Investors flock in as hotel occupancy set to rise within Australia
Investors are not being deterred by lack of hotel guests and extremely low occupancy rates, as evidenced by recent purchases in Sydney and Brisbane.
The Novotel Hotel in Brisbane’s Spring Hill was purchased for circa $69 million by the owners of the Sydney’s Amora Hotel.
Buyers are awaiting information on a portfolio of 23 Accor Invest hotels that came back on the market since the failed $200 million purchase I-Prosperity.
Also on the market is the Travelodge portfolio that includes 2032 hotel rooms in 11 hotels.
According to selling agents McVay and Credit Suisse, 81 per cent of the rooms were in Sydney and Melbourne.
Gus Moors, selling agent at Colliers, said there was more activity in the final quarter of 2020 “as both sellers and buyers start to develop greater clarity about the road to recovery for the hotel sector”.
STA Travel has shown rising hotel occupancy rates in certain regions stating, “regional areas are outperforming capital cities,” with increased occupancies on weekends.
On Saturday, hotel and resort occupancies in regional Australia are at 46 per cent, while city occupancies are just 26 per cent.
“November and December data follows suit, with regional Australia data sitting between 14-32 per cent and capital cities between 8-17 per cent,” STR said.
“Post-Christmas is where the trend begins to shift slightly with more Australians set to head out of town for their summer vacations,” STR said.
Irit Jackson, 22nd October 2020
