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Beyond Villa covers 10 rai and is not short of amenities of every kind

Photo by Sareepab Meekaewnoi

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'Greater Phuket' House Pumps Iron at $24m Sale

By Alan Morison

Friday, August 6, 2010

Phuketwan Updated Report: Photo Album Above

BEYOND VILLA, one of the most luxurious homes in the Phuket region, has been sold for about $US 24 million, Phuketwan has confirmed from real estate industry sources.

The rambling 6500 square metre property, which includes a bowling alley, a huge gymnasium and a short golf course, has been sold privately by California Fitness founder Eric Levine to a Russian buyer.

It is believed that an online video showing off all the attributes of Beyond Villa is what clinched the private sale, which would have been a coup for any local agent.

The house sits on the beachfront in ''Greater Phuket,'' just across the Sarasin Bridge from Phuket on Nanai Beach in the neighboring province of Phang Nga. For at least two years, the house has been listed for sale at $US27.5 million.

Property Report was first with the news. Phuketwan has since confirmed from independent sources that the deal has gone ahead.

While the property is stunning and has been covered handsomely in glossy magazine spreads over the past couple of years, people in the industry say it is not necessarily the most valuable villa spread in the Phuket region.

Those who have tramped through the 7000 square metre home of Hong Kong and Phuket businessman Allan Zeman as well as Beyond Villa compare the two doses of ozone opulence and reckon the Zeman property is probably superior.

A lot has to do with location. Zeman, creator of the Lan Kwai Fong entertainment sector in Hong Kong and the upmarket Andara Resort on Phuket, chose a prime Phuket headland with views across Laem Singh beach for his home away from home.

As far as we know, it's not for sale. So for now, Beyond Villa tops the list for sale price of a single home.

The property industry in and around Phuket will be delighted. It makes the other places that are going for $7 million or $8 million seem like bargains.

Comments

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Phew, glad to see the locals aren't being priced out of the property market.

Posted by Tanya Millibank on August 6, 2010 22:50

I've seen this place and Zeman's and there are much more luxurious villas on the island, I doubt Zeman's would be the most expensive here.

Posted by Benjie on August 6, 2010 22:54

I wonder how a American can sell to a Russian !
None of them can own the property !

They can own 49% of a company that can own the property, so who owns the 51% ???

Posted by Peter on August 7, 2010 16:32

Benjie, are you a cleaner? Otherwise, yours is one of the more asinine cases of name-dropping I've heard of recently.

Posted by Tanya Millibank on August 9, 2010 05:56

Right Tanya, all the restrictions on foreigners owning land have done nothing but let a few get rich instead of spreading the wealth around.

Next time you view an expensive villa, ask how long the lease has left and listen while you get the line,
"Oh, the contract has a 30 + 30 year 'renewal.'"
to which you should reply,
" NO SUCH THING in THAI LAW,
30 years is the max on any residential contract. So, when does this lease expire?"

Watch the realtor choke.

Posted by Ripley on August 9, 2010 10:56

I too would like to know how a foreigner can own such a property in Thailand.

Will he dismantle it when the lease expires and the landowner wants the land back?

Posted by Harry Barracuda on August 9, 2010 14:10

Hi Ripley, do you know when the 30+30+30 thing came into being? Have any of them reached the end of the first 30-year term? What happened/happens then?

Posted by Tanya Millibak on August 9, 2010 14:30

Tanya,
I don't know how long the 30 year lease + "option on renewal" rip off has been going on but sooner or later the facts regarding these illegal leases will catch up on the unfortunate purchasers.
Don't plan on taking any money out of such a scheme, live in it for 30 years, fine but don't expect others to buy a lease that is expiring in x amount of years AND may well be nontransferable.

Posted by Ripley on August 10, 2010 15:50

So to have at some point been in these two villas, I need to be either a cleaner or boasting, somehow?

Posted by Benjie on August 11, 2010 18:15

Benjie: a cleaner, a boaster, a bragname dropper... Who, apart from you, cares that you saw them?

Posted by Tanya Millibank on August 12, 2010 17:46

Why there is Eric name but no buyer name is there something to hide or all the Russians are like this?

Posted by Somchai on September 10, 2010 16:21

Tanya:

I fail to see how its name dropping when both names are listed in the article, I also don't see where I bragged. The point of a comments system is surely to make comments, no?

Posted by Benjie on September 10, 2010 19:06