About serviced apartments

In recent two years, serviced apartments have become the new favorite of the real estate market. As a new type of real estate investment in recent years, investors regard it as a new property and developers regard it as a new profit growth point. So what is a serviced apartment? Hotel-style apartment means "hotel-style service, apartment-style management", which has a high market position, integrates multi-functional living facilities of residence, hotel and clubhouse, and has both "self-use" and "investment" potential. In China's real estate market, serviced apartments are in the ascendant. For a time, it seems that all SOHO offices, long-term business trips, business trips and even real estate investment are pegged to this market. In 2004, there were more hotel-style properties in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.

Hotel-style apartments are similar to SOHO, which became hot the year before last. Both of them combine the concept of residence with hotel-style service and home office respectively, but SOHO concept provides perfect office space for residents, ignoring five-star facilities and services. The main function of its design is to meet the requirements of home office.

The industry is paying more and more attention to this. It is reported that from April 2 to 4, the forum on "Design, Promotion and Marketing of Hotel Apartment" will be held in Beijing. A few days ago, the reporter interviewed relevant people on this topic.

The uniqueness of serviced apartment

Lin Yue, the marketing manager of Xinzun Real Estate, believes that serviced apartments refer to the building structure of a property similar to a hotel, and the property management company provides serviced services, such as room cleaning and laundry. The bedroom is fully furnished and equipped with kitchen equipment. Simply put, it is to integrate the high standard service of star-rated hotels into daily life. The purchaser owns the property right of the unit and can live, rent or resell it. It is a comprehensive property that not only provides hotel professional services, but also has the privacy and lifestyle of private apartments.

Hotel-style apartment not only absorbs the service function and management mode of star-rated hotels, but also absorbs the characteristics of office buildings in the information age. With good communication conditions, it can provide secretarial, information, translation and other business services. It is a comprehensive concept of property management, which integrates multiple functions such as residence, hotel and clubhouse.

The apartment types of hotel-style apartments range from tens of square meters to hundreds of square meters, which can meet the individual needs of users, and are unified as fine decoration in decoration, providing a full set of home design and electrical appliances. Different units have different styles. Supporting facilities provide hotel-style services according to residents' requirements, and at the same time, other projects such as banks, clubs and small supermarkets have been added.

The design of the hotel-style apartment project itself is personalized and cannot become a mere formality, because the customer base of the hotel-style apartment is senior employees, managers and presidents of well-known multinational companies, and its property management is directly managed by star-rated hotels or property companies with hotel background, which eliminates the landlord's doubts about the level of property management companies and can provide high-end and in-place services for residents.

Choosing a hotel-style apartment for self-occupation is characterized by freedom and convenience, and the price is relatively low. You can get all kinds of hotel-style services at any time, such as washing clothes and changing sheets. Generally, the public facilities of hotel-style apartments are similar to those of hotels, so they can also highlight the identity and style of the guests. With the improvement of people's living standards and tastes, people's requirements for quality of life have also increased. Serviced apartments can meet the needs of this specific group of people.

Hotel-style apartments can be divided into residential apartments and business apartments in terms of use: residential apartments are mainly used for living, with independent kitchens, balconies and bathrooms; Business apartment is used for business office, and there is no separate kitchen and balcony. They face different consumers.

Successful serviced apartments all have similarities: they are located in prosperous areas, surrounded by a large number of potential consumers and tenants. The client is nearby. This position fills the gap of small apartment in this area.

Lin Yue pointed out that there are similarities and differences between serviced apartments and property-based hotels, single apartments and business apartments:

The difference between property hotel and serviced apartment. Property-style hotels originated in the United States in the 1970s, mainly distributed in tourist resorts with mild climate. Simply put, a property hotel is the right to use tourist facilities bought out by consumers or individual investors at a specific time. The hotel divides each room into independent property rights and sells them to investors. Investors generally don't stay in hotels, but entrust hotels to manage rooms, so as to get a return on investment, and at the same time get the right to stay free for a certain period of time given by hotels. It is a commercial format integrating real estate, hotels and tourism. Hotel-style apartments are large and small, with many bedrooms, indoor kitchens and other living facilities. Hotel-style apartment adopts hotel-style management to provide residents with a home of a star-rated hotel, but the charge is cheaper than that of a hotel.

The difference between single apartment and serviced apartment. The consumers of single apartments are young people with good income and quality of life. Therefore, from the decoration standard to the property configuration, it is much simpler than the serviced apartment. At the same time, the area of single apartment is small, generally less than 50 square meters, in order to reduce the total price and meet the purchasing needs of young people. The consumers of serviced apartments are senior white-collar workers, managers and presidents, and the property is managed by star-rated hotels or property companies with hotel background.

The difference between business apartment and serviced apartment. Business apartments pay attention to business, and the building structure adopts large bay, with different sizes, and most of them are sold in the form of blanks, which is convenient for later transformation combined with office needs. Like the studio business apartments that have appeared on the market, although they are finely decorated and some are equipped with a small amount of furniture, they are more suitable for office work as a whole. Supporting service organizations are also mostly office projects such as mailing and printing. The public facilities of serviced apartments are similar to those of hotels. In addition to hotel services, they also provide family services, such as banks, clubs and supermarkets.

