In Niseko, Hong Kong developer banks on luxury hotels, bullet train and Richard Li to ride ski resort boom
- Odin Properties sells 10 per cent of residential plots in Hanazono village amid rising popularity of Hokkaido ski resort
- Richard Li’s Park Hyatt, YTL group’s Ritz-Carlton Reserve are among new additions to Niseko scene in 2020
A Hong Kong-based luxury property developer is making the Hanazono village in Niseko its next launch pad to profitability as the Japanese ski resort town grows in popularity.
Odin Properties sold eight of the 88 plots at the Odin Hills residential project in the popular Hokkaido ski resort at the opening sales in Hong Kong on December 6, according to co-founder Chris Fjelddahl. They were snapped up by buyers from Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the Philippines.
The starting price for a plot, ranging from 900 to 1,000 sq m (10,763 sq ft), is US$900,000 and building a 200-sq m house on the land would cost an estimated US$1.2 million, the developer said.
Odin Properties is spending about US$20 million to build the infrastructure in the first phase from April next year, before home construction can take place about a year later.
“The boom is on the way now, we’ve got the additional hotels coming, we’ve got a number of openings earmarked and announced,” said Fjelddahl. “We think from here on Niseko will be a lot more international, and a lot more heavyweight in terms of gravitas of the brand.”
Japanese ski resort becomes the Aspen of Asia, luring luxury hotels and wealthy Asians
The developer is banking on a slew of luxury developments in Niseko to attract buyers to its Japanese and European-styled mountain village project. They include the Park Hyatt hotel by Richard Li’s Pacific Century Premium Developments (PCPD) and the Ritz-Carlton Reserve by the YTL group from Malaysia, while a new bullet railway station in the vicinity could also add value to the surrounding properties.
The Odin Hills project covers a 16-hectare site surrounded by a forest reserve and has views of Mount Yotei, also known as the Fuji of Hokkaido. In Kutchan, which is a five-minute’s drive from Hanazono, a bullet train or Shinkansen station is being built and will be operational by 2030.
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Niseko has always been popular among skiers, but developments tended to concentrate in bustling Hirafu, where property prices have skyrocketed and the village’s powdery white snow, seafood and fresh dairy have become a magnet for tourists.
Odin’s previous projects in Hokkaido have been in Hirafu, where plots are easily “three or four times” more expensive than in Hanazono, the company said. They include micro-boutique hotel Kimamaya by Odin, a luxury flat project called Yasuragi by Odin and the Odin Place retail centre. One is unlikely to find another big piece of land for development in Hirafu, hence its focus on Hanazono village, the company said.
Why most of 1.2 million skiers in China skip local resorts for Japan instead
Li’s PCPD is expected to open the 100-room hotel and 114 branded residences Park Hyatt Niseko Hanazono in January next year. The YTL group, one of the early movers, will also add the Ritz-Carlton Reserve in 2020, next to its Niseko Village resort it acquired in 2010.
“One of the success stories of Park Hyatt is that it sold larger units for the first time to Japanese buyers,” Chris said. “Before this, Niseko was very much known as a place where Australians, Singaporeans, and Hongkongers buy their property, but not the Japanese. That seems to be about to change.”
“We believe that the prices in Hanazono are going to go up rapidly over the next years,” co-founder Nicolas Gontard said. It could get even better “as we get closer to the arrival of the high-speed train.”
