Image source @ Visual China
Text | Space Quest, author | Rebbe
Recently, Beijing Linkong New National Exhibition Rosewood Serviced Apartment was officially opened, becoming another serviced apartment brand that will land its first store in Beijing after brands such as Lehu, Longhu Guanyu, Youchao and Kaisa. By combing through the relevant information, the existing serviced apartment players in Beijing are "either rich or expensive", the same is true for products, and the comprehensive competitiveness is even more "aggressive". Why do these new players choose the first stop in Beijing, is the newborn calf not afraid of tigers? Or is it difficult to resist the strong gravitational pull of the Beijing market?
<h2>Beijing, the "capital of the first store" of serviced apartments</h2>
Given rosewood's background, it's for the moment attributed to hotel-based serviced apartment players. Therefore, the opening of Rosewood's new China Exhibition Serviced Apartments means that the Beijing serviced apartment market has ushered in another hotel player on the basis of St. Regis, Park Hyatt, Millennium, Marriott and Shangri-La.
Beijing Linkong New China Exhibition Rosewood Serviced Apartments is Rosewood's first landing project in Beijing and the first store of the Rosewood brand. The apartment is located in the Airport Economic Development Zone, one of the six high-end industrial functional zones in Beijing, adjacent to the New National Exhibition Center and the Capital International Airport. This project is not just a serviced apartment, which also includes the New China Exhibition Rosewood Hotel in Beijing. The project has a total of 313 rooms, including 164 hotel rooms and 149 serviced apartment rooms.
According to the brand positioning of "China's First Oriental Aesthetic Service Apartment", Beijing New National Exhibition Rosewood Serviced Apartment fully refines the "Beijing flavor" element in product positioning and style, combines the essence of oriental aesthetics with modern minimalism, and integrates local local characteristics from room decoration and artistic embellishment. It's not hard to see why Rosewood landed its nation's first store in Beijing. After all, Beijing is a thousand-year-old capital with a history of more than 800 years, which can give Gem yue enough cultural heritage to nourish.
In Beijing, there are still some brands that have the same tacit understanding as Rosewood.
In July, the first high-end Funhub Apartment, jointly operated by Ziruyu and Funhub, opened in Beijing's Dongcheng District, adjacent to Tiananmen Square, Silk Street and the Forbidden City. This has become another important move in the development of high-end apartments after the strategic acquisition of residential apartment service provider "Manshe" in April.
In August, CCB Jianrong Homestead Lehu Apartment Zhenwu Community in Beijing's West Second Ring Financial Street was officially opened. Not only that, Lehu Apartment's high-end product line "Zhi'an" has also started its journey, and three stores located in the core areas of Sanyuanqiao and Jianguomen in Beijing are already in the engineering stage and are expected to open this year.
According to incomplete statistics, since the beginning of this year, a total of 8 serviced apartment brand first stores have landed, namely, they have chosen Beijing's Gem joy and Lehu Zhi'an and Zhongjian Xingyu, Wuhan's Hang Lung Fu, Hangzhou's Poly NPUB, Hefei Chengyu in Hefei, Shenzhen's Qiao Chengfang And Guangzhou's Yuexiu Xingting. Although these new players of serviced apartments are not all gathered in first-tier cities, Beijing, which has obtained "3 votes", is still hot.
In fact, such a scene is not unfamiliar to Beijing.
Whether it is the St. Regis Beijing, Kempinski Beijing and Beijing Kerry Residences, which chose Beijing as the first stop in China in the 1990s, or the Four Points by Sheraton, Frasers Court International Apartments, Park Hyatt House and Park Hyatt Residences that appeared on the eve of the Olympic Games, or in recent years, Beijing Kaisa Platinum Executive Apartments, Guanyu Dongyingfang Serviced Apartments and Beijing Youchao Mansion. Beijing has always been the "capital of first stores" that serviced apartments are keen on.
