Australian Hotel Sector

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Visas stem flow of Chinese visitors Chinese tourists each spend more than $7300, making them the biggest spenders of any tourist group.
Jamie Freed
414 words
5 Dec 2014
BRW
BRW
English
Copyright 2014. Fairfax Media Management Pty Limited.

Australia is falling behind in the battle to win Chinese tourists because it makes it too hard for them to get visas, says Austrade, Tourism Australia and NSW Trade & Investment.

The number of Chinese tourists rose 10 per cent to 736,000 in the 12 months ending on September 30, about half the 21.8 per cent rise to the United States from a much higher starting point.

The US last month signed a deal allowing 10-year, multi-entry visas for Chinese travellers.

"Reducing the length and ­complexity of the visitor visa ­application would reduce the burden of applying for a visa and close the gap on some of our competitors," Austrade said in submission to a Productivity Commission research project on ­Australia's international tourism industry.

An international visitor survey from Tourism Research Australia on Wednesday found that Chinese visitors on average spent $7362 compared with an average of $4899 overall, making the Chinese the highest spenders.

Unlike tourists from other markets, such as Malaysia, Chinese visitors ­cannot fill out an electronic visa ­application and they are required to present detailed information in English such as a letter from an employer and bank account details.

NSW Trade & Investment said the complexity of manual processes to apply for a tourist visa to Australia were considered a "disincentive" to visit, ­particularly for independent travellers visiting family and friends.

"Improvements by the ­Commonwealth to electronic visa processing for Chinese visitors would make it easier for this highly valuable visitor market to travel to Australia, ­further supporting the National Tourism 2020 target," the state body said.

Tourism Australia said the country needed to keep improving and ­streamlining visa issuing processes to remain competitive.

"At times, Australia has led other countries (such as the Electronic Travel Authority in 1996), however there are examples where other countries have overtaken Australia to streamline visa processes," the marketing group said.

The office of Immigration Minister Scott Morrison did not respond to ­questions on whether changes to the visa process were being considered.

Industry sources suggested the ­government has been slow-moving on the China visa issue in part because the processing fee would drop from $130 to $20 if the country was accepted into the electronic scheme, resulting in the loss of tens of millions of dollars in annual revenue.


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Document BRW0000020141205eac500002

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Here is Savills report.

http://pdf.savills.asia/asia-pacific-res...3-2014.pdf

Big deals make up for lower volumes
THE AUSTRALIAN DECEMBER 02, 2014 12:00AM

Lisa Allen

Property & Tourism Reporter
Sydney
MORE than $2.35 billion worth of hotels are expected to change hands this year, but transaction volumes are well down on previous years.

A report from Savills Hotels says 2014 transaction volumes were 22.5 per cent down on 2013 figures, although a number of high-price landmark establishments sold during the year.

Apart from the recent $463 million sale of the Sheraton on the Park Hotel in Sydney to China’s Sunshine Insurance Group, other big deals this year were the $360m sale of the Sofitel Hotel Darling Park in Sydney to private hotelier Jerry Schwartz and the $135m sale of the Park Hyatt Melbourne Hotel.

Led by Perth, national hotel occupancies jumped to 80.9 per cent in October, up from 79.2 per cent in the previous year.

Perth achieved the highest hotel occupancies in October, averaging 89.7 per cent, followed by Sydney and Melbourne both achieving 87.4 per cent, and Adelaide with 85.7 per cent, according to STR Global.

The Savills Hotels report says the emerging Asian middle class with its thirst for overseas travel, coupled with improved domestic business conditions, was benefiting the Australian hotel sector.

French hotelier Accor, meanwhile, continues to expand its network, yesterday announcing it would rebrand the 109-room Four Points Sheraton Geelong as the Novotel Geelong and the 223-room Chifley Hotel Penrith as the Mercure Penrith.

Accor is focusing on regional areas because of new infrastructure projects planned, including Badgerys Creek Airport in Sydney’s west. “Areas such as Geelong and Penrith have been targeted for major infrastructure projects that will attract both significant business travel as well as larger local populations as a result of increased work opportunities and proximity to Melbourne and Sydney respectively,” Accor Pac­ific COO Simon McGrath said.

