NYE, Lady Gaga and Jimmy Barnes help Sydney hotels rake in the cash
Sydney hotel rooms rang in the new year at eye-watering prices, with New Year’s Eve delivering the city’s priciest and busiest night on record — average rates hit $1,010 a night as demand surged.
Fresh data shows Sydney hotels pushed up to 95.4% occupancy on the final night of the year, after a steady build through December helped along by a couple of headline concerts pulling crowds into town.
“Those were the highest average daily room rates and revenue per available room figures on record in the market, and the first time ADR surpassed the $1,000 mark,” hotel rating agency CoStar said.
It wasn’t just New Year’s Eve doing the heavy lifting. The month’s next-best occupancy was 93.3% on December 10, lining up with Jimmy Barnes’ Sydney Opera House show and nudging ADR to $326.09.
Then came Lady Gaga’s “The MAYHEM Ball” dates on December 12–13, which helped keep rooms tight in the city. Occupancy reached 90% on the first concert night, while rates topped out on the second night with ADR peaking at $379.65.
Overall, Sydney’s hotels stayed consistently busy, with occupancy holding above 70% on all but five days in December.
Across the Tasman, deal activity is heating up too, with Australian-listed EVT and a Hong Kong private equity groupsnapping up hotel assets and sites in New Zealand.
EVT has just paid $76 million for QT Auckland, a 150-room lifestyle hotel in the Viaduct precinct, buying it from NZ Hotel Holdings — a venture partnership between NZ Super Fund, Russell Property Group and Lockwood Property Group.
The QT brand has operated the hotel since it opened in 2020, and EVT says the purchase fits its push to grow earnings from its hotels division.
EVT chief executive Jane Hastings said the Auckland play also links in with the upcoming conversion of EVT’s Queenstown property to the QT brand, with Auckland expected to feed travellers into the strong Queenstown market.
The sale was negotiated by CBRE’s Michael Simpson, Peter Hamilton and Nick Hill.
Further south, a Hong Kong-based private equity fund has paid $31 million for a 977sqm freehold development site in Queenstown, formerly home to the Base Backpackers hostel at 47–49 Shotover Street. The buyer is linked to Gaw Capital Partners, led by Goodwin and Kenny Gaw, adding to the group’s New Zealand footprint after renovating the Haka House flashpacker hostel in nearby Wanaka.
The Queenstown campaign was run by CBRE Hotels’ Peter Hamilton and Wayne Bunz, acting for Prakash Pandey, one of New Zealand’s largest private hotel owners.
The site sits in a high foot-traffic pocket near key drawcards including Queenstown Mall, the Skyline Gondola and TSS Earnslaw Lake Cruises, and comes with plans for a 69-room boutique hotel. The property was vacant at the time of sale.
CBRE’s Wayne Bunz said the deal highlighted the value of tightly held, well-positioned hotel assets in Queenstown, particularly with construction costs rising and fewer investment options in the CBD.
“Investors continue to be drawn to investment safe havens such as New Zealand and Australia. In particular, New Zealand’s absence of stamp duty and capital gains tax is a powerful incentive for offshore capital, especially in world-class destinations like Queenstown,” Mr Bunz said.
CBRE Hotels’ Peter Hamilton said the competitive interest in the Shotover Street offering points to upbeat expectations for continued tourism growth in the Queenstown market.
Jonathan Jackson, 15th January 2026