The serviced apartment market in Beijing has been very strong.

Market analysts of Shang Feng securities firms pointed out to reporters that in high-end apartments, serviced apartments are different from ordinary high-end apartments, and they provide serviced apartments. In traditional markets, serviced apartments are basically rented but not sold, such as Yashige and Guo Mao. These items for sale have only appeared in recent years, such as Wang Zuo and Ding Jiahua Century. According to statistics, by the end of the first quarter of this year, there were more than 100 apartments in Beijing, including nearly 40 serviced apartments and nearly 30,000 apartments. Mainly concentrated in six major urban areas, the number of high-end apartments in Chaoyang District and Dongcheng District accounts for 80% of the city's supply, and the average rental price of serviced apartments in the market is $24.5 per square meter per month, almost twice that of ordinary high-end apartments. According to the information provided by CB Richard Ellis, the senior managers of overseas companies in Beijing, as well as the staff of overseas associations and embassies in China, constitute the main demand groups of Beijing serviced apartments. Some small companies also use it for business and residence. They want to live in the city center or in an area with convenient transportation. They have the hardware configuration of traditional hotels, and also have a fairly level of on-site service. The important thing is that they can provide family-style room layout, which not only has the privacy and living atmosphere of home, but also has the good environment and professional services of high-end hotels.

This person believes that the high rental price of serviced apartments is inseparable from its own advantages. Serviced apartments have the advantages of traditional hotels and apartments. Most of them are located in mature commercial centers, where foreign companies and foreigners gather and flow. Office buildings, hotels, business centers and other service facilities in these areas are perfect, with the hardware configuration of high-end apartments. Professional hotel property management companies or serviced apartment management companies are hired for occupancy management, which brings great convenience to residents' lives, and the quality of star service fully meets the needs of these customers. At the same time, relatively independent and stable tourists also bring considerable rental income to serviced apartments.

In fact, the unique advantages of serviced apartments have emerged. In the past two years, in the high-end apartment rental market in Beijing, due to the substantial increase in overall supply and the continuous decline in rents, the rents of some properties have dropped by more than 50%. However, serviced apartments like Guo Mao and Kerry Center are on the rise, and the fluctuation of actual transaction rent is generally less than 5%. Obviously, compared with ordinary high-end apartments, the rent level of serviced apartments is stronger.

Investment characteristics of serviced apartments

According to Cai, the developer of Jinqiao International Apartment, due to the increasing population mobility in some large and medium-sized cities, a family model dominated by some young people has emerged, which directly led to the emergence of serviced apartments. Serviced apartment is a brand-new property concept. At the same time, large and medium-sized cities have formed a class of senior business people, who have considerable business consumption capacity, and traditional property management can no longer adapt to their fast-paced life. On the other hand, China's accession to the WTO will bring a large number of foreign small and medium-sized companies to Beijing, because large international multinational companies have already set up offices in Beijing. Small and medium-sized companies, because of lack of financial strength, want convenience and suitable prices, so serviced apartments will be their ideal choice.

Zhang Mi, investment consulting department of Xinzun Real Estate Agency, believes that serviced apartments have multiple functions such as residence, hotel and clubhouse, and have two meanings of "self-use" and "investment". Not lower than the hotel in hardware facilities, but better than the hotel in service. At the same time, it is different from the home office in SOHO concept, and has supporting facilities and services of star-rated hotels. Hotel-style apartments should be more personalized in the future, because most of the customers rented here are highly educated, high-quality and international people, and they should be different from other real estates in the market in terms of decoration, apartment type, environment and supporting facilities, and highlight their individuality. Only in this way can they become an important factor to realize the return on investment. Hotel-style apartments are the first choice for investment-oriented home buyers, especially those in different places. Usually, the rent of hotels is about 30% higher than that of apartments, and the service of ordinary apartments lags behind that of hotels. Hotel-style apartment has the characteristics of small building area, easy management, complete service and easy rental, which is incomparable to other property projects.

However, as a high-end project, serviced apartments occupy more funds than ordinary houses, and the return period is longer, which is more suitable for medium and long-term investors.

On the other hand, investment projects of serviced apartments must have quite strict conditions.

Zhang Mi pointed out that investment in serviced apartments should be in a suitable position. For example, CBD and Asian Games Village in Chaoyang District are the most active areas of international business activities in Beijing, and they are also the hottest areas of network economy in the past two years. There are a large number of small companies and young white-collar workers in these areas. For them, it is convenient to settle down here, more importantly, there are more opportunities and lower costs, and they are most likely to make use of the people, funds and information flow in this area to succeed quickly. These popular areas are most suitable for investment in serviced apartments.

