BTS is back – and so sticker shock in Seoul

When BTS announced a comeback show in central Seoul this March, fans around the world rushed to book flights and hotel rooms. In the neighborhoods s...

Australia’s purpose-built student housing transforms dormitories into lifestyle hubs

BRISBANE, Australia – On an afternoon in Scape South Bank – Student Accommodation in December, the lobby of the 15-story residence buzze...

Australia turns to build-to-rent scheme to tackle inner-city housing crunch

SYDNEY – Australia is turning to large-scale, institutionally run rental housing as a way to ease acute accommodation shortages in its biggest...

Lotte buys land beneath Lotte New York Palace building for $490 mn

Lotte Hotels & Resorts, a South Korean luxury hotel chain, said on Monday that it had completed the purchase of the land beneath the Lotte New Y...

Weak won: A double-edged sword for Korean tourism industry

South Korea’s travel market is splitting in two as a protracted weak-won cycle versus the dollar is driving an early year-end boom for hotels ...

Once languishing, Korea’s art market shows signs of thaw as collectors return

At a packed K Auction room in Seoul’s upscale Sinsa-dong late last month, the energy in the room suddenly shifted – palpably – whe...

Seoul hotel prices soar to record highs as tourist boom overwhelms supply

In Seoul, even a hotel room costing 1 million won ($705) a night is hard to come by. From five-star towers in the affluent Gangnam district to budge...

Immigration crackdown takes toll on US hotels; Korean travelers cancel trips

US immigration restrictions are beginning to spill over into the hospitality industry, with reservations in its major tourist cities declining even ...

Demand for Seoul hotel assets soars as regional properties struggle to find buyers

The gap between Seoul’s hotel investment market and that of regional cities is widening, as global luxury brands flock to the capital while pr...

Hanwha seeks to buy Paraspara Seoul from developer tied to Banyan Tree Busan fire

Hanwha Hotels & Resorts Co. is in talks to acquire Paraspara Seoul, a five-star hotel and resort, up for sale by a property developer facing lia...

Shinsegae, Hana Financial, Bain Capital to finance $438 mn Starfield Cheongna

Shinsegae Property, a subsidiary of South Korean retail giant Shinsegae Group, on Tuesday unveiled a 600 billion won ($438 million) investment agree...

Saudi Crown Prince bin Salman courts Korean AI startups as Riyadh, Abu Dhabi vie to build tech hubs

Back in the 1960s and 1970s, the Middle East was a land of opportunity for many South Korean construction workers, who labored there under the scorc...

Yonsei University: Unlikely yet adroit dealmaker in S.Korea’s M&A market

For decades, or probably for centuries, Yonsei University has been seen as an ivory tower – a place for academics – in South Korea.One o...

IGIS Asset resumes sale of KIC-backed Shilla Stay Seodaemun

Shilla Stay Seodaemun has been put on the market again amid signs of a recovery in South Korea’s hospitality industry, after earlier attempts ...

Goldman Sachs acquires Mercure Ambassador: 1st stint with Korean hotels

Goldman Sachs, in partnership with JB Asset Management Co., has acquired Mercure Ambassador Seoul Hongdae, a prominent mixed-use commercial property...

Time to spend: Korean shoppers loosen purse strings on luxuries, hotels

South Korea’s long-dormant consumer sector is showing signs of revival, as shoppers – once paralyzed by political uncertainty – re...

SK, AWS to build South Korea’s largest, multibillion-dollar AI data center

South Korea’s second-largest conglomerate SK and Amazon Web Services Inc. (AWS), the world's largest cloud platform provider, will build a 103...

Korean hotels bask in rising foreign visitors; travel agencies in trouble

Hotels in South Korea are booming thanks to a surge in foreign visitors on a weaker won currency, while domestic travel agencies are suffering from ...

Samsung expands automotive MLCC supply to BYD, other Chinese firms

Samsung Electro-Mechanics Co. is supplying several million dollars' worth of multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs) to BYD Co. and Chinese automotive...

IGIS puts office tower, 2 nearby hotels on market in bundled sale

Prime office complex AP Tower and two adjacent hospitality properties in Seoul’s Gangnam Business District have been put up for sale in a bu...

Samsung, Celltrion lead biosimilar market in Europe, US

Samsung Bioepis Co. and Celltrion Inc. are outpacing long-established global drug manufacturers such as Amgen Inc. and Sandoz in the antibody biosim...

Korea’s IGIS Asset puts top Seoul tourist area hotel on market

IGIS Asset Management Co., one of Asia's largest real estate investment firms, is set to sell a four-star hotel in Myeong-dong, a popular spot for f...

South Korea loses tech startups at rapid clip amid dwindling funding

Concerns are growing that the tech startup ecosystem in South Korea, home to global tech household name Samsung Electronics Co., would be trapped in...

J-R AMC, BlueCove bid on $70 million sale of Mirae Asset, NPS’ Shilla Stay

The sale of Shilla Stay Dongtan, a premium business hotel operated by South Korea’s Hotel Shilla Co., has attracted four bidders, underscoring...

Macquarie to sell Seoul hotel to KB Asset for $119 million

Macquarie Asset Management is poised to sell a four-star hotel in Seoul for about 170 billion won ($118.7 million) to South Korea’s KB Asset M...

GIC at forefront of $413-mn deal to buy hotels from South Korea’s DL Group

Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC Pte. has been given priority rights to buy three hotels valued at more than 600 billion won ($413 million) toget...

Alternative stock exchange Nextrade to launch on March 4

Nextrade, South Korea’s first alternative stock exchange, enabling trading of stocks listed on the Kospi and the Kosdaq for 12 hours a day is ...

Blackstone zooms in on hotels, warehouses in Korea

The global real estate market is poised for a recovery, led by industrial warehouses, residential facilities and data centers benefiting from declin...

Piccoma tops consumer spending ranking in Japan

Kakao Piccoma, a Japanese digital comics app subsidiary of South Korean mobile giant Kakao Corp., topped the consumer spending ranking in the Japane...

Naver Webtoon invests in Japan's Number Nine

South Korea's Naver Webtoon said on Thursday that its Japanese service operator Line Digital Frontier invested in Number Nine, a webtoon studio in J...