DoubleDragon forms overseas units

Property developer DoubleDragon Properties Corp. is setting up a string of subsidiaries in Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, London, Italy and the United States to focus on the preselling of units in what will soon be a hospitality chain under the Hotel101 brand.

Hotel101 is an affordable hotel brand whose units are sold to buyers seeking recurring earnings out of their property assets.  The units are pooled and managed by the group and investors in each property get a uniform yield based on the performance of the property. Investors also get a certain number of free nights of accommodations in the hotel, similar to a time-sharing concept.

The prototype for this hospitality brand is the 518-room Hotel 101-Manila property at the Bay area, which has so far given early unit owners 7.04 percent gross yield on their investment in the last 12 months from December 2017 to November 2018.

In 2018, Booking.com ranked Hotel101-Manila as the most booked hotel in Pasay City against its competitive set and second most booked hotel in the entire Metro Manila against 2,929 other hotels. Hotel101-Manila is also Expedia’s 2018 awardee for most booked hotel in all of Metro Manila.

Hotel101-Manila posted an average occupancy rate of 83.7 percent for January to November 2018.

All other upcoming new Hotel 101 properties where units are now offered for sale are expected to be completed by 2020.

“We are particularly pleased with the performance of our recently set-up in-house sales team that has made a substantial contribution to our revenue and cash flow stream this year. The next step is to set up several more sales teams abroad in preparation for the next four more Hotel101 projects in Davao, Boracay, Bohol and Palawan to start preselling next year with over P12.21 billion in new inventory,” said Hannah Yulo, chief investment officer of DoubleDragon.

“Hotel101 provides the optimum balance for DoubleDragon as our offices, malls and warehouses are recurring revenue sources which start pouring in upon their respective completion, while for Hotel101, DoubleDragon derives revenue twice—first, from the preselling of the units during the construction phase and secondly, once the projects are completed, the properties start to generate recurring revenue from hotel operations,” said Edgar Sia II, DoubleDragon chair.

DoubleDragon has an in-house domestic sales force consisting of over 50 experienced property specialists. The company’s new sales recorded across all Hotel101 projects have exceeded P1.9 billion in 2018 to date, an increase of 142.9 percent year-on-year. The majority of new sales delivered were attributable to Hotel101 Fort, which the company said, was well received by the market. Hotel101 Fort hit a record P1.65 billion in sales since its launch in March 2018.

The company targets to complete a leasable portfolio of 1.2 million square meters by 2020 comprising of 700,000 sqm from 100 CityMalls, 300,000 sqm from its Metro Manila office projects DD Meridian Park and Jollibee Tower, 100,000 sqm from the planned 5,000 hotel rooms of Hotel101 and Jinjiang Inn Philippines, and another 100,000 sqm of industrial space from various CentralHub sites across Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.

DoubleDragon’s four pillars of growth are provincial retail leasing, office leasing, industrial leasing and hotels which are all seen providing the company with a diversified source of recurring revenues backed by a string of appreciating hard assets.