The InterContinental Hotels Group, the world largest, also recently announced it would manage the former Rydges Hotels site in the heart of Perth. Owned by an Asian investor, the 240-room hotel will open as an Inter-Continental by early 2017.

Big regional hotel sales during the year included the $48m sale of the Novotel Northbeach Hotel in Wollongong, south of Sydney.

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Off-market hotel deals tipped to turn over at least $1.5bn
THE AUSTRALIAN JANUARY 28, 2015 12:00AM

Lisa Allen

Property & Tourism Reporter
Sydney
BILLIONS of dollars worth of Australian hotels are being ­offered to investors in a series of off-market deals, with analysts expecting the sector to turn over at least $1.5 billion this year.

“We have looked at close to $1bn worth of hotel properties since December in all Australian states. Interestingly there’s quite a lot of hotels being offered through ­off-market transactions at the ­moment,” said Victoria Clent, managing director of Aligned FM.

The Sydney-based funds manager has a mandate from a wealthy Malaysian family to buy $250m worth of Australian investment hotels by the end of the year. Aligned FM has already acquired an Ibis Hotel in Perth and two Chifley hotels in NSW for a combined $66m for the Kuala Lumpur-based family.

Apart from the Malaysian ­clients, Ms Clent and her business partner Glen Boultwood, previously with Eureka Funds Management, have attracted several wealthy global investors interested in acquiring Australian real estate as a long-term investment. “There has been a market for large trophy asset sales in recent years,” Ms Clent said.

“There’s (also) a big market for mid-market hotels; there’s a huge amount of interest from overseas because of the yield you can get in Australia. There’s starting to be a lot more interest in the fact that ­hotels are a low-risk high-yielding property class.”

Ms Clent said she was looking for more hotel investments on ­behalf of the Malaysians.

CBRE Hotels senior director Wayne Bunz said there was plenty of liquidity in the market and he expected another strong year. “Probably $1.5bn worth of hotels will trade this year, there is a strong appetite from domestic and internationals, particularly the wave of Chinese money that see Australia as a strong safe haven,” Mr Bunz said.

“If you look back in the last seven years a lot of people have made a lot of capital gains out of buying hotels and reinvesting into them.

“During the global financial crisis there was not one corporate hotel that went into receivership or experienced any major financial difficulty.’’

Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels is marketing Sydney’s Hilton Hotel with price expectations of more than $450m. Expressions of interest close later this week.

JLL Hotels offloaded the Sheraton on the Park Hotel in Sydney for a record $463m to a Chinese insurance firm last year. Singapore’s GIC is selling the five-star Westin Hotel.

However, some agents doubt there will be many larger hotel ­offerings in the next few years given many have been bought by Asian players. “Most Asian groups develop very long-term hold patterns,” said one agent.

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Rates stall in big cities
Larry Schlesinger
367 words
4 Mar 2015
The Australian Financial Review
AFNR
English
Copyright 2015. Fairfax Media Management Pty Limited.

Sydney and Melbourne hotel room rates increased just 1 per cent in 2014, according to bookings made by Australian travellers on booking website Hotels.com.

The average price of a Sydney room booked on hotels.com reached $200 a night last year and $177 a night in Melbourne, well below what Australians paid for hotel rooms in New York ($317 a night), Rio De Janeiro ($299) and Cancun ($282).

Hotels.com, owned by US online travel giant Expedia, offers rooms from 169,000 hotels globally, from backpacker accommodation to resorts.

Hotels.com regional director Katherine Cole attributed the lack of price growth in Sydney and Melbourne to the addition of new supply in these markets as well as the greater accommodation choice provided by the likes of Airbnb and other digital operators.

Last month, Airbnb reported that Sydney was its 10th biggest market globally by rooms available - overtaking Amsterdam - and that it now offers more than 30,000 rooms in Australia.

Hotels.com's Hotel Price Index - based only on bookings made in Australia - recorded the strongest growth over 2014 in Hobart and Adelaide, with room rates rising 6 per cent to $176 and $153 a night respectively, followed by Canberra, where room rates lifted four per cent to $185 a night.

