In the blue corner, Absolute Resort Management. In the red corner, the other Absolute, from Bangkok, Absolute Hotel Services.

Oh dear. Just when we thought we’d found Phuket’s most expensive home for sale, at US$7 million, along comes another one selling for US$8 million. Not only that, it’s not on Millionaires’ Mile – it’s up above Surin Beach, effectively out-millionairing Millionaires’ Mile by a million bucks.

Phuket Observer believes that Liberty, a cliff-top dwelling on Millionaires’ Mile, may be the most expensive home yet offered in the Phuket luxury home market.

American hotel management company LaTour is at it again, signing up its third property in Phuket, which also becomes, in press releases, its “third property in Asia”. (Well, it’s true, isn’t it?)

After tourism and rubber, property is the third-biggest industry in Phuket, so sellers of homes on the island – who have been looking at blank order books thanks to the global financial crisis and the Red Shirt violence in Bangkok – will be happy to know that Thailand’s ranking for the transparency of its real estate market has improved, giving buyers increased confidence.

Michael Ma’s getting pretty fit these days. It’s all that climbing up and down steps at his latest acquisition, the hillside Indochine Resort in Phuket, formerly the troubled Villa Santi property development.

Phuket usually grabs a stack of silverware in the Asia Pacific section of the annual International Property Awards. But this year, possibly in the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis, entries from the island were thin on the ground, and just two Phuket entrants won their classes.

The grand Andara Resort has now opened on Millionaires’ Mile in Kamala, following a well-established model whereby developers build villas and apartments, sell them, and then – when the owners are not in residence – rent them out by the night to tourists.

If there’s one thing Bryan Lunt likes, it’s a party. And why not – he now has his own party venue, the suggestively named Climax at the top of his own love pad development – sorry, apartment development, Absolute Bangla Suites, just off the infamous womb of Patong, Soi Bangla.

The evening of January 29th heralded the grand opening for the new Absolute Bangla Suites showroom on Soi Bangla in Patong. It was an occasion fraught with festivities, free drinks, and laden with quite a few of the respected members of Phuket’s upper crust. An altogether enjoyable experience which is becoming more and more common on our beautiful island, despite growing economic concerns.