Investors cash in after combining 49 apartments in $30m sale
The owners of 49 units in the former Adina Apartment Hotel just off Sydney’s Martin Place have walked away with 20 per cent higher capital gains on average after selling them collectively for $30 million to developers Michael and Prue Williams.
The laneway hotel at 1 Hosking Place – just off Castlereagh Street – was previously operated by TFE Hotels, who vacated at the end of August amid the city’s lengthy lockdown.
A $30 million purchase price equates to an average price of $588,000 per apartment in a building which has shown little valuation gain per unit over the last 23 years.
Records show the most recent sale in the building was a one-bedroom apartment, which was bought for $300,000 in October last year, around the same price units were purchased for two decades ago.
By selling them in one-line as a complete hotel offering rather than individually, CBRE selling agents Tom Gibson and Harry George who brokered the deal said owners had generated a 20 per cent uplift.
Mr Gibson said there had been “monster interest’ in the hotel, which offers 42 one-bedroom apartments and seven studios at an average size of 55 square metres.
“We had inspections on a Friday and exchanged contracts on the following Tuesday,” he said. “It took two weeks to sell.”
Apart from its prime CBD location, Mr Gibson said other appealing aspects of the hotel was that it offered the potential for a high-margin accommodation business with no food and beverage facilities.
“It had occupancy rates in the mid-90 per cent before the pandemic,” he said.
The CBRE agents declined to name the buyer citing a confidentiality agreement and said only that it was a “high net worth Sydney investor”.
However, a number of well-placed sources confirmed it had been bought by the Williamses, who own investment and development company W Property, which is undertaking a number of commercial projects across Sydney.
In January, the couple bought the Old Fitzroy Hotel in Woolloomooloo for $6.85 million. They did not respond to a request for comment.
Further up the coast at Byron Bay, owner-operators Jess and Dave Frid are hoping to cash in on renewed appetite for hotels after putting The Sunseeker boutique accommodation offering up for sale.
Price expectations are between $15 and $20 million for the hotel, which was singled out by Conde Nast Traveller as one of Australia’s most exciting new arrival in 2021.
CBRE Hotels’ Wayