CapitaLand's Ascott signs 12 more properties in China; enters Austria

CAPITALAND'S wholly-owned lodging business unit, The Ascott Limited, has secured more than 2,100 new units across 12 properties in China in the last three months.

Revenue from its operating properties in the country have also almost fully recovered to pre-Covid-19 levels, said Ascott in a press statement on Thursday.

Outside of China, Ascott has also signed contracts for 10 more properties and over 1,600 new units in markets such as Austria and Indonesia. These are set to open between 2021 and 2024.

In Austria, the newly secured Citadines Danube City Vienna is Ascott's first property in the country. The serviced residence will open in 2022 in the capital, Vienna, and expand the company's footprint in Europe to 54 properties.

As for Indonesia, Ascott has added six properties. These include the FOX Lite Hotel Samarinda opening in 2021, and serviced residences Citadines Citraplaza Nagoya Batam and Citadines Kemang Jakarta, which are both opening in 2023.

Ascott said it is seeing "strong recovery" in China on the operations front. Its apartment revenue in September 2020 came close to 95 per cent of that in September 2019.

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The company has also been opening more extended-stay properties as demand continues to grow. So far this year, Ascott has opened 17 properties with over 2,400 units, and about half of these units were in China.

Meanwhile, at its serviced residences in China, close to three in four of the guests were domestic travellers in September 2020. During the same month, Ascott's properties in tier-one cities such as Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai and Shenzhen reported an average occupancy rate of over 86 per cent.

And from Oct 1 to 9 - China's Golden Week holiday - several of the properties in Chinese cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou and Suzhou, which are popular among domestic tourists, achieved 100 per cent occupancy.

Tan Tze Shang, Ascott's managing director for China and head of business development for China, said that with the 12 properties secured in the country, Ascott is making its foray into three cities: Baotou, Ningbo and Yantai.

These new assets are slated to open between this December and 2026.

Shares of CapitaLand ended flat at S$2.81 on Wednesday.