As Singapore's big name is about to expand his company's footprint and tap on the global travel boom, the royal group of property billionaire Asok Kumar Hiranandani has invested around £110 million ($143 million) to develop the Maiden Hotel in London.
The Royal Group purchased the former Nattwest Bank (formerly Westminster Bank) building in Piccadilly, in London's Mayfair district, for £65 million last month. According to Hiranandani, chairman of the Singapore-based company, the company is planning to spend another £45 million to transform its century-old heritage property into a luxury boutique hotel with 50 suites.
Hiranandani says he has been looking for opportunities in London over the past decade. According to government data, London tourist arrivals rose 10.4 million, up 10% in the first half of 2024, after a 25% increase in the first half of 2024. “The arrival of tourists in London is growing like crazy,” Hiranandani said in an interview with Forbes Asia.
British construction company Ritchie Design Partners is designing a London hotel that is expected to be completed by the end of 2026. Hiranandani is confident that the hotel can charge £1,000 per night, as well as room rates at nearby Ritz London. In recent years, the city has attracted other Singapore real estate tycoons. City Development of billionaire Kwek Leng Beng bought St. Catherine Dock in 2023, and Ho Bee Land of the real estate's large Chua Thian Poh acquired Scalpel Office Skyscraper the previous year.
Impressions of the artists of Casamet in 165 rooms.
Provided by Royal Group
Work on the London Project, assigned for conservation, will be in full swing with the construction of another Royal Group hotel in Singapore. The 165-room hotel, known as CASA METT, rises on 12,132 square feet (1,127 square meters) of land along Cascaden Road near the precincts of Orchard Road Shopping. The previous site for Ming Arcade Shopping Mall was purchased by Royal Group in 2022 for S$172 million ($129 million) and set a record price of S$3,125 per square foot per plot rate. “Because the Freeholdland on Orchard Road is rare. “This would be a decent investment.”
Royal Group is spending around $100 million to build the 13-storey Casa Mett hotel. The hotel features a curved bladed glass facade that rises to 100 meters high. Designed by Singapore-based SCDA Architects, the hotel features 4.2 meters high, empty terraces on the second and eighth floors, as well as luxury rooms that reach the pool bar on the roof deck.
Casa Mett, scheduled to open in early 2027, will be managed by Dubai-based Sunset Hospitality Group, known for being the operator of restaurants such as Mott 32 and Sushisamba. Hiranandani believes that luxury lifestyle hotels can charge $500 per night, as well as the prices for newly built hotels, such as the Edition (part of urban development) and Artyzen Singapore, which was developed by casino tycoon Pan Si Ho Shun Tak Holdings.
Despite the surge in new hotels after post-Singapore, Hiranandani believes that once Changi Airport opens Terminal 5 by 2030, the island nation will need more hotel rooms to accommodate the expected increase in inbound tourists. The new terminal can handle 50 million passengers a year. According to the Singapore Tourism Authority, tourist arrivals are expected to rise by 18.5 million people by 2025, after a 21% rise last year.
“The possibilities in Singapore are very vast,” Hiranandani says. The Royal Group has been taking advantage of the travel boom in recent years, expanding its footprint at Lion City hotels. Earlier this month we opened our Raffle Sentosa Resort, consisting of 62 villas. The cost of building the resort has swelled to S$300 million from the S$109 million budget following the S$180 million delay caused by the pandemic.
Hiranandani was the co-founder of the former Royal Brothers Property Group and split in 2011 following a family settlement. There is also a billionaire between him and his older brother Raj Kumar, who runs his separate companies, Royal Holdings and RB Capital, along with his son Kissin.
Through the Royal Group, Hiranandani owns major assets in Singapore, including the Sofitel Sentosa Resort and the Royal Group Office Building at the heart of the Raffles Place Central Business District. It also owns Malaysian hotels, including the DoubleTree by Hilton in Kuala Lumpur. His net worth is $1.7 billion, and Hiranandani ranked 28th in the list of 50 wealthy Singaporean lists released last September.