<h2>35 years, from the white snow of Yangchun to the joy of the people</h2>
Starting with Lido Apartments, which opened in 1984, beijing's serviced apartment market has been developing for 35 years. Today's bustling scene is inseparable from the new players boldly landing one serviced apartment after another in Beijing, and even more inseparable from the early foreign-related apartments of "unintentional willow shading", which has completed the market education of serviced apartments and broken the ice.
"Full import" foreign-related apartments in the 1980s
The origin of serviced apartments in the Beijing market is attributed to foreign-related apartments. At that time, based on the living needs of foreigners such as diplomats, a number of serviced apartments were built in some foreign-related business circles. In 1984, Lido Apartments in the Lido area was officially opened. As the earliest foreign-related business district in Beijing, the Lido regional embassy district and foreign-funded enterprises gather, gathering nearly a quarter of Beijing's foreign-related people, and is one of the most mature foreign-related business and living areas in Beijing.
In order to match the living needs of these foreign-related people, the configuration of these apartments is also of international standards. Located in another of Beijing's earlier foreign-related living quarters, Guangming Apartments includes 135 Japanese-style villas opened in April 1986 and 25 American-style apartments opened in August 1988. All the building materials of the house are imported from Japan, the external wall is made of New Japanese architectural ceramics, and the satellite TV can choose to watch TV programs from the United States, Japan, France, Russia and other countries and regions. In addition, the Changchun Palace Apartment, which opened in the late 1980s, is also staffed with Resident Management by Japanese managers, who can provide services in Japanese and English.
It is such a batch of foreign-related apartments that lays the general impression of the Beijing market on serviced apartments - high quality and good service.
Hotel players who debuted in the 90s
For Beijing serviced apartments, the 1990s were the time when they really made their debut. At this stage, hotel brands began to appear gradually.
Behind the opening in 1990 was China World Trade Investment Co., Ltd. and Kerry Industrial Co., Ltd., a company owned by Shangri-La; Kempinski Hotel Beijing, which opened in 1992, operated by Kempinski like Kempinski Hotel Beijing; St. Regis Hotel Apartment, which debuted in 1997, was originally based on the market with the ancillary facilities of The St. Regis Beijing; Beijing Kerry Apartment and China World Century Apartment, which debuted in 1999, are "the same door" as Guomao Apartment. Standing behind is Kerry Construction Co., Ltd., which belongs to Shangri-La.
At the same time, there are more options for the location of these apartments. Some apartments still choose Lufthansa business district, embassy, and other locations, such as Kempinski Apartment Beijing, Sanquan Apartment and St. Regis Hotel Apartment. There are also some apartments looking for business districts outside the third embassy district, such as the newly opened High Star Hotel, Han Kuang Department Store and the newly emerging commercial complex, Warwick Hotel Apartments and Kerry Apartments, International Trade Century Apartments are among them.
In the 21st century, the site selection shifts to + customer base extension
The change in the location of serviced apartments in the 1990s was further amplified in the early 2000s. Because, compared with the limited growth of foreign-related personnel, the surge in financial practitioners has become the main customer group of serviced apartments. Taking the financial street where the beijing financial street administrative apartment is located in 2006 as an example, as the first financial industry functional area in China, it has attracted a large number of high-end financial talents. Based on investment needs and high-frequency travel, this group of people is willing to pay for high-quality serviced apartments.
Therefore, the hotel-based serviced apartments that can enjoy the services of high-star hotels at this stage are blooming everywhere. Adjacent to Grand Hyatt Oriental, The Oriental Palace Apartment, Beijing Financial Street Executive Apartment with the Necklace of the Westin Hotel, Marriott Executive Apartment Beijing First Store Rosewood Marriott Executive Apartment, Beijing Grand Hotel Mansion managed by Shangri-La and so on.
Some veteran serviced apartment players have also begun to increase their size. Since entering the Beijing market in 2006 with the purchase of somerset Beijing Zhongguancun for 330 million yuan, Ascott has continued to make a breakthrough in Beijing. In 2017, Ascott Ascott Beijing prosperity Serviced Suites Beijing (formerly Ascott Shanshui Wenyuan Serviced Residences Beijing) opened, making Beijing the only city in the world to own three Ascott brand properties at the same time.
