Tycoon who beat crash is now betting on hotels

A DEVELOPER who predicted the property collapse is building a new 151-room hotel due to open within a year.

Andreas Panayiotou, who offloaded apartments worth millions in 2006, claims hotels are now a "better bet" than the buy-to-let flats that made him a multi-millionaire.

He has leased a plot for the 13,000 square metre development in the centre of Syon Park, Kew, which is the London home of the Duke of Northumberland. Boxer- turned-property-magnate Mr Panayiotou plans to open a spa at the hotel, and is considering bringing back the London Butterfly House,which was forced to shut in October 2007.

Mr Panayiotou, 42, who left school in east London at 15 without any qualifications, built his fortune by developing blocks of flats on the edge of an up-and-coming area and waiting for prices to rise.

He claims to have predicted the success of Shoreditch, Clerkenwell and Hackney before anyone else but sold £750million worth of flats at the end of 2006 when he believed the market would collapse.

In August 2006 he said: "We are reaching the height of the market. . . Property values are still increasing but rental income is not catching up, so the yield - your return - is being depressed."

He is now 158th on The Sunday Times Rich List and worth £500million thanks to a hotel empire which includes the Hilton Liverpool and Dunblane Hydro.

Today Mr Panayiotou, whose Cypriot family also ran a dry-cleaning business, said: "I saw the bubble inflating - and then I saw it was about to burst and I got out in good time. At present I believe hotels are a much better bet, as long as they are top quality facilities in unique locations, which Syon Park is."

Syon House, with the surrounding 200-acre Syon Park designed by landscape architect Lancelot "Capability" Brown in the 18th century, looks out across the Thames on to Kew Gardens.

In addition to the Hilton hotel, which will have several restaurants and bars, Mr Panayiotou's Ability Group is opening a branch of the Spa Chakra chain.

The design of the hotel was agreed with the Trustees of Syon Park, English Heritage and Hounslow Council.