Prime Phuket Hotel Land Investigation

Posted: 11 Jul 2011 | 6:00 am

One of Phuket's most iconic luxury hotel land sites, the 65 rai ocean front Freedom Beach plot on the Patong headland is under government investigation for title fraud.

In a front page feature on July 9th in the Phuket Gazette a headline article stated that "Thailand's Public Sector Anti-Corruption Commission is reviewing two chanote title deeds" totaling 65 rai, located on Freedom Bay in South Patong. It quotes Secretary-General Amphol Wongsiri who alleges that "the title deeds have been issued illegally and the land area is within a national forest reserve".

The piece goes on to enumerate that there are allegedly inconsistencies in the documentation and that suspicions are pointing to senior level corruption.

Recently the site has been widely promoted for sale with local agents and even a website with the owner quoting an asking price of THB43 million baht per rai or THB2.79 billion (approximately USD93 million).

As of early this year a Hong Kong property group was understood to been studying the site with the intention of developing a luxury mixed use hotel and villa resort.

Back in April of 2010, a Bangkok consulting firm conducted a search for international management companies with a series of major chains visiting the site and submitting letters of interest.

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