaLand’s CEO for lodging and Ascott’s CEO.
“We are also planting new flags in markets such as Austria and Indonesia, offering our guests a wider network of Ascott properties. At the peak of the COVID-19 situation, many of Ascott’s properties worldwide remained open to provide a safe haven for our long-stay corporate guests, maintaining a robust average occupancy rate.”
With China being the first major economy to resume growth after the pandemic and the easing of domestic travel restrictions in the country, we are seeing strong recovery at our properties in China,” Goh adds.
Tan Tze Shang, Ascott’s managing director and head of business development for China says there was heightened occupancy rates during China’s Golden Week holiday from Oct 1 to 9 with cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou and Xi’an achieving 100% occupancy.
“Apartment revenue for our properties in China was also higher during the Golden Week holiday compared to the same period last year,” says Tan.
“With the 12 new properties secured in China, Ascott will make inroads into three new Chinese cities, Baotou, Ningbo and Yantai, while strengthening our presence in Changchun, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Suzhou and Xi’an. These properties are slated to open between December 2020 and 2026,” Tan adds.
Shares in CapitaLand closed flat at $2.81 on Oct 14.
