Newspaper Features: 2009
Archive of Bill's regular newspaper columns.
From the Phuket Gazette Property Watch: Property Writer Desperately Seeks Mayan
The Phuket Gazette.As we near the end of the decade, we find ourselves immersed in the public hysteria of yet another end-of-the-world scenario. This time around, as we close out 2009, we edge closer to the ominous...
Posted: Sat 26 Dec, 2009 9:36 am | Viewed: 280
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From the Phuket Gazette Property Watch: Thailand's New 100% Hotel Foreign Ownership Incentives
The Phuket Gazette.Although the clogged backlog of government reforms are generally moved through at the slow, but steady pace of the winner of the famous race between the hare and the tortoise, a recent incentive shows a...
Posted: Sat 19 Dec, 2009 9:35 am | Viewed: 475
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From the Nation: The Winds of Change
The Nation.At long last the year that wouldn't go away is nearly over and the halls of commerce for Phuket property resound with a collective sigh. As we enter the last year of the decade, it feels akin to hitting a reset...
Posted: Fri 18 Dec, 2009 12:21 pm | Viewed: 389
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From the Phuket Gazette Property Watch: High Season Hijinx
The Phuket Gazette.Indeed the much anticipated high season has arrived, and perhaps a collective sigh can be heard across the island that the end of 2009 is finally within sight. With the fortunes of both the hotel and...
Posted: Sat 12 Dec, 2009 9:34 am | Viewed: 253
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From the Phuket Gazette Property Watch: Into Thin Air
The Phuket Gazette.The history of civilization has been shrouded in mystery since records began. First there was the mystery of the pyramids. How did the ancient Egyptians manage to engineer such wondrous, gargantuan...
Posted: Sat 28 Nov, 2009 10:05 am | Viewed: 347
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From the Phuket Gazette Property Watch: It’s All About The Money
The Phuket Gazette.This strange and difficult year is finally coming to an end, but there's one question begging to be asked: where is this zig-zagging turbulent roller coaster ride going to lead? Let's take a few...
Posted: Sat 21 Nov, 2009 10:03 am | Viewed: 215
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From the Nation: Practice of Fractional Ownership Goes to Sea
The Nation.While the broader resort-grade property market continues to reel in the wake of the prolonged global recession and resulting reductions in consumer spending, some niche segments are proving irresistible to...
Posted: Fri 20 Nov, 2009 10:53 am | Viewed: 420
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From the Phuket Gazette Property Watch: Never A Dull Moment
The Phuket Gazette.The work of many a writer is commonly used as a spring board for reader's comments, opinions, suggestions and complaints. These exchanges range from the complimentary pat on the back to anger and...
Posted: Sat 31 Oct, 2009 10:04 am | Viewed: 280
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From the Phuket Gazette Property Watch: I'm An Expat, Get Me Out Of Here
The Phuket Gazette.Recently, I've spent some time reading the often rash letters sent to the editorial staff of the Gazette. The opinions seem to range from the hilarious to the slightly off center, from the informed to...
Posted: Sat 17 Oct, 2009 10:03 am | Viewed: 490
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From the Nation: They're Taking Care of Business, The Island Way
The Nation.How times have changed from Gordon Gekko's capitalistic "lunch is for wimps" rant in the 1987 movie "Wall Street" to the luxury guilt emerging today. However, many still subscribe to Gekko's...
Posted: Fri 16 Oct, 2009 11:28 am | Viewed: 369
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From the Phuket Gazette Property Watch: Send Lawyers, Guns and Money
The Phuket Gazette.As property issues on the island seem to be taking a decidedly litigious course of late, the late Warren Zevon's words - "send lawyers, guns and money" - never rang more true. As a limited number of...
Posted: Sat 10 Oct, 2009 10:02 am | Viewed: 292
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From the Phuket Gazette Property Watch: Shopping Malls Conquer the Earth
The Phuket Gazette.Sipping café Americano this morning in the Philippines on a short trip, I started thinking about the "shopping mall" - of when it emerged during my distant, somewhat hazily...
Posted: Sat 26 Sep, 2009 10:33 am | Viewed: 279
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From the Phuket Gazette Property Watch: Marina Ban Much Ado About Nothing
The Phuket Gazette.Viewing the recent capitulation of a number of the island's public policies is making me feel as if I just drank a dozen mojitos and danced the night away to the macarena. After all good nights, reality...
Posted: Sat 19 Sep, 2009 10:30 am | Viewed: 243
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From the Nation: The Next Big Thing in Ocean Front Real Estate
Upturn, downturn, or sideways perhaps the single greatest unique selling point for a resort property is the tantalizing offer of ocean front real estate. Who hasn't harbored those Robinson Crusoe...
Posted: Fri 18 Sep, 2009 2:24 pm | Viewed: 434
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From the Phuket Gazette Property Watch: Luxury Villa Property State of the Market
The Phuket Gazette.For most, 2009 has been a year they wish would just end, and New Year's Day is becoming more anticipated than its more well-heeled relation, Christmas. Over the past two years, the broad Phuket...