In recent years, some new players have been eager to try the Beijing serviced apartment market and handed over their works. Kaisa, Longhu Guanyu, Zhongjian Xingyu, Base Baishe, Rosewood and Lehu Zhi'an are among the representative brands.
There are veteran players who have been deeply involved in the market for many years, as well as low-key "ancestor" brands, as well as hotel players with genetic advantages and menacing apartment factions. It is foreseeable that the market for serviced apartments in Beijing will bid farewell to the previous "Yangchun White Snow" and learn to enjoy with more consumers and brands.
<h2>The "Red and The Black" of Beijing Serviced Apartments</h2>
In addition to the blossoming brands, the operating data performance of Beijing serviced apartments is also remarkable. According to Savills data, in the second quarter of this year, on the basis of the supply of 20 new units, the overall vacancy rate of serviced apartments in Beijing fell by 5.3 percentage points month-on-month to 16.7%. The average rent of serviced apartments in the city during the quarter was RMB252.3 per square meter per month, up 0.2% month-on-month. Behind this is the growing number of domestic tenants and landlord leasing schemes that attract tenants through flexible leasing conditions.
In addition to optimistic data performance, Beijing serviced apartments have also fallen into a "trough period".
In 2019, Oakwood Residences in Beijing Greentown was closed, and the Beijing market lost 403 high-end apartment listings. What does this number mean? It should be known that in the second quarter of 2019, the total stock of serviced apartments in the city was 6468 units, that is to say, 6% of the market supply disappeared. This has also led to the Serviced Apartments in The Dongzhimen Area of Beijing entering the seller's market.
Not only that, according to Beijing Apartment Network, the apartments that are also on the closed list/for sale include Somerset Zhongguancun Serviced Apartments, Somerset Fujingyuan Serviced Apartments, Beijing Wanguo Serviced Apartments, Frasers Beijing Serviced Apartments, Lanson Place International Serviced Apartments, Ascott Beijing Guomao Serviced Apartments, Xidan Warwick Serviced Apartments and so on. Regardless of other brands, from ascott alone, Somerset Zhongguancun and Somerset Fujingyuan are no longer in their official website directory.
In fact, the sale of serviced apartments has a different starting point. Some apartments are due to operational difficulties, or the return period is too long, and the owners will sell them in advance to return the capital when the capital chain is tight. There are also some apartments that set property appreciation targets at the beginning of completion, and once they reach a decisive move.
Ascott Shiburi Beijing (formerly Ascott Shanshui Wenyuan Serviced Residence Beijing), which frequently changes owners, belongs to the former. When it opened in 2017, the property was named Ascott Shanshui Wenyuan Beijing. At that time, Ascott chose to join hands with Shanshui Cultural Park to become one of the cultural and tourism complexes and expand the possibilities beyond business travel. However, in 2021, the apartment, which was once used as the headquarters of Shanshui Wenyuan, was changed through the legal auction procedure and became the Ascott Shengshi Borui Serviced Apartment in Beijing.
For Shanshui Wenyuan, the financial crisis that broke out in full swing in 2019 and the debt that could not be repaid by billions of dollars was on its back. Leave it with no time to take care of the change of ownership of the apartment, but only see it as an asset to repay the debt. Unfortunately, the Ascott Beijing Shengshi Borui serviced residence has once again hung up the debt transfer information at a price of 430 million yuan, and will once again usher in a new owner.
In March this year, Frasers Court International Residences In Beijing, which was acquired by international real estate PE giant Tie Lion Gate for about 2.1 billion yuan, belongs to the latter. This serviced apartment in Guomao Business District, Chaoyang District, has a construction area of 37,923 square meters and a total of about 357 apartments. In the view of some industry insiders, according to the transaction price of 2.1 billion yuan, the unit price of the project is about 55,000 yuan per square meter, which is sold at a good price.
