The "The 13 Hotel," once known as the most luxurious hotel in Macau, was recently resold to local investors for only HK$600 million, shocking the industry. This price represents a drop of over 90% from its original construction cost of HK$12.5 billion (US$1.6 billion), marking it as a symbolic case of the burst of the real estate and gambling investment bubble in Macau.
According to Jones Lang LaSalle, the transaction has been officially completed, and the buyer plans to retain the hotel's function, redesign, and renovate it, and introduce international dining brands to try to revitalize the project's image. Jones Lang LaSalle will also continue to manage the property.
"The 13 Hotel" was developed by the wealthy businessman Stephen Hung, originally planned as an ultimate luxury space exclusively for VIP gamblers, featuring 66 gambling tables and 199 luxurious rooms. The project aimed to ride the boom of the gambling industry in the 2010s but faced repeated halts due to financing disruptions and construction delays. It eventually opened quietly in 2018 but has been underperforming due to the lack of a gambling license and incomplete facilities.
Despite obtaining a new one-year hotel license in 2024 to attempt a restart, issues such as incomplete facilities and restaurant closures remain unresolved. After initiating a new round of sales in May 2025, the transaction price was significantly lower than the HK$2.4 billion marked in 2024, eventually selling for only a quarter of that price, sparking widespread discussion.
Industry insiders generally believe that this transaction not only exposes the failure of a single project but also highlights the vulnerability of the long-term tied development of Macau's real estate and gambling industries. In the context of tightening policies and slow transformation, the investment model driven excessively by gambling faces serious challenges.
However, Jones Lang LaSalle points out that the new buyer is still optimistic about the mid-to-long-term potential of Macau's tourism and consumer markets, hoping to leverage future opportunities for industrial diversification to reshape the commercial value of "The 13 Hotel."
This shocking transaction symbolizes the end of the grand gambling dream of "The 13 Hotel" and serves as a wake-up call for real estate and gambling investors in Macau: times have changed, and high-stake bets must eventually face a reckoning.
