Hal Weitzman
1780 words
13 July 2007
Financial Times (FT.Com)
English
(c) 2007 The Financial Times Limited. All rights reserved
In a country where protesting on the streets is something of a national pastime, it was, perhaps, the time when Asia truly came of age - and, for a brief moment, unwillingly found itself in the international spotlight.
On a Sunday afternoon in late January, at the height of summer on Peru's coast, hundreds of activists dressed in maids' uniforms paraded down the beach and plunged into the sea.
They were protesting about what they said was a series of informal rules at the upmarket resort, under which maids have to wear uniforms and are barred from swimming during the day - a claim denied by local leaders.
The demonstration symbolised how a once-quiet beach town has become something of a national obsession. If Asia (pronounced Ah-see-ah) had a one-word town motto, it would be "exclusive". While for residents that means high-class chic, for some others it symbolises the sort of prohibitive snobbishness that is holding Peru back.
Located in the province of Canete, 97km south of Lima on the Pan-American highway that snakes down the western coast of South America, Asia is a string of 26 private beach clubs and condominium developments.
For eight months of the year Lima is shrouded in grey misty cloud that gives the capital a cold, damp atmosphere but between late December and mid-April the sky clears for a glorious summer. Lima is poorly served by beaches and the sun spurs wealthy Limenos, as the capital's residents are known, to transplant themselves to the beaches south of the city - the wealthiest of them to Asia.
People with property in Asia tend to move there wholesale for the summer, taking their families, maids and pets with them. In what remains a somewhat machista society, wives and children typically live at the beach all summer while husbands join their families at the weekend.
Property prices have risen sharply in the past few years but with beachfront houses starting at about $300,000 (most large transactions in Peru are done in dollars) and construction plots at about $100,000, real estate in Asia still remains reasonable compared to other property located on the Pacific Ocean and within striking distance of a big city (the drive to Lima takes about 50 minutes). And, given the limited area left for Asia's expansion, prices look set to continue their upward climb.
However, buying a house in the area is not straightforward: all the land is controlled by the beach clubs, which operate by recommendation (although they say they are open to allowing in foreign investors who visit the area). That has fuelled accusations that Asia is not so much a playground for the rich as a fortress for Peru's European-descended economic and political elite.
Local property-owners deny that and say the clubs give Asia a special flavour. "There's still a sense of community here," says Peter Davis, a business consultant who has built two houses in the resort.
Asia's origins go back to the 1960s, when the area was part of a hacienda known for its bullfights. The hard-up owner sold land to a group of Limenos, who established Las Palmas, now one of the biggest and best known of Asia's beach clubs. Las Palmas was swiftly followed by the Los Cocos club.
The principal attraction was, as now, the uniqueness of Asia's beach. "There is a string of islands about 2km out and they serve as a natural wave-breaker," explains Davis. "That means the sea is a lot calmer here than it is to the immediate north and south."
There had long been a town called Asia - its centre a few kilometres inland from where the beach clubs now are - but it was a poor area, populated by small agricultural producers and fishermen. There was little in the way of infrastructure. In the early years the clubs had to bring water tanks and kerosene lamps from Lima.
"It was nothing more than a point in the desert," says Mariano Pena, president of Aprils, the beach clubs' residents association. "There was no highway, no electricity, no water, nothing. Building a resort here seemed like a pretty crazy idea."
Asia's growth began in earnest in the 1990s, when the autocratic government of Alberto Fujimori stabilised the economy and tamed the Maoist guerrillas of the Shining Path movement that had controlled much of the country.
But the area has really started to boom in the past three years, growing incrementally and attracting millions of dollars in commercial investment. That investment has centred round a central boulevard shopping area that comes alive at night with clubs, cinemas and restaurants.
The boulevard - which, unlike the clubs, is open to all - is the engine of Asia's growth. With banks, car showrooms, a supermarket and a department store, it has provided Asia with more amenities than many Lima suburbs. A high-profile marketing campaign has made the boulevard an attraction for day visitors from Lima and the other beach resorts dotted down the southern coast.
Since 2004, the boulevard has also hosted Davis Cup tennis matches as part of the Latin American elimination rounds, as well as fashion shows and exhibitions.