The weakest markets were Perth, where rates fell 3 per cent to $184 a night and Darwin, where they fell 4 per cent to $200 a night.

Ms Cole attributed the decline in Perth and Darwin to the easing up of the mining sector with hoteliers working harder (offering specials) to win leisure business. But, she said, rising number of inbound travellers to Australia would push up demand for hotel rooms in Sydney and Melbourne and should drive up room rates. Simon McGrath, chief operating officer of Accor, Australia's biggest operator of hotel rooms, said the hotels.com figures most likely reflected a different market segment than its client base.

"We are tracking high single-digit room rate growth in Sydney and Melbourne driven by multiple factors, including a rise in corporate bookings, a rise in event and conferencing and rising inbound travellers," Mr McGrath said.


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Hotels rooms, on the double
Larry Schlesinger
397 words
26 Feb 2015
The Australian Financial Review
AFNR
English
Copyright 2015. Fairfax Media Management Pty Limited.

Despite hotel construction in Australia being at its highest value since the late 1980s, demand for hotel rooms is projected to grow at double the pace of supply in the next three years, says the latest Deloitte Tourism and Hotel Market Outlook report.

Deloitte recorded hotel occupancy rates rising to a new high of 68 per cent nationally in 2014 - with Sydney and Melbourne occupancies at the mid-90 per cent on peak nights. Average daily room rates grew by 2.2 per cent with revenue per available room - the key industry metric - rising by 4.4 per cent.

The report says the lower Australian dollar, cheaper fuel, rising numbers of international visitors and greater numbers of Australians holidaying at home, were expected to push up demand for hotel rooms over the next three years.

Deloitte forecast the national occupancy rate to reach 70.8 per cent by 2017 with room rates and revenue per available room to grow by 3.5 per cent and 4.9 per cent respectively, per year to the end of 2017 - an upward revision to forecasts of six months ago.

Deloitte counted 75 hotel projects likely to proceed to construction, adding 8400 rooms by 2017 (with about 70 more projects less certain to proceed), but said that pipeline was "modest" compared with demand. National hotel demand was forecast to grow by 2.5 per cent per annum over the next three years to December 2017, but new supply would average less than half, growing by just 1.2 per cent a year.

The predictions were despite figures from economic research group BIS Shrapnel which showed $2.6 billion of hotel projects would begin construction in 2015 - the highest by value since the late 1980s.

"Critically, the number of rooms in the three-year pipeline is 15 per cent lower than this time last year," said Deloitte Access Economics partner Lachlan Smirl.

Sydney averaged a high 87 per cent occupancy over 2014, just ahead of Melbourne (86 per cent) with Hobart, Adelaide and the Gold Coast all posting strong gains, Deloitte said.

Brisbane and Perth continued to feel the effects of the cooling resources boom, with the maintenance of occupancies coming at the expense of room-rate growth. Occupancy rates grew 1.9 per cent in Brisbane and fell 4 per cent in Perth.


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Asian buyers snap up local hotels
Samantha Hutchinson
322 words
4 Mar 2015
The Australian Financial Review
AFNR
English
Copyright 2015. Fairfax Media Management Pty Limited.

Asian buyers hungry for top hotel assets are driving down yields and pushing local buyers out of contention for some of the country's most prized properties.

Buyers from Asia accounted for almost all hotel sales above $50 million last year, according to a CBRE report. Strong demand from offshore groups prompted local buyers, primarily wealthy individuals, to target assets valued below $40 million.

"There is unprecedented foreign interest in the hotel market at present," CBRE Hotels group director Wayne Bunz said. "Singapore groups are leading the charge, having invested twice as much in Australian hotel properties than the next most active capital source, Hong Kong, followed by Malaysia and China respectively."

This month, Rydges Darwin Airport Resort & Hotel sold for $84 million to a Singaporean-based private equity group in a transaction led by the CBRE Hotels' Australian and Singapore teams.

Economic security and a stable growth outlook in the hotel sector had sweetened the appeal of Australian assets among large-scale investors and hotel groups in China and the south-east Asian region, Mr Bunz said.

