Hotel market set for boom
THE signs are pointing to another active year on the Cairns hotel market in 2017.
On the back of a stellar peak tourism season, local accommodation providers are now enjoying strong summer bookings.
Tourism Tropical North Queensland chief executive Alex de Waal said the increased demand – and prediction of sustained visitation growth – had the region primed for investment.
“I think you’ll find with revenue per available room, it’s growing at its strongest rate in Australia here,” he said.
“It will be increasing interest in the hotel portfolio available in Cairns and as a generalisation you will see an increase in interest from investors looking at stock.
“Revenue per available room is increasing the value of properties and with that growing increase we will continue to generate more investor interest in purchasing properties in the region.”
It comes after a busy twoyear period during which several high-profile Cairns hotels changed hands.
GA Group Australia led the way in 2016, first buying Rydges Tradewinds for $34 million in March.
Owned by Syrian billionaire Ghassan Aboud, the company then bought a vacant block of CBD land, where it plans to build a new $100 million hotel and apartment complex.
In another major deal, Melbourne-based investor Yong Quek bought Novotel Cairns Oasis Resort for $50 million in June, about one year after he bought the Pullman International Hotel for $75 million.
Malaysia’s Mulpha forked out $40 million for Rydges Esplanade in September.
In an indication of things to come, the Cairns Post reported last week that American investors were “in a bidding war” for Palm Cove’s deluxe Hotel Grand Chancellor.
“Cairns and Port Douglas have been ‘rediscovered’ by the American market, while attracting new visitors from Asia as a result of growth in direct airline services,” wrote Tom Gibson of JLL Australia in global real estate publication The Investor.