Posted: Sat 12 Sep, 2009 10:27 am | Viewed: 263
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From the Phuket Gazette Property Watch: No Man Is An Island
It's been said that the human species neither thrives, nor flourishes when living a isolated or secluded existence. This concept is a particularly strong Buddhist belief, but it also a popular notion within other...
Posted: Sat 29 Aug, 2009 3:49 pm | Viewed: 344
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From the Phuket Gazette Property Watch: Mid–Year Phuket Hotel Market Update Part 2
This week we’ll wrap up the hotel benchmark for the first half of 2009, a period which saw hotels heavily discounting in order to increase occupancy, resulting in volatility of average room rates. Having spoken to hotel...
Posted: Sat 22 Aug, 2009 3:56 pm | Viewed: 364
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From the Nation: T-shirts and Baby Steps
One of my favourite hotel gurus, Robert Hecker of Horwath Hotel, Tourism and Leisure Consulting, penned a line at a recent Singaporean investment conference that produced what must be one of the best business...
Posted: Fri 21 Aug, 2009 09:01 am | Viewed: 298
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From the Phuket Gazette Property Watch: Mid-Year Phuket Hotel Market Update Part 1
Negative market sentiment and the media perception that linked Phuket to the wider Thailand political problems heavily influenced the hotel market during the first six months of this year. With the majority of regional...
Posted: Sat 15 Aug, 2009 3:45 pm | Viewed: 312
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From the Phuket Gazette Property Watch: Top Villa and Condo Rental Internet Booking Sites
Welcome to ‘Phuket 2.0’, the coming of age for non-traditional hotels and villas, which now compete with the traditional cookie-cutter hotel supply. There are currently 38 new hotels in the development pipeline, which...
Posted: Sat 1 Aug, 2009 3:42 pm | Viewed: 383
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From the Phuket Gazette Property Watch: The Circus Has Left Town
As I was driving to work the other day, listening to the sounds of ‘It’s just another day’ by The Beatles, I was struck by just how normal everything around me was. It was D-Day in Phuket for the Asean Foreign...
Posted: Sat 25 Jul, 2009 12:10 pm | Viewed: 417
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From the Phuket Gazette Property Watch: Michael Jackson’s Job Is Up for Grabs
The low slow season is now reaching epic scale with business for the most part going from the raging river of a few years ago to a small trickle. After chatting to property developers and hotel executives, it is clear...
Posted: Sat 18 Jul, 2009 12:07 pm | Viewed: 455
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From the Nation: Holiday Rentals Now Target Hotel Customers
The Nation.As we move through the current property cycle in Phuket, with a flattening of demand and continued growth in supply, there looks to be a shift in strategies being used in the property business. The...
Posted: Fri 17 Jul, 2009 09:02 am | Viewed: 270
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From the Phuket Gazette Property Watch: Condo Hotels Growing Old Gracefully
There are only two things in life you can be sure of; death and taxes. Despite a recent boom market for real estate on the island, there are many existing projects that are now between 10 and 15 years old.Although this is...
Posted: Sat 11 Jul, 2009 12:04 pm | Viewed: 405
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From the Phuket Gazette Property Watch: Is Phuket Ready for Fractional Ownership?
With property transactions in the broader market flat and forecast to remain so into the foreseeable future, one of the emerging trends we are seeing is the conversion of pure residential projects into alternative...
Posted: Sat 27 Jun, 2009 1:52 pm | Viewed: 852
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From the Phuket Gazette Property Watch: The Chinese Vegas, Tainted Aces, Vegas not Wanted
Just a few years ago, during the tenure of Thaksin Shinawatra rumors started to abound about legalizing gambling and the possibility of casinos in Phuket. Much was written and discussed at the time - but given the current...
Posted: Sat 20 Jun, 2009 1:48 pm | Viewed: 475
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From the Nation: A Failure to Launch
The Nation.Taking a turn on the Internet today, I cautiously glanced at the global pendulum of our seesaw world in the Anxiety Index of advertising giant JWT. We live in anxious times and trying to find the meeting point...
Posted: Fri 16 Jun, 2009 09:02 am | Viewed: 239
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From the Phuket Gazette Property Watch: Turning Phuket Green
Recently, as the rains hit Phuket, the notion of 'green thinking' seems to be gathering momentum. For the first time in many years the island is starting to wake up to the larger world’s environmental issues. Summer in...
Posted: Sat 13 Jun, 2009 1:45 pm | Viewed: 413
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From the Phuket Gazette Property Watch: Surreal Estate
It was interesting reading comments from a local resident recently published in the Gazette on the issue of property consultants pushing speculative investments in the newspaper (Letters, Phuket Gazette, May 30). The...