"Australia's relative economic stability and security make it a sought-after market, particularly with Asian investors who are looking to acquire a presence in populous gateway cities with attractive growth prospects," he added.

Growing interest in hotels has driven forecast yields for several recent transactions below 6.5 per cent. Melbourne's Park Hyatt sold on a yield of 6.2 per cent, while Sydney's Sheraton on the Park sold on a yield of 6.3 per cent.

Mr Bunz expect yields to fall further as competition from Asia grows over the year. Sydney and Melbourne are expected to attract the lion's share of investment from groups including Banyan Tree, Dalian Wanda's Wanda Vista brand, Hyatt and the Intercontinental Group with its Hotel Indigo range and Holiday Inn Express offerings.


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Foreign hotel investors set new benchmark with $2b spend
Samantha Hutchinson
454 words
28 Mar 2015
The Australian Financial Review
AFNR
English
Copyright 2015. Fairfax Media Management Pty Limited.

An influx of foreign investors set a new benchmark in Australian hotel transactions during the 2014 financial year, spending more than $2 billion on properties around the country.

Big-ticket sales included Sydney's Sheraton on the Park hotel to Chinese insurer Sunrise for $463 million and last week's sale of Brisbane's NEXT Hotel to Challenger for $144 million.

Hotel experts are tipping activity will continue to build in the coming year. "Trophy asset demand and pricing has encouraged the owners of other large Sydney luxury hotels the Hilton and the Westin, to go to market with high price expectations," Dransfield Hotels and Resort director Dean Dransfield said, in the group's Hotels 2015 report.

Hotel returns hit 12.9 per cent in the 12 months to the end of the September quarter, said the IPD Index. At the same time, competition for major hotel sites resulted in a tightening of yields, with some transactions taking place on a yield of less than 6 per cent.

The Hotels 2015 report revealed hotels in Sydney and Melbourne rode a wave of high occupancy levels to lift room rates and grow earnings during the year. RevPar - a key industry which measures earnings per room - lifted 5.9 per cent and 5.6 per cent in Sydney and Melbourne.

Falling mining investment levels delivered a king hit to hotel performance in Perth and Melbourne in fiscal 2014. Revenue growth dipped 11.4 per cent in Perth and 8.4 per cent in Brisbane.

Six out of 10 cities recorded an average occupancy above 75 per cent, while delays in development plans kept a tight lid on supply.

Hotel development was sluggish in spite of a string of approvals granted within the past 12 months, Mr Dransfield said. Australian major-city hotel supply grew marginally by 0.4 per cent - equating to just 357 rooms - well below an expected 2300 rooms. This followed two years of flat growth and marked the fifth year in a row of growth below 2.5 per cent.

The data showed hotels took longer to build and timetables for the delivery of major hotels now commonly stretched longer than five years from proposal to opening - longer than historical averages. However, there was little evidence that demand was growing fast enough to fill new hotel rooms.

Analysts had expected a falling Australian dollar would stoke local demand by making Australia a more affordable holiday destination, but demand rose just 0.1 per cent compared with the 3.3 per cent expected. Even so, banks were supportive of the sector and capital is readily available for good projects, Mr Dransfield said.


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Listed investors eye hotel funds as Asians snap up properties
THE AUSTRALIAN MAY 18, 2015 12:00AM

Ben Wilmot

Commercial Property Editor
Sydney
Listed investors could be next to get in on booming Australian hotel markets in the wake of Asian groups snapping up a series of big-ticket properties, with investment house Elanor Investors Group to pursue a specialist listed hotel fund, according to analyst Moelis.

Sydney’s luxury Westin Hotel is in due diligence to be sold for a price approaching $450 million with Asian hoteliers suggesting that Hong Kong property developer Sino Group is the preferred party. The move by the group, which comprises private companies owned by the billionaire Ng family as well as three companies listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, would mark its first play in the Australian market.

Some local players have suggested that any buyer may be linked to an operator, either incumbent US company Starwood Hotels & Resorts, or a new player lured by the prospect of the coming expiry of the management agreement in four years.

Asian hoteliers pointed to Sino’s sister company, Far East Organisation, building up a $1.4 billion portfolio of Australian apartment developments and office towers.

