Hotel industry investment
Money is pouring into hotel investment around the country.
For sure, most of it is coming from overseas.
At this stage, offshore businesses account for more than 50 per cent of rooms owned by the 30 biggest accommodation owners in Australia.
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority is Australia’s largest owner. And then there is French hotel operator Accor.
But others foreign operators are moving in too and expanding their room count. They include Oaks Hotels and Resorts and Toga Far East Hotels.
But the figures for foreign hotel ownership are declining year on year. And for good reason too. Australian groups are building scale at a rapid pace.
Consider this: At this stage, the top local operators accounted for 40.4 per cent of Australian total room supply at the end of 2015. The collective number of properties has expanded to 1051 with 100,301 rooms,
But what’s critical here is the growth rate. The latest represent an increase of 2.9 per cent compared with 2014. Extraordinarily, an extra 2814 rooms were added last year.
One example for a group on the move is Mantra. It has expanded its hotel room count by 25 per cent during the year.
And Harry Triguboff’s apartment building behemoth Meriton has now become a big player in the hotel industry, emerging as Australia’s fastest growing hotel group. All up, Meriton is now running second to the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.
Over the last year, Meriton has added another 340 serviced apartments and studios across Australia, growing its hotels portfolio by 11 per cent.
The Schwartz family company added another 600 rooms to their portfolio. That group is now Australia’s third largest hotel owner.
And then there is Event Hospitality owned by Amalgamated Holdings. It has a stable of 2687 rooms.
The investment surge has seen 19,000 rooms added across the country in the past year.
by Leon Gettler, 13th June 2016
