Singapore interests in $23m deal for hotel

Dean Humphries of Colliers International. Photo / Steven McNicholl

The $23.3 million sale of an Auckland hotel by one Singaporean business to another was New Zealand's biggest hotel sale lately, says an agent.

Dean Humphries of Colliers International said he brokered the deal for Singaporean Hotel Grand Chancellor Group to sell the Hotel Grand Chancellor Auckland Airport to Naumi Hospitality, part of the Hind Group.

"The sale represents the largest hotel deal recorded in New Zealand since the sale of the Hilton Auckland in 2012," Colliers said in a statement to clients.

The Mangere hotel, at the corner of Kirkbride Rd and Ascot Rd, will be refurbished and rebranded a Naumi Hotel, a brand new to New Zealand.

The hotel has 193 rooms and a four-star Qualmark rating and is on a 2ha block within the Auckland Airport precinct, Humphries said.

The largest deal this decade was in 2010 when receivers of South Canterbury Finance sold the Auckland Hyatt Regency Hotel, reportedly to private Auckland-based family business CP Group for around $60 million. Humphries said the 108-room three-star Qualmark ranked Kingsgate Hotel Wellington was sold recently to a Singaporean investor but the price was confidential.

"We believe the sale of a large hotel in Christchurch is imminent but are unable to disclose any further information at this stage," he said.

"Inquiry levels for hotels in New Zealand are at an all-time high with multiple bidders on all hotels that we have recently sold. Unlike Australia, where over 65 per cent of all transactions of hotels in the past 12 months have been to Chinese interests, buyers of New Zealand hotels continue to be dominated by both domestic and Singaporean investors.

"We have yet to see significant Chinese acquisitions in the hotel sector in New Zealand although this wave appears to be on it way," Humphries said.

"Recent activity includes the acquisition of a small boutique in Queenstown to an investor from Chongqing, the rumoured acquisition of the underlying debt of the Hilton Kawarau Falls, also in Queenstown, by Shanghai Pengxin and the acquisition of the Carrington Estate in Northland by Shanghai CRED who are exploring the possibility of undertaking a significant multimillion-dollar development in this area."

Beijing's Fu Wah International Group has won the right to build a new 200-room Wynyard Quarter hotel on the old Team New Zealand America's Cup base.