This island for sale is a rare opportunity to buy and develop further the resort currently operating on the island. It is one of the very few private island available for sale in Thailand, and the only one that is for sale that is already a fully developed resort.

A place like no other, the resort is the sole occupant of this magical island paradise. The shady palm trees, cool breezes and perfect serenity are just waiting for you to discover. White sandy beaches – calm turquoise sea – cool breezes – lush vegetation. The island is covered with beautiful tropical forests marching over the low hills that run down the center.

The resort boasts the whole island to itself and there are no day trips offered to this island. For a world of your own, this is the perfect choice. The Resort has the only land title issued for this island and the remainder of the island is vacant land under the jurisdiction of the Provincial Authority. Written confirmation from the Thai Forestry Department confirms that no encroachment has been made into Thai Government land. The land has an irregular shape, with a frontage of about 1 kilometer onto the sea and an average depth of 100 meters. The East facing beach has views out to the islands of Phang Nga Bay.

The island has also regularly hosted the Thai Princesses (daughters of HM the King) and many high level diplomatic groups, and has also been used as the main location for a 12-part TV series aired on Dutch and Belgium TV.

THE RESORT

The resort was opened in 1990 and occupies an area of around 82,752 square metres on a prime beachfront location with all the villas having either a beachfront or elevated ocean views.

The resort was originally comprised of a total of 75 free-standing villas with 58 of these being one-bedroom (99 square metres) and the remaining 17 being two-bedroom (123 square metres).

During extensive renovations in 2001, the majority of the original villas were divided to form junior suites and the total of accommodation units at the resort is now 132.

The resort has been leased to an Italian tour operator for the past year but the owner is now finalizing the lease termination and the resort will be sold free of any obligations or prior contractual commitments.

The hotel itself has 135 keys, employs 150 staff and 5 staff live permanently on the island and the others commute daily. This includes the boat captains and drivers. They currently use speedboats and an 80 passenger boat to ferry staff and guests back and forth to the deep sea port. The resort now rents 2 Rai of land and office facilities from the deep sea port which they have mooring / docking space for two big vessels. If you double up, this space can accomodate 4 boats. This area is used for parking, reception, laundry, fuel storage, loading the guests and stores for the island. They pay Baht 150,000 / month - new owners may continue this arrangement.

DEVELOPMENT POSSIBILITIES

This is an extremely rare commodity, the chance to purchase an entire private island off the coast of Thailand’s major tourism centre. The island is strategically located off the beautiful east coast of Phuket, the nexus of tropical development in South East Asia and renowned as a holiday location around the world. Merely owning the entire island would be a wise investment, with land at a premium now in Phuket both in terms of supply and price. From a wider perspective, there are not many opportunities in the world at this time to own a private island suitable for development with a perfect location and competitively priced. The international jetset crowd already visit on a regular basis. Only 35 mins from this island, the famous Hollywood actor Bruce Willis is opening a boutique hotel in 2005. His guest list for the grand opening includes many Hollywood stars.

Despite its long sections of undeveloped coastline, Phuket has very little titled beach front land to buy or build on. It has long been the Land Department's policy to restrict issuance of new land titles in forested areas and on land adjacent to rivers and oceans; now recent amendments to the building code severely restrict construction within 50 metres of the waterfront. As a consequence, development on beachfronts in Thailand is extremely difficult. However, all the hotel rooms are located on the beach with only a few metres setback. With the new setback rules, this is a rare position to be in and you may tear down the existing buildings and rebuild without new building permissions.

The resort was built in 1989 and refurbished in 2000. The resort is now a bit 'tired'. Most of the original 1, 2 and 3 bedroom villas were 'split' in 2001 in order to provide more 'keys' and the splitting of the villas was not very well done - dry wall construction and conversion of the original kitchens into bathrooms. To upgrade the resort to 5 star quality, it would be necessary to convert the villas back into the original sole villas and refurbish.

Other necessary work would be the installation of a de-salination plant, refurbishment of the jetty and the current 3 restaurants and 3 pools. Estimates for this work vary enormously, depending upon the amount of re-building or additional villas and spa facilities that may be required to fit a new 'theme' and the amount of materials that would be imported.

