Rates To Stay High, Despite 15 New Hotels

Source : TODAY, Wednesday, October 3, 2007

TWO hotels will open in December and at least 13 more are in the construction pipeline, which will ease the shortage of rooms facing the hotel industry here.

Room rates, however, will remain high for a while yet, said global real estate consultant, Lodging Econometrics.

“The hotel market in Singapore is booming. It’s one of the top locations in the Asia-Pacific and occupancy rates are very high,” said Mr Patrick Ford, Lodging Econometrics president.

“These trends are likely to continue into 2008. But I say that with a caveat: Assuming there is no big carry over from the financial crisis in lending, as long as there’s no serious impact on the economy, there should be little impact on hotel demand.”

Over the next three years, the 15 hotels will supply 6,429 rooms in anticipation of a rise in visitor arrivals for business conventions, casinos and the F1 races, Mr Ford said.

Singapore had 30,476 hotel rooms as of the end of last year, according to DBS. Strong demand saw a 30-per-cent rise in room rates this year. Occupancy reached 91 per cent in July this year, up from 85 per cent last year.