Overview
Major Development’s Royce Private Residence is a dual tower luxury highrise condominium in Bangkok’s Asoke area. Royce Private Residences has the 39 floor tower A and 25 floor Tower B with about 126 and 35 units respectively. The Bangkok luxury condominium project was finished in 2012. Royce Private Residences was marketed as a top class project and to this day remains one of the most expensive condo projects in central Bangkok.
The Location
Royce Private Residences condominium is technically located on Sukhumvit soi 31. Since the location of ‘The Royce’ connects directly to Sukhumvit soi 23 it is convenient to drive via the ‘back sois’ from Phrom Phong to Asoke and avoid the Sukhumvit Road traffic which is worse most of the time. The Asok BTS skytrain station is about 1km or 13 minutes walking distance from the condo.
Unit Types (avg. rental prices)
- 2 Bedrooms (112 sq. m.) (฿70-85,000)
- 3 Bedrooms (143-178 sq.m. ) (฿85-110,000)
- 4 Bedrooms (250 sq.m. ) (฿200-250,000)
- Duplex Penthouse (350-450 sq.m. +) (฿500,000+)
Royce Private Residences occupies a fair sized chunk of land so it lives up to the ‘private’ part of its name. The units at Royce Private Residences are nicely laid out and offer high ceilings and plenty of natural lighting. The units on high floors at ‘The Royce’ have great unblocked city views. The facilities at Royce Private Residences are good quality and very uncrowded. Perhaps the best thing about condos at ‘The Royce’ are the private lifts which allow most residents in the building to have their own private foyer. This is super convenient as residents of ‘The Royce’ can go directly to their homes from their assigned parking spots without having to walk through the lobbies, very private indeed.
Like several Major Development’s residential projects, the buildings are marketed as top shelf luxury projects during presale and Royce Private Residences took that to the extreme. The marketing materials made it look like the Queen of England was living there for a summer home. This makes the expectations very high and on the surface they seem their production is on par with what the market but unfortunately after the 3-5 year developer warranty runs out, some of their buildings get rundown rather quickly and like Fullerton Sukhumvit, Royce private Residences is no exception. The building just hasn’t held up as well as it should have and in a short time there are minor problems such as a heavy amount of rust on a large majority of the condos cast iron balcony railings, sloppy painting jobs and other cosmetic blemishes that co-owners weren’t expecting when they paid close to ฿200,000 per square meter for their condo.
For whatever reason, Royce Private Residences seems old and it seems at least half of the new visitors guess the building is at least 10 years older than it actually is. Also, it could be nitpicking but when you hear a condo called Royce PRIVATE Residences you would expect the developer to make privacy a focal point. While private lifts are a nice touch, the Royce’s swimming pool is located at the ground level so the residents of about 50 units can be looking into the pool. Not very private is it? While the traffic on the back soi part of Sukhumvit soi 31 is better than the main Sukhumvit Road, evenings between 6-8pm there is huge traffic jam on the road more often than not.
Conclusion
Like The Millennium Residence, Royce Private Residences is a polarizing property for many expats. About half of the people who visit the condo absolutely love the style while the other half find it to be corny or downright banal. Regardless of the cosmetic style, the private lift, foyers and quality of the condominium units offer very little doubt that Royce Private Residences is a quality expat condo project in a good location, the question is simply whether it is worth the asking price. As mentioned before, Royce Private Residences is one of the most expensive condos in Bangkok so it may not be the greatest investment property at this point unless you can find a unit at well below market prices.