07/09/2017
Condotel – the hotel built-in into the condominium
By Pugnatorious law firm, Thailand
A condotel is a smart concept of a mixed-use property development and also known as condo hotel, hotel-condo, condotel or (in American English) as contel. The hotel might be marketed as a serviced apartment and the rooms might be rent out on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. The accommodation rooms have condo size instead of hotel room size, which typically means they are larger and more individually decorated.
Although this concept has been realized first in Miami Beach, Florida in the 1980s, condotel ventures have been made popular by none other than Donald Trump with flamboyant, high-end projects in Honolulu, Chicago, and Las Vegas. However, the concept has its eligibility also for medium-sized and even old condominium developments.
On an international level, condotels are often developed by hotel and resort companies — such as Starwood Hotels & Resorts, Hilton Hotels, The Ritz-Carlton Hotel, and Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts. Many condo hotels, especially the branded ones, have seen double-digit growth, and have out-performed traditional condos or single family homes in the same resort market. However, just like traditional real estate, business success is for the investor never guaranteed.
Legal and factual requirements in Thailand
Under a condotel structure, the individual units of a CJP (Condominium Juristic Person) are used as hotel accommodation. Typically the units are owned by different buyers as a second or third home. Depending on the individual owner, his unit is leased out to a hotel management company during the time when the owner is not in residence. As an alternative to an individual lease agreement to the hotel company, the unit owners can enter into a rental pool agreement. Under such an arrangement participating owners of condominium units agree to have their units available for rental as determined by the agreement and share the profits and losses of all the rental units in the pool in accordance with the agreement.
Condotel structures are common all over the world and can be realized in Thailand as well – if duly structured and managed. To accomplish such structure, the regulatory requirements for a hotel business and a condominium have to be fulfilled simultaneously. Under the laws of Thailand, both regulations are not exclusively. The Condominium Act does not exclude the units to be used as a hotel. The acquisition of a hotel business license does not invalidate the condominium license and vice versa.
A condotel is an attractive option especially for foreign investors in Thailand. It combines the possibility to obtain foreign property ownership with the participation in Thailand’s hotel business industry. The investor does not need to utilize the weak long-term lease / short-term lease out structure but invests in a title deed (Chanote) with full and unlimited legal ownership.
A condotel venture can be developed from the start. It is also possible to change directions later by licensing an existing condominium wholly or partially as a hotel business. Whether this requires not only additional paperwork (for example a hotel EIA) but also modifications and additions to the building structure (parking space, fire exits, etc.) has to be decided on a case by case basis.
The everyday life conflicts in a public accommodation, in which some or even the majority of the units are privately held, should not be underestimated, but are typically manageable, as condotel ventures all over the world clearly show.
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