IHG and Alphanam bring InterContinental branded residences to Sapa, a first for northwest Vietnam
IHG Hotels & Resorts and Vietnam's Alphanam Group are building 79 InterContinental-branded villas in the mountain town of Sapa — a project IHG says is expected to become the highest-altitude InterContinental residential development anywhere in its portfolio, and a bet on Vietnam's fast-growing branded-residence market.
IHG Hotels & Resorts and Alphanam Group, a Vietnamese developer, said they will build The Residences at InterContinental Sapa Resort, a 79-villa branded-residence project in Sapa, in Vietnam's mountainous Lao Cai province — InterContinental's first branded-residence project in the country's northwest, according to a joint statement on IHG's corporate newsroom.
The villas will sit in the Muong Hoa Valley as part of Alphanam's 83-hectare Alphora Muong Hoa International Resort Complex, the companies said. IHG said the development is "expected to become the highest-altitude InterContinental branded residential villa project within the global InterContinental Hotels & Resorts portfolio" once complete — a claim tied to Sapa's mountain setting, though neither company gave an elevation figure or a completion date.
The residences are being designed by DP Architects, Avalon, SCSY and P Landscape. Alphanam vice chairwoman Nguyen Ngoc My said the project engaged architects from the UK and Switzerland for their experience with mountain climates, and that it is targeting certification under EDGE, a green-building standard covering energy, water and carbon efficiency. Owners will have access to InterContinental's hotel services, including dining, wellness and concierge, IHG said.
"This project reflects the increasing demand for high-quality branded living experiences and our long-term confidence in the country's hospitality and residential sectors," said Bryan Chan, IHG's vice president of development for South East Asia and Korea.
Branded residences have become one of the fastest-growing revenue lines for global hotel groups, letting a hospitality company license its name and design standards onto a housing project and collect fees without the capital outlay of running the villas itself. Vietnam's mountain resorts, less developed than its beach coastline, are a newer front for that model, and the Sapa project adds a highland address to IHG's residential book alongside the group's beach and city projects across South East Asia. Whether the "highest-altitude" label proves more than marketing will depend on how the finished villas, and their price point, compare with the hospitality Sapa's valley already offers.