BUSINESS POTENTIAL

The resort definitely needs upgrading, but the return on investment is very high as this is probably the only island in southern Thailand that can be relatively easily developed, and development can be done on the foreshore.

The resort is currently operating at a 3 star level (with 135 'keys'). The room rate is around US$ 120 a night with 80% plus occupancy. Due to its privacy and accessibility to Phuket, the island lends itself to development of a 5 or even 6 star resort. Major hotel companies who have seen the resort have estimated $5-8 million USD for this sort of 5-6 star upgrade. An upgraded resort could easily achieve US$ 450 night and at least another 50 more villas or suites could be constructed on the island. Based upon that kind of development, the returns could be very significant.

Phuket has an international airport, capable of receiving Boeing 747 aircraft and handles more than 2 million passengers a year inbound and the same outbound. Five domestic airlines service the route from Bangkok and other domestic airports and there are around 12 international airlines with direct flights from Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, Taiwan as well as charter flights direct from Europe. Phuket hosts more than 3 million visitors a year. Apart from airline traffic, there is a considerable volume of visitors arriving by boat, bus and car. Phuket is one hour flight south of Bangkok, which is a very major international hub.

AREA VALUE

Phuket has become the most sought after location in Southeast Asia for people looking for a “lifestyle” (as opposed to a “house”) in a lush, tropical environment. There are over 12,000 expatriates living in Phuket. Thailand has recognized the necessity of improving the infrastructure to support the growing demand for improved telecommunications, schools, medical facilities, roads and utilities.

Other locations in Asia are now seen by many to be unstable and unsafe. Thailand, and particularly Phuket, has become the most sought after location in the entire region. Property prices have doubled since 1995 and are currently enjoying annual appreciation of nearly 25%.

huket, Krabi and Phang Nga comprise the Andaman Triangle, a major location for marine tourism and the gateway for trade to South Asia. Each year about five million foreign travellers visit these three provinces, making them the hottest destinations in Thailand. Because of this, land prices have been dramatically increasing in Phuket during the last few years.

ACCESSIBILITY

The Temptation Island Resort is located just a few kilometres off Thailand’s largest island, Phuket. Nestled in the sparkling pristine waters of the Andaman Sea, Phuket island is linked to the mainland of Thailand by 2 road bridges at the north of the island and by a one hour flight from the Thai capital, Bangkok. Phuket International Airport is also served by regular flights from many other international cities

FEATURES

· Accessible year around by boat 24 hours a day, 365 days a year

· Seaplane service can take off from Phuket international airport and land on floats at the island.

· The island has a DOA licensed helicopter pad

· Speed boat takes approximately 15 min to the main island of Phuket

· Larger boats take about 40 min

· Draft at low tide at the pier is about 1.20 metres

· A 300 tonne barge delivers the water every two days

· Barges deliver approximately 150 tonnes of water per day, the charge is Baht 110 per tonne

· 600 tonne water storage tank that feeds the resort

· Water purification plant on site providing its own bottled water

· Option to purchase 250 tonne desalination plant at 8 mil Baht which would pay for itself in a short period of time

· 3 x 500 KVA generators... two running constantly and one on standby... fuel cost is about 1.5 mil Baht every month

· 10 Land lines via microwave with a high-speed data download link for high speed internet

· Cellular network coverage on the island

· Sewage treatment plant

· 20 resident dolphins living the north bay

· The west end of the island has natural soft coral which has recently been re-seeded by the Department of Fisheries

· Clams and sand sharks

· Abundant number of fish around the island, which the island catches and use for its restaurants

· No fishing is allowed by the local fisherman

· Walking tracks all over the island

· There is a jeep track travelling from the resort to a secluded bay on the other side of the island

·The option to build another pier with a direct run to Phuket

· Fixed concrete pier about 100+ m long with a breakwater

· 3 swimming pools: 1 indoor pool for the diving centre, 1 infinity edge pool, 1 large main pool