Luxury developer, Raimon Land, launched on July 17 The Lofts Southshore - a US$200 million concept - their latest addition to the up-market Bscene in Pattaya (Thailand).

The Lofts Southshore is perched on a hillside in the Khao Pratamnak, the area overlooking Pattaya Bay, and offers stunning 360-degree views of the sea, Pattaya City and surrounding area just minutes from downtown and the beach.

There will be about 850 units within the two towers situated on an almost 10,000 square meter land plot acquired for 235 million baht ($7,000,000).

The first tower will be at least 35 floors and the other tower will have 50 floors. The 850 units are sized between 30 and 300 square meters (penthouses with private gardens) at just around 65,000 baht ($1,935) per square meter and with a starting price of about 1.8 million baht ($53,000).

Swimming pool, sun deck and sports facilities are to be located atop a massive podium shared by the towers overlooking the beautiful Pattaya Bay.

Already well established in Bangkok, The Lofts Southshore will be completed by 2011.

Aurum, an Italian company, is the sole agent of a precious parquet covered with 24 carat gold leaves which bring refinement of materials and craftsmanship in the most exclusive houses.

The elegance of the rich woods and the brightness and glints of the gold and silver give style and charm to the chicest houses, to the yachts, to the shops and to the suites of the most prestigious hotels.

The collection includes 11 patented patterns: 6 in gold (at around 6,800 euros a square meter!), 4 in silver and 1 in copper. Gold leaves applied on wood boards and finished with wax and specific treatments to enhance the natural grain of the wood and to keep brilliance and wear.

If you really love Italy, you have to know that the same price could get you a central Milan apartment !

A luxury flat in Hong Kong has sold for 225 million Hong Kong dollars (28.8 million US), the most expensive apartment per square foot ever sold in Asia ($41,000 HKD per square foot), a report in the Sing Tao Daily said.

The 80th floor penthouse has a private swimming pool and spectacular view of Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour. The 5,497-square-foot (511-square-metre) flat, with its own roof-top terrace, is located in a new complex called The Arch, in Hong Kong’s Kowloon area.

The new tower is attracting multinational firms away from the central business district, where rocketing property prices have scared away even the world’s richest firms - Source : AFP.

Who said anything about a recession? Sometime between the government bailout of Bear Stearns and the Bureau of Labor Statistics report that America lost 80,000 jobs in March, Lee Tachman spent roughly $50,000 last month on a four-day jaunt to Miami for himself and three close friends.

The trip was an exercise in luxuriant male bonding. Mr. Tachman, who is 38, and his friends got around by private jet, helicopter, Hummer limousine, Ferraris and Lamborghinis; stayed in V.I.P. rooms at Casa Casuarina, the South Beach hotel that was formerly Gianni Versace’s mansion; and played “extreme adventure paintball” with former agents of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration.

Mr. Tachman, a manager for a company that executes trades for hedge funds and the owner of “a handful” of buildings in New York, said he has not felt the need to cut back.

“I always feel like there’s a sword of Damocles over my head, like it could all come crashing down at any time,” he said. “But there’s always going to be people who are trading, and there’s always going to be a demand for real estate in New York.”

He is hardly alone in his eagerness to keep spending. Some businesses that cater to the superrich report that clients — many of them traders and private equity investors whose work is tied to Wall Street — are still splurging on multimillion-dollar Manhattan apartments, custom-built yachts, contemporary art and lavish parties.

Buyers this year have already closed on 71 Manhattan apartments that each cost more than $10 million, compared with 17 apartments in that price range during all of 2007. Last week, a New York art dealer paid a record $1.6 million for an Edward Weston photograph at Sotheby’s. And the GoldBar, a downtown lounge, reports that bankers continue to order $3,000 bottles of Rémy Martin Louis XIII Cognac.

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Read this “Ultra” interesting article on nytimes

In Tel Aviv, Israel, the G Tower offers Tel Aviv’s most expensive apartment, a flat priced at $34 million.

The new apartment has 360 degree views of the city and measures 1,500 square meters (around 15,145 square feet) for a price of over $22,000 per square meter.

The Gindi Group, which developed the G Tower recently announced the selling price for the triplex flat which combines a former duplex and penthouse apartment on the 24th, 25th and 26th floors.