<h2>Who can be the next "Beijing"? </h2>
Although Beijing has earned the title of "capital of the first store" for serviced apartments, in terms of quantity, Beijing is slightly inferior to Guangzhou and Shanghai.
At the store level, taking ascott's layout as an example, Shanghai has 10 serviced apartments that have opened and 17 are waiting to open. Guangzhou has 8 serviced apartments that have been opened, and 7 are in the state of waiting to open, 5 in Beijing and only 1 to be opened.
From the overall volume point of view, according to Savills data, the total stock of serviced apartments in Shanghai in the second quarter of this year remained at 9294 units, and the city's stock in Beijing in the second quarter was 8,035 units. Moreover, serviced apartment transactions and openings in Shanghai are relatively more active, with 2 apartment owners and operators changing owners and operators in the second quarter of this year alone, and the opening of 4 new projects.
However, judging from the expected opening plans of existing brands, relatively mature old brands have become the mainstream of the list of apartments to be opened in these traditional popular business cities. Some brands with "pioneer" consciousness prefer new first-tier and popular cities for cultural tourism consumption. Among them, who has the potential to become the "first city" of the next serviced apartment?
New branding points
The first thing to consider is whether the city will be included in the selection when the new brand of serviced apartments lands. Leaving aside some local real estate enterprises that are oriented to local property resources, they are mainly referred to by national enterprises and international serviced apartment brands. At present, Hangzhou's performance is more prominent.
There was an international serviced apartment brand before, and Shama threw an olive branch to it. In 2014, Hangzhou Shama Heda Serviced Apartment was officially opened, becoming the first Shama Serviced Apartment in China. This year, two other brands have chosen the "first stage" in Hangzhou. The first is the high-end apartment NPUB of Poly Apartments, the first project landed in Hangzhou Qianjiang New Town; the second is the first lyf shared apartment under Ascott in China, Hangzhou lyf Vanke Zhongchenghui Shared Apartment, which was officially put into operation. Such a performance is closely related to the growing scale of foreign talents and strong consumption power in Hangzhou in recent years.
New hotel points
The second is to predict whether there is a possibility of a new brand of serviced apartments from the layout of high-star hotels. At present, more and more hotel-based serviced apartments will develop in a "dual brand" model with high-star hotels. Therefore, those cities that can attract more high-star hotels will attract hotel-based serviced apartment brands to land more likely. With 138 hotel projects under construction, Chengdu ranks first in the domestic hotel market, and its potential is immeasurable.
In less than two years, a total of 10 high-end hotels in Chengdu have opened. In the first half of this year alone, 4 high-end hotels have opened one after another, and this number may be a target that some cities in the central region cannot achieve for a year. Moreover, there are 11 high-end hotels in Chengdu to be opened, of which the number of international high-end brands accounts for two-thirds. The entry of these high-end hotels is that they can be linked to their serviced apartments to enter together; second, their performance may become an indicator of whether the serviced apartments will land, which will have a certain judgment impact.
It has to be admitted that compared to hotel groups, the speed of launching new brands in serviced apartments is relatively slow. Even for old-school serviced apartment players such as Ascott, there are currently 6 brands in the Chinese market: Ascott, Somerset, Citadines, lyf, Tujia Somerset and Yayu. Of course, although there are few, there will still be new brands. For example, Ascott acquired Quest, an Australian serviced apartment in the first half of this year, and in time, the brand may also enter China. At that time, who will be spent, the above two dimensions may help us to predict.
Someone once asked why the serviced apartment, which seems to be insignificant of the long private room of the hotel, can become an independent market category. In this regard, a person who lives in a serviced apartment all year round said, "A city, not only needs to provide commercial facilities that can ensure fast-paced work, but also to find a place to achieve a balance between home and work for these busy people, which is a truly cosmopolitan metropolis!" "As the fast-paced life continues to sink into new first-tier cities and second- and third-tier cities, not only the first store, serviced apartments may be expected to become a city's "new demand".