Where it
goes quiet,
we build.
Quiet places the market overlooks. Quiet deals it never hears about. We find both, and build to last.
We buy against the crowd. We build for decades.
Equity Empire is a Singapore-based real estate developer and hospitality investor. We buy underpriced land and hotels in the places Asia's capital overlooks, and build boutique hotels, branded residences and mixed-use villages around them. Japan is our first market. Vietnam and Hong Kong are under evaluation next.
Visitors to Japan in 2024, against a government target of 60M by 2030
Luxury RevPAR growth in Japan, far outpacing midscale
Of Japan's hotel stock is luxury. New York's share is 26 percent
Active destinations in Hokkaido, with further markets under evaluation across Asia
Buy where the market underprices. Build where demand outstrips supply.
Japan's luxury hospitality market is growing faster than its supply. A weak yen, record arrivals and a thin stock of luxury rooms open a window in second-tier cities that are undervalued, climate-resilient and undersupplied.
We pair a boutique hotel that anchors each place with branded villas and residences that share its setting, its onsen and its service. The hotel drives operating income and brand. The residences accelerate capital recovery.
Six things we hold to, whatever the market says.
- 01Where the crowd goes, prices follow. We buy before it arrives, or after it leaves.
- 02We buy where the market underprices, not where it applauds.
- 03The hotel is the heart. The residences share its life.
- 04Nature is the amenity. Everything else is service.
- 05We build hotels to keep them.
- 06Overlooked addresses. First-tier places.
Powder, onsen, and a full house.
Hokkaido's most awarded ski terrain sits twenty-five minutes from Rusutsu. Frozen lakes turn Onuma into a winter village.
Sixteen hundred cherry trees at Goryokaku.
Hakodate is Japan's most attractive city for the seventh year running. Spring brings the first wave of the year's visitors.
A reprieve from Asia's urban heat.
Cooling demand across Asia is projected to surge thirty percent in two decades. Second-tier Japan is where affluent travellers go to breathe.
The lake, the volcano, and the quiet.
One hundred and twenty-six islands on Lake Onuma. Golf at the foot of Komagatake. A four-season destination with year-round demand.
Where the lake is still, we begin.
Two destinations in Hokkaido and a pipeline across Asia. Each pairs a hotel that anchors the place with residences that share its setting and its service.
Onuma
Rusutsu
Further opportunities
Pending entries are early-stage opportunities under evaluation and are not yet in active development.
Three tests before a single dollar.
Every site has to pass the same three tests. Most do not, and that is the point.
Something money cannot add
A lake, a mountain, a hot spring source, a harbour, a heritage street. If the best thing about a site could be bought later, we pass.
An hour from a hub
A bullet train, an airport, or the city itself. Onuma is nineteen minutes from the Shinkansen and thirty-five from Hakodate Airport.
A price below what it costs to build
Motivated sellers, a currency at multi-decade lows, entry 30 to 50 percent below prevailing rates. Discipline at entry is the one margin nobody can take away.
Land. Design. Operate. Own.
Land
We buy quiet. Second-tier, scenic, below replacement cost, in a currency that works in our favour.
Design
Buildings that sit lightly and age well. Nature does the decorating. Craft does the rest.
Operate
Some hotels we operate ourselves. For others we bring in an international operator. Either way, the standard is set before the doors open.
Own
We sell the residences to recover capital. We keep the hotel, because it is the reason the place works.
Thirty years of running hotels, before building our own.
Dennis Chiu
More than thirty years of real estate and hospitality leadership across Asia-Pacific, with deep expertise in the hotel market that informs every development decision.
- Executive Director, Far East Consortium International Limited, a publicly listed property developer with a portfolio across Asia, Europe and Australasia
- Dorsett Hotels Hospitality, a brand of more than 50 hotels worldwide
- Two Ritz Carlton developments in Melbourne and Perth
- Board, Agora Hospitality Group Co. Ltd. Japan, a portfolio of full-service city hotels
- Chairman and President, Hong Kong Singapore Business Association
Chris Chiu
Leads investment research, development strategy and negotiations across the platform, building it alongside his father with a focus on hospitality and residential projects in Japan and across Asia.
- Investment banking and real estate investment in London and New York, including acquisition and development work for a New York investment platform
- Co-founded two e-commerce businesses in New York and exited both through sales to private equity
- Master's in Astrophysics from University College London, with research published by the Royal Astronomical Society, and a Master's in Real Estate Investment and Finance from New York University
Family offices and institutional partners
We work alongside one of Asia's leading multi-family offices and with institutional co-investors and hotel operators. Their networks give the residences a direct channel to ultra-high-net-worth buyers, and their capital sits beside ours in every project.
- Established UHNW client networks as a direct distribution channel for branded villas and residences
- Co-investment and capital-raising partners for current and future developments
- International hotel operators for the hotels we do not run ourselves
Where patience pays,
we partner.
Most of our projects are built with partners who think in decades. Family offices, institutional co-investors and hotel operators can reach us directly.