CapitaLand expands assets in Australia

The Singapore realty giant goes down under with the opening of Citadines Melbourne in Victoria on 1 July.

CapitaLand's wholly-owned serviced residence business unit, The Ascott Limited, invested AUD168 million to develop the 380-unit on Bourke, now the company's largest Citadines-branded serviced residence in its global network, a CapitaLand report said on Thursday.

The launch of Citadines Melbourne on Bourke strengthens Ascott’s lead in Australia where it has a total of 884 apartment units in eight properties across four cities.

Mr Alfred Ong, Ascott’s Managing Director for Southeast Asia and Australia, said, “We see tremendous potential in bringing Citadines to Melbourne. The Victorian Government continues to attract business and leisure travellers with its strong sports, arts and event strategies. This will create significant demand for our serviced residences. Citadines offers savvy travellers flexible services to suit their lifestyles. It will complement our existing Somerset properties and enable us to better cater to travellers’ different lifestyle needs.”

Ascott also plans to continue to seek opportunities in other key cities in Australia including Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth.

Ascott introduced Citadines, the renowned European hospitality brand to Asia Pacific in 2006 with the opening of Citadines Shanghai Jinqiao. Since then, the world’s largest international serviced residence owner-operator has opened more than 10 Citadines serviced residences in the region including Bangkok, Hong Kong, Kyoto, Singapore, Suzhou, Tokyo and Xi’an. Currently, there are also over 40 Citadines serviced residences in Europe.

To celebrate the opening, in conjunction with CapitaLand’s 10th anniversary, Ascott is offering introductory rates from AUD150 per night from 1 July to 30 September 2010.