Authorities have suspended a Chinese-owned luxury resort project on Koh Samui after discovering that the construction did not comply with its permit and exceeded the legal height limit.
Pol Maj Gen Watcharin Poosit, commander of the Natural Resources and Environmental Crime Suppression Division (NED), reported on Sunday that officers from the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) and Koh Samui municipality raided the “Anzhu Seamate” project site in tambon Maret, Surat Thani’s Koh Samui district, on Saturday. The project, involving the construction of a luxury resort, was suspected of being illegal.
The officers found that the project was owned by a group of Chinese investors. Locals reported that approximately 50 builders worked at the site daily, but no workers were present during the raid, suggesting that someone had halted the work, according to Pol Maj Gen Watcharin. He noted that the property consisted of several pool villas on a hill, each exceeding the legal height limit of 6 meters, with some buildings reaching over 10 meters.
The land where the resort is located belongs to a Chinese-owned company named Anzhu Seamate, which purchased about 10 rai of land in 2018. Another group of Chinese investors had obtained a permit to build 34 villas on the land and hired Anzhu Seamate as the contractor. However, the project’s details were later altered, resulting in the villas being built too close to each other, contrary to the permit’s specifications.
As a result, the Koh Samui municipality ordered the demolition of the villas that were not built according to the permit. The municipality had previously filed a complaint with the police. Work on the project has now been suspended, and authorities are seeking the individuals responsible.
Additionally, the NED inspected a similar construction project called Samui Green Cottages on Friday, which consists of 53 villas. The agency found that about 10 of the villas were being constructed without a permit.
