China’s MDJM Acquires 20-Key Fernie Castle Hotel, Scotland to Initiate their Expansion Strategy to European Market

Main Photo: Fernie Castle

Date: August 2022

Name: Fernie Castle Hotel

Location: Fife, Scotland, UK

Number of Keys: 20 including suites

Seller: Braveheart Hotels, owned by the Blackburn family

Buyer: MDJM

MDJM Limited, an integrated real estate services company in China, today announced that it’s wholly owned subsidiary in United Kingdom, MD Local Global Limited entered into an agreement with Braveheart Hotels Limited, a United Kingdom company, to purchase Fernie Castle Hotel. MDJM believes that the purchase of this hotel, with it’s historical and cultural value, will be an important initiative for their business transformation and expansion to speciality hotels, tourism and cultural markets in Europe.

Fernie Castle Hotel, located in the heart of Fife, Scotland, is situated in 17 acres of woodlands with it’s own lochan (small loch). Fernie Castle has hundreds of years of history and was passed to the Fernies in the 15th century. The castle consists of an altered 16th century L-plan tower house and has been renovated and expanded multiple times to cater to the expectation of today’s visitors while preserving characteristics of the past. MDJM intends to position the castle as the headquarters for it’s business in iconic assets and plans to maximize the castle’s unique historical and cultural value through branding and other strategic initiatives.

The accommodation is laid out over three floors with 20 individually designed bedroom suites including five monarch suites, two king and queen double rooms, eleven squire and lady double rooms, and two squire and lady single rooms. The outside feels like the stuff of country-club dreams with sprawling lawns, stellar views, coffee spots, an additional treehouse, a cottage and enough green space for a weekend game of tennis. You’d be mistaken for thinking the treehouse is just for the kids; it has grown-up interiors, a luxury bedroom, sweeping views, spiral stairs leading up the octagonal bathroom and not one, but three balconies.

The Treehouse, complete with a tree!

While each room in the treehouse is certainly elegant, the real trump card here is the unique bedroom, which has large tree trunks growing up from the floor. The neighbouring bathroom is pretty impressive, too, with forest-inspired wallpaper, more tree trunks and a free-standing deep-green bath. It’s the kind of place that will transport you to the pages of a fairytale in an instant.

“We are exceptionally pleased to announce the acquisition of Fernie Castle Hotel, which is a milestone of our strategic implementation of business transformation and international expansion. We believe physical assets play an important role in preserving value against inflation and that, by the time we make considerable progress in the strategic layout of our new business in the European market, our international expansion may become a key growth point. We expect to have stronger execution for our upgraded strategic business plan, discovering and operating more assets with unique historical and cultural value in the future,” said Mr. Siping Xu, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of MDJM.

The hotel was put on the market in August 2020 at a guide price of £1.5m

Price: Guide price of £1.5m

Price Per Key: Around £75k

THPT Comment: Great looking property….cautious starting point for the Chinese MDJM, which is probably a good idea…great price for them

First Seen: MDJM press release

The Hotel Property Team (THPT) is a small group of highly experienced business professionals. Between us, we provide a range of skills and experience which is directly relevant to those involved in the hotel property market. For more information – Visit www.thpt.co.uk or email [email protected] 

CLICK HERE TO CONTACT US