CapitaLand’s wholly-owned lodging business unit, The Ascott Limited (Ascott) has added a record of over 14,200 units across 71 properties globally for 2020.

Despite COVID-19, this exceeds the number of units secured in 2019, marking a fourth consecutive year of record growth for Ascott.

In China, Ascott has also achieved an 80% year- on-year growth in units compared to 2019. The new properties secured will boost Ascott’s annual fee income by over S$27 million as they progressively open and stabilise.

Since October 2020, Ascott added more than 4,900 units across 23 properties. This includes over 3,800 units across 17 properties in China.

Ascott will make its first foray into the city of Yangzhou while expanding in other cities such as Beijing, Chengdu, Chongqing, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Wuhan.

Among the newly secured properties are two rental housing properties in Shanghai and Hangzhou, marking Ascott’s increased presence in China’s high growth rental housing sector. As China continues to urbanise, an estimated 252 million tenants will make up a RMB3 trillion rental market by 20252.

Outside of China, Ascott has sealed contracts for over 1,000 new units across 6 properties. They are in markets such as Doha, Qatar; Manila, Philippines; Singapore; Sydney, Australia; as well as Binh Duong and Danang in Vietnam where Ascott will introduce its first lyf coliving property and first Citadines Connect business hotel in the country.

In 2020, Ascott opened 25 new properties adding over 3,900 units to its global inventory. This includes the opening of 10 properties with more than 1,800 units in China.

In the last quarter of 2020, new properties were opened in Australia, China, and Thailand. The new properties include Quest Ballarat Station, Quest Preston, and Quest Wangaratta in Australia; as well as Citadines Yunlong Lake Xuzhou and Tujia Somerset Yunlong Lake Xuzhou in China.

“COVID-19 has validated the resilience of Ascott’s business model as property owners continue to sign new management and franchise contracts with us, allowing us to achieve our fourth consecutive year of record growth in 2020. Through these new contracts, we continue to build our future recurring fee income stream,” Kevin Goh, CEO of CapitaLand and Ascott, said. – BusinessNewsAsia.com

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