Mexico’s Riviera

Banyan Tree, a luxury hotel brand with a large presence in Asia, is opening its first hotel and vacation home project in North America this winter. The Banyan Tree Mayakoba, ten minutes north of Playa del Carmen on Mexico’s Caribbean-facing Yucatan Peninsula, will have 50 villas available for ownership.

Villas range from one- to three-bedrooms and sit near the beach club or on the 17th hole of the Greg Norman-designed golf course. Prices start at $1.2 million and top out at $4.8 million. All homes have large outdoor living areas with bathtubs and showers, expansive decks and private swimming pools. Owners get perks at all Banyan Tree and Angsana (Banyan Tree’s sister resort brand) hotel properties including up to 50 percent off room rates and discounted spa treatments.

The Riviera Maya began to emerge as a haven for luxury developments in 2005, with the opening of the Fairmont Mayakoba. Since then, the area has dodged a direct hit from Hurricane Wilma, a 2005 storm that did heavy damage to hotels in Cancun, and building has continued. Developers have focused on whole ownership residences rather than fractional offerings. Surprisingly, most destination clubs have not purchased homes on the Yucatan Peninsula (Abercrombie & Kent and High Country Club are two exceptions), but these new developments could be ripe to land in the portfolio of a growing club.

Last December, the Rosewood Mayakobá, a luxury hotel where rooms are set on lagoons and guests are transported via private gondola, opened its doors. The resort has plans for 32 three-bedroom, lagoon-front villas that will have some 4,500 square feet of outdoor living space. Prices start at $3.5 million and the first residences will be complete in mid-2009. The Viceroy Mayakoba is also in the works. The resort will have 165 condos and villas starting at just under $1 million. Capella Hotels and Resorts, a newer entrant to the luxury hotel and residence industry, has a project in the Riviera Maya planned for a 2009 opening. Capella’s Bahia Maroma will eventually have 130 residences. Prices start at $2.9 million.