The sale of the 416-room Westin Hotel by Singapore’s GIC is being handled by Craig Collins and Peter Harper of JLL Hotels and Stephen Burt and Gus Moors of Colliers International, and would continue the big uplift in values.

The surge has been driven by foreign groups, with Sunshine Insurance Group paying $463m for the nearby Sheraton on the Park in Sydney’s Elizabeth Street and Chinese investment house Bright Ruby buying the five-star 600-room Hilton Hotel in George Street for $442m.

Local players have been outbid but some are positioning themselves as fund managers for local and international capital chasing hotel property, and many are watching Elanor, which is led by veteran finance executive Glenn Willis.

Moelis analyst Edward Day said it could transform its standing by becoming a pure funds manager and lift its empire from about $326m to more than $2bn, primarily through launching a hotel trust on the Australian Securities Exchange.

“There is execution risk in taking the business to a pure funds-management model with (more than) $2bn of funds under management …. though we believe our exercise demonstrates the leverage of the model, given the capital on balance sheet and the expertise within the business,” he said.

Mr Day said Elanor had flagged the move last year and could shift towards a higher-­return-on-equity business that combined managing syndicates for wealthy investors, with the addition of a listed Hotel REIT.

Elanor owns potential seed assets including Peppers Cradle Mountain Lodge, Hotel Ibis Styles Canberra and the Albany Hotel. It also has a stake in Melbourne’s massive Bell City complex.

“This transaction would see Elanor vend its hotel assets into the listed REIT, likely benefiting from valuation uplift as part of this process. Using existing valuations, these assets amount to $60m. Additionally, the hotel component of the Bell City syndicate could also be vended into the REIT,” Mr Day said.

Elanor could start with a 20 per cent stake but would probably fall to 10 per cent as new hotels were bought.

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$1m a room: Singapore’s Ng family checks in to Sydney’s Westin
THE AUSTRALIAN MAY 27, 2015 12:00AM

Kylar Loussikian

Journalist
Sydney
$1m a room: Ng family buys Westin

The sale of the Westin, in Sydney’s Martin Place, indicates a freehold equivalent per room price of $1.2m. Source: Supplied
Singapore’s wealthy Ng family has acquired the Westin Sydney for $445.33 million in a deal that represents the highest price paid per room for a large hotel sale in Australia.

The five-star, 416-room hotel was bought by Singaporean ­developer Far East Organization and its Hong Kong-listed affiliate Sino Group, both controlled by the Ng family.

The sale of the GIC-owned Westin Sydney, at 1 Martin Place, follows two other big recent hotel sales in Sydney. Earlier this month, Singapore-based investment house Bright Ruby outlaid $442m for the 579-room Sydney Hilton on George Street, while Beijing-based Sunshine Insurance Group paid $463m for the 557-room Sheraton on the Park last November.

Bright Ruby and Sunshine Insurance were among several international groups reportedly circling the Westin Sydney, alongside Fu Wah International, Singapore’s City Developments and Malaysian conglomerate Mulpha, which owns the InterContinental Sydney and the Kerzner-run Hayman Island resort in the Whitsundays.

The sale of the Westin Sydney was handled by Craig Collins and Peter Harper of JLL and Stephen Burt and Gus Moors of Colliers International.

Mr Collins said the current hotel investment market was the strongest he’d seen in more than two decades. “Asian investors love Australian hotel assets, and the major capital source markets are no longer just Singapore, ­Malaysia and Hong Kong, but now also Korea, China and the Middle East,” he said. “With very limited supply coming into the Sydney market, the trading fundamentals are exceptional.”

Mr Burt added that the pricing analytics of the sale indicated a freehold equivalent per room price of $1.2m.

“This clearly positions Sydney at a different pricing level to the rest of Australia and is recognition by the market of some very strong supply and demand dynamics,” he said.

“In my view, these dynamics will continue to improve with new transport infrastructure, the ­revitalisation of Darling Harbour including the new convention facility and the impact of Barangaroo on expanding the CBD.”

Far East, through a statement, said the acquisition “aligns with the group’s long-term vision to build an enduring leading real estate business in Australia”.

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So St****** should even be more undervalued.