With the development of the market, a new format of serviced apartments has emerged. According to the news from Jinggang Property Development Co., Ltd., a developer who develops city squares and urban Hua Ting, they have launched a serviced business apartment, temporarily named "Urban International". This is a new product that combines serviced apartments with SOHO. It fully considers the need to meet all kinds of personalized business, and also meets people's requirements for high-grade accommodation. This brand-new model reasonably divides the living room into two areas: residence and office. There are both high-grade residential areas of serviced apartments and high-grade business districts of SOHO, as well as five-star clubs. What is more striking is that it adds a new concept of 24-hour business center to SOHO, where you can enjoy 24-hour secretarial service, 24-hour translation service and 24-hour conference service. As a result, this hotel-style business apartment not only fills the gap that SOHO supporting services do not have 5A-level office buildings, but also creates a more perfect office space that exceeds 5A-level.

The investment crisis of serviced apartments in Shanghai is emerging.

Shanghai real estate market is experiencing an unprecedented "golden" period. The soaring housing prices have attracted many real estate investors, and it is reported that tens of billions of funds have flowed into the Shanghai real estate market. Pan Shiyi, a big shot in the industry, recently said: "The Shanghai real estate market is a red-hot iron, so you can't touch it." Investing in serviced apartments is no exception.

According to an insider, no matter how developers avoid the speculative details of hotel-style apartments, in fact, in many small-sized apartments, the proportion of investors is above 50%, and the proportion used for self-occupation is very small.

The booming Shanghai real estate market has led investors to speculate more in the short term, hoping to make a fortune and leave. This mentality is more common among investors in serviced apartments. After buying serviced apartments, most speculators generally change hands quickly to earn the difference.

However, it is precisely because of people's expectation of short-term price pursuit that many experts have begun to warn that the excessive rise in housing prices caused by excessive speculation has caused early signs of a bubble in Shanghai's real estate market. Zhejiang investors, the main speculators in Shanghai real estate market, have shown signs of withdrawing their funds, which seems to be confirming some subtle changes.

As far as serviced apartments are concerned, traditional short-term investors may face greater investment risks under the current circumstances. If they can't find the hotel-style apartment in their hands and change hands immediately, investors' losses will be immediate. Especially when the concept of serviced apartments is still hot, some developers fish in troubled waters and sell products under the guise of serviced apartments, and most of these products have now become tools for speculative real estate speculation. Therefore, at present, hotel-style apartment products are growing rapidly, buyers' choices are increasing, and potential second-hand buyers are largely diverted, which will further narrow the circulation space of second-hand properties and make it more difficult for small-sized investors to realize short-term cash-out.

In fact, experts in the industry pointed out that the serviced apartment itself is a pure investment product, but at present, many serviced apartments do not really have its connotation, and there are no excellent investment conditions in software and hardware, which also causes many investors to blindly engage in short-term operations and lose the real significance of investing in serviced apartments.

Yinggang J0 10

The development and investment of serviced apartments mainly face four major risks.

Shen Hao, a real estate agent of Sunco Market Development Department, believes that the development and investment of serviced apartments are currently facing four major risks:

First of all, with the increasingly detailed serviced apartment property, investors are diverted. For example, city holidays emphasize business functions, and Yadong famous seats emphasize "residence". Generally speaking, the rate of return on residential investment is inversely proportional to people's attention to the residential investment market, that is, when more and more people rent their houses to get a return, the rent level in the rental market will decrease accordingly. Therefore, as a relatively concentrated customer group of serviced apartments, investors will definitely change their goals if they have better investment channels.

The second is the planning and design of serviced apartments. Many developers are eager for quick success and instant benefit, which makes the design of some serviced apartments unsatisfactory. Even some projects launched now are designed by using the scraps of existing plots, and there are some problems in the orientation and aisle, which can not meet the specific needs of hotel-style apartment residents, such as the lack of service space such as laundry and food delivery.

The third is the expected rent of investors. At present, most of the serviced apartment products on the market are composed of hundreds of small-sized properties, and the huge product volume on the market affects the rental price of the regional market; Especially after delivery, the rental supply of the same lot suddenly increased, and many buyers' rental cash-out investment behavior intensified. Some lessors who are eager for success will reduce the rent, resulting in a decline in the return on investment and an extension of the payback period.

The fourth is pricing. It is reasonable that the unit price of serviced apartment is higher than other houses 10%-20%. However, the price weight of many serviced apartments is increasing day by day, and there are more and more serviced apartments with a price of 10,000 yuan per square meter, which seriously deviates from the market. In addition, there are some common problems in hotel-style apartments, such as low greening rate, crowded elevators in the building, narrow passages and complicated residents.

How to avoid investment risks? Shen Hao believes that the first is the comprehensive consideration of lots. At present, behind the surge of serviced apartments, there are hidden factors that affect the return on investment (rent), such as the increase of regional supply and the similarity of products. Therefore, before making an investment choice, we should investigate the rental market around the lot, choose a suitable analogy and calculate the rationality of its square selling price; Whether there are geographical advantages, such as convenient transportation, it is best to be close to the existing or under construction rail transit; Most of the buildings around the property are commercial buildings, which are better than residential areas, and similar projects nearby are less than over-concentrated areas.

Secondly, the real estate should have innovative design and refuse uncompleted residential flats. The design of hotel-style apartment should fully reflect its economic and practical characteristics, and the layout of room type should be compact and flexible, so as to reduce the number of negative indoor space and the distribution of public space. According to different levels of residents and their living habits, bedroom apartment design can be flexibly separated.