I A P A C I F I C I N V E S T M E N T P A R T m Asia Pa

Asia Pacific Investment Partners global offices have announced the launch of a new property investment project in Mongolia. It will be called the Regency Residence. Mr Lee Cashell, Managing Partner of Asia Pacific Investment Partners (APIP) has barely completed a successful residential complex called the Park View Residence that he is already in Europe selling his new property to British investors and agents. He tells us that “this promises to be the most luxurious and attractive development in Mongolia for the next couple of years”. APIP has recently opened a new office in London to promote the residential building on the European market. Its director, Christopher de Gruben says that “we are very excited about the project, we believe it has real potential and growth possibilities, we are the leading real estate investment company in Mongolia and have gained great experience, the time is right for such a project, more importantly it is needed now.”

According to APIP, what makes the Regency Residence so unique in Ulaanbaatar is that there are very few modern, newly build apartment blocks. Especially ones built to a luxurious Western European standard. Other apartments in the city date back from the Soviet era and most could do with some serious renovation work. This makes new apartments like the ones at the Regency Residence extremely sought after, particularly as demand outstrips supply. In the past 18 months or so, Mongolia has enjoyed a kind of delayed post-Soviet boom, as years of gradual reform (and U.S. aid) finally begin to pay off. While other former satellites, including Ukraine and Belarus, never fully recovered from a post-Soviet economic depression, Mongolia has regained its Soviet-era income level ($500 per capita) and is not looking back. "This is a rough neighbourhood, with rough neighbours," says a Western diplomat in Ulan Bator. "No former Soviet state has come so far, and no former communist country in Asia has shown as much commitment to reform as Mongolia."

“High interest cost, lack of investment capital and low equity financing is hampering the developer’s ability to build large scale luxury apartments and thus meet the large demand” says Lee Cashell, Managing Partner of APIP. He carried on by saying that “In the coming years it is expected that developer will be able to increase capacity and produce more apartments however the scarcity factor is expected to remain for years to come.”