Rebecca Smith is a real estate journalist and author with over 15 years’ experience. She has published several books to date, including:

‘10 simple ways to slash your marketing costs and sell more property’

Rebecca is currently the sales director for Phuket Ocean Villas and Ocean Villas Group.

My clients staying at the 5-star Amanpuri in Phuket’s Surin Beach were a bit disappointed...

"We paid for an ocean view, not a super yacht view."

I was a bit confused, until I saw this huge boat right outside the resort...

 It is so big you can hardly see the ocean.

And it’s been hanging around Phuket for the last few weeks.

So I did a little digging to see what I could find out...

The owner of this 394-foot (120 metres) super yacht is Russian Andrey Melnichenko.

He's a 38-year-old banking, steel and fertiliser oligarch.

He calls the boat "A" - after himself and his supermodel wife Aleksandra.

The yacht was designed by Philippe Starke who said; "This boat has elegance and intelligence, it is not trying to show the money".

I'm not so sure about that...

According to reports, the interior is fitted with Baccarat-crystal tables, floor-to-ceiling mirrors and polished silver.

The walls of one room are covered in white stingray hides, while another is covered in hand-stitched calf leather.

Over the top? You decide.

At the top of a spiral staircase lined with silver-leaf walls is a door, accessible only by a fingerprint security system.

If your fingerprint matches, it opens up a 240m2 master-suite wrapped in bomb-proof, 44-millimetre glass.

There’s a king-sized bed on a giant base that rotates at the touch of a silver button.

And another button rotates the bed itself.

Why?

The combination of the rotating bed and the rotating base gives you limitless angles to watch the sunset, sunrise or the 60-inch plasma TV - which drops-down from the ceiling.

The boat was completed in 2008 at a cost of over US$ 300 million.

You’ll have to pay more than US$ 500,000 just to fill its fuel tanks.

And the vessel costs more than US$ 20 million a year to maintain.

I can think of a few properties with a great ocean view that will set you back far less...

What about a 2-bedroom oceanfront condo on Bangtao Beach?

It is just minutes from where this super yacht is moored.

You get views of Bangtao Bay and across to Trisara (a resort popular with celebrities).

The seller is asking 30,000,000 Baht (US$ 951,780)

That’s less than 2 tanks of fuel.

And he is open to offers.

Or what about an ocean front villa in Kamala?

It's a little more pricey at 75,000,000 Baht (US$ 2,379,000).

But it is larger, with a 577m2 interior and 3 en-suite bedrooms.

It’s also part of a 5-star hotel.

So you have the option to rent when you are not there.

If you don’t want to spend quite as much...

What about a freehold, oceanfront condo for 6,900,000 Baht (US$ 218,909)?

It is 87m2 and has excellent views of Patong Bay.

It is cheap because needs a little renovation.

But if you are looking for oceanfront in Patong it’s a bargain.

If you are coming to Phuket and want to see some property, why not send me an email or give me a call?

Article source - http://blog.phuketoceanvillas.com/a-room-with-a-view-but-not-the-one-you-want/