Largest Auckland hotel sale for years

The Waldorf Stadium Apartment Hotel at 40 Beach Rd. Photo / Supplied

The 4.5 star Waldorf Stadium Apartment Hotel, 40 Beach Rd, Auckland, has sold to Australian-based Mulpha Group for 'an undisclosed sum'.

However, the Australian newspaper and a hospitality industry website report the hotel sold for $59 million.

Dean Humphries, national director of hotels at Colliers International, says the transaction is the first major hotel sale in the Auckland CBD since the Hilton Auckland sold in 2012.

"It's also the largest hotel transaction in Auckland in 12 years since the Carlton on Mayoral Drive sold for $113 million in late 2006."

Colliers and CBRE announced the sale following an international campaign that yielded multiple investors wishing to take advantage of the country's tourism boom and strong hotel market fundamentals.

The 178-unit strata title development was sold subject to a new 11-year performance lease underpinned by Japanese serviced apartment conglomerate Daiwa House Group, which has a market capitalisation of US$19.15 billion ($29.34b) as at December 2017.

Mulpha CEO Greg Shaw says the strong underlying fundamentals driving the New Zealand tourism and hotel sectors were some of the main reasons Mulpha was investing in the New Zealand hotel sector.

"In terms of the Waldorf Stadium Hotel, we were attracted to its position in a key gateway city, strategic location in the heart of the Auckland CBD, together with several strategic opportunities to add additional value to this asset over the short to medium term working in conjunction with the hotel operator Daiwa House Group."

Wayne Bunz, national director of CBRE Hotels, says the hotel is a great addition for Mulpha to add to its significant hospitality asset portfolio in Australia, which includes Hayman Island, Bimbadgen Estate, and InterContinental Hotels in Sydney and Sanctuary Cove.

"Hotels rarely trade in Auckland and are predominantly held by long-term investors," Bunz says.

"This is the largest transaction in New Zealand since CBRE and Colliers International sold the Novotel Queenstown in 2015 at NZ$91.3m. The majority of interest came from offshore investors attracted by New Zealand's transparent property market, exceptionally strong trading conditions and the attractive yield profile of this asset."

Built in 2008, the Waldorf Stadium Apartment Hotel is located in downtown Auckland close to the waterfront, Spark Arena, Britomart precinct and just 500m from Queen St. It has a mix of studio, one, two and three-bedroom fully self-contained apartments, on land with a long-term ground lease to one of Auckland's largest inner-city land owners.