Posted: Sat 6 Jun, 2009 1:42 pm | Viewed: 346
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From the Phuket Gazette Property Watch: Bali Surpasses Phuket While Hotel Investment Market Flounders
Returning from Singapore a few days ago after attending the Hotel Investment Conference (HICAP) Update I am feeling as battered as Ricky Hatton after getting KO'd in the second round by Manny Pacquaio. In a gathering of...
Posted: Sat 30 May, 2009 2:06 pm | Viewed: 657
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From the Phuket Gazette Property Watch: Life After Death
Flat as a pancake; ground zero; the patient has flatlined. The market hasn't simply slowed - that would be good - it's dead. All these phrases have been used to describe the state of the Phuket property market of...
Posted: Sat 30 May, 2009 2:01 pm | Viewed: 400
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From the Phuket Gazette Property Watch: Bad Timing for Leasehold Tax Enforcement
In the beginning came the yellow shirts and the airport closures in Bangkok and Phuket. Next came the red shirts in Pattaya, and those images played around the world of the suspected car of the Prime Minister being...
Posted: Sat 30 May, 2009 2:04 pm | Viewed: 469
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From the Phuket Gazette Property Watch: Could Phuket Become a Special Administrative Region?
Having lived in Phuket for a number of years now, trying to recall the names and faces of past governors is a bit like remembering past seasons of Survivor or American Idol. At times, I’m almost expecting to see a real...
Posted: Fri 24 Apr, 2009 4:50 pm | Viewed: 525
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From the Phuket Gazette Property Watch: Phuket for Sale
High season has come and after the Songkran and Easter holidays its going, going, gone. Talk to any hotelier about the outlook post April and there is a far away, glazing of the eyes, not unlike a poached salmon on one of...
Posted: Fri 24 Apr, 2009 4:47 pm | Viewed: 861
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From the Phuket Gazette Property Watch: Are Property Development Costs Falling?
In recent days one of the most often asked questions I hear from people overseas and locally has been “are build costs seeing mass reductions, given the current slowdown?” While it is a very straightforward question,...
Posted: Mon 28 Mar, 2009 5:40 pm | Viewed: 555
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From the Phuket Gazette Property Watch: Koh Samui’s Emerging Luxury Market Part 2
In my last column I looked at the emerging luxury property segment in Thailand’s other island resort destination, Koh Samui. As a continuation of that, I will review ongoing demand, issues and forecast trends on the...
Posted: Mon 14 Mar, 2009 5:38 pm | Viewed: 455
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From the Phuket Gazette Property Watch: Koh Samui’s Emerging Luxury Market
The island of Samui is rapidly becoming one of the region’s most popular options for property investment. In my next two columns, I am going to look at 'the other significant resort island' in Thailand.The past decade...
Posted: Mon 9 Mar, 2009 5:35 pm | Viewed: 503
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From the Phuket Gazette Property Watch: Labor Pains
As the continued sign of a deepening financial crisis overseas continues, ripples and now waves are starting to come at a more rapid frequency to our island of Phuket. With tourism and related service industries being a...
Posted: February 21, 2009 12:00pm | Viewed: 483
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From the Phuket Gazette Property Watch: Is Phuket Property Too Expensive?
As we continue our voyage into 'uncharted territory' the favored catchphrase of every politician and multinational CEO with regard to current market conditions: nothing is at all clear. My days are marked by more jitters...
Posted: February 14, 2009 12:00pm | Viewed: 325
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From the Phuket Gazette Property Watch: Next Stop Camelot?
Not since the vaunted presidency of John F. Kennedy, nearly four and a half decades ago, has the hot seat in the White House garnered such worldwide attention. While many compared the term of Kennedy as a throwback to the...
Posted: February 7, 2009 12:00pm | Viewed: 358
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From the Phuket Gazette Property Watch: Phuket Luxury Villa Market Update Part 2
As discussed last week, the upper end of the luxury villa market has outperformed the Phuket property market as a whole, with many successful property launches despite political turmoil and global economic woes. ...
Posted: January 24, 2009 12:00pm | Viewed: 775
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From the Phuket Gazette Property Watch: Phuket Luxury Villa Market Update Part 1
In spite of recent political issues in Bangkok and a worsening of global financial downturn, the upscale luxury villa segment outperformed the broader Phuket property market in 2008. As we move into 2009, take-up...
Posted: January 17, 2009 12:00pm | Viewed: 666
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From the Phuket Gazette Property Watch: New Phuket Wikipedia Entries - Economic Slowdown In
As we move into 2009 the world’s becoming an even scarier, goofy and baffling place for property pundits young and old. As a property consultant and developer myself, its easy to get caught up in an endless cycle of...
Posted: January 10, 2009 12:00pm | Viewed: 2308
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From the Phuket Gazette Property Watch: The Year to Come
As a boy growing up, I remember being driven though the suburbs of many American towns and cities, particularly the outskirts, down by the railroad tracks. I would occasionally spot a depression-era wooden house, its...
Posted: January 3, 2009 12:00pm | Viewed: 385
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