Not everyone has been drawn here by the hustle and bustle. "This is the last corner of Lima that still affords some privacy," says Fritz Kometer, a doctor who bought a home in the area in 2002 and who, like many Limenos sees Asia as an extension of the capital's relentless sprawl to the south.
Unlike much of Lima, where property developers are furiously demolishing colonial-style buildings to put up nondescript high-rise apartment blocks, the beach clubs in Asia have passed regulations limiting the height of buildings.
This has provoked a wave of architectural creativity, giving the area some of the most interesting and cutting-edge houses in Peru. Whereas the purpose-built blocks in Lima are generic and could have been constructed anywhere in the world, the imaginative house design of some of the top-end Asia dwellings adds to the natural beauty of the area.
The architectural experimentation is also evident in flashes on the boulevard - particularly in restaurants such as Nikita, a fashionable Japanese eating place, which is a huge white cube.
The height restrictions also mean that Asia is growing out rather than up. The area has 4,000 houses and room for 2,000 more. Construction - which is undertaken exclusively during the off-season - is frantic, with 400 houses being built every year.
This growth has brought the residents of Asia beach into conflict with the other Asia, which is still a poor fishing and agricultural town. In February four locals were seriously injured in clashes with police as they protested against new construction at the resort.
The confrontation - which came two days after a similar skirmish - signals an unpleasant side to Asia's expansion. The dispute apparently arose after some local smallholders sold their plots to developers, the land being in the middle of areas owned by other small landowners.
Armando Garcia, who as mayor of Asia is responsible for both the town's permanent and summer-only residents, says the only solution is that the developers buy out all the smallholders in the area where the confrontation occurred. But such strife seems likely to give Asia many more growing pains in the coming years.
The tension between the locals and visiting Limenos has been exacerbated by the lack of any contact between the two groups. For example, since most beach residents bring their own maids with them relatively few local women have been able to secure paid domestic work in Asia, Garcia says. Construction, which does provide jobs to many men in the town, takes place when the summer residents are not there.
This gap is demonstrated by E. Wong, the high-class Peruvian supermarket that in 2004 became the first such retailer in Asia. Wong Asia - which opens between December 27 and April 8 - brings 80 per cent of its staff from its stores in Lima, says Vanessa Albrecht, the store's manager. The company puts the workers up in local hostals.
In an area where fishing provides one of the main sources of income outside construction, E. Wong also prefers to transport its fish packed in ice from Lima than to buy from local fishermen.
Wong has made living in Asia much easier. Before the retailer arrived, residents had only one small traditional tienda for food shopping. Now the supermarket is expanding at a pace and is blessed with the wealthiest customers in the whole country. "Our average customer in Lima spends less than 80 soles," says Albrecht. "In this branch, the average spend is 110 soles and many customers spend more than 500 soles at a time."
That is just one example of the conspicuous consumption in Asia. Prices of everything from clothes to movie tickets are higher than in Lima and yet the pace of spending is, if anything, more furious. Top carmakers have opened showrooms on the boulevard and teenage boys cruise the area near the beach on quadbikes.
Officially the beach at Asia is open to all but public access is not good - although it is being improved in line with a government directive. For non-club members, a stroll along the beach tends to elicit raised eyebrows and lowered sunglasses. The clubs also hire security guards to move along those who stop to rest under the umbrellas they use to stake out their territory.
Whereas Lima is noisy, bustling and dirty, the air in Asia is clean and the atmosphere during the day somewhat staid. It is at night, however, that the area comes into its own, bursting into life with a series of nationally famous nightclubs that attract the young and beautiful from Peru's economic elite.
Residents admit that Asia's magnetism is a fashion but all the signs are that it will endure. The Lima Golf Club, as much a networking association for the city's most powerful businessmen as a sporting institution, is planning to build a course in the area. There are also proposals for a new casino and hotel.
"This is definitely Asia's moment and it looks likely to last a long time," says Albrecht. "People are demanding more and more in terms of services, shopping and property."
Local agents
Property can be bought only through private beach clubs or condominium owners' associations. For information contact Aprils, the Asia residents' association, tel: +511 421 3648, gerencia@aprils.com.pe
