Meriton Hotel on the market
With Sydney’s apartment market under pressure, billionaire Harry Triguboff has put one of the most prized hotels in his portfolio on the market for the first time.
It’s the 199-unit Meriton Suites North Ryde, the largest hotel complex in the Macquarie Park area.
The hotel records occupancies of 90 per cent, with strong annual year-on-year revenue increases.
The Meriton Group has listed it with an asking price of $150 million, providing Triguboff with the funding to construct more Meriton apartments in the Sydney market.
And in another unusual move for one of Australia’s biggest developers, Meriton might also be looking to sell a 59-unit older style residential block in the Sydney suburb of Rhodes.
Triguboff has acknowledged that the apartment market is now challenging. He is selling the serviced apartment block north of Sydney’s CBD to fund more projects in a market where sales getting harder to secure.
“I am not getting enough sales,” Triguboff told The Australian. “If I want to build many units…this is why I’m selling.”
He says the raft of taxes aimed at foreign buyers, including increases in stamp duty costs, has seen offshore buyer demand falling over the past year.
He says the market is going down with prices falling 10 per cent from their peak.
Nonetheless, he expects the market to eventually find a level.
He says there has been an easing in the number of buyers failing to settle their purchase and the number of “dropouts”, the term given for those buyers who ask for a contract who don’t proceed.
The Meriton projects now include four totaling 1850 units. Work has started on these over the past six month. And there are plans to build nearly 1500 units in another flour developments in the first half of this year. There are other new projects starting shortly in Sydney and on the Gold Coast.
by Leon Gettler, January 19th 2017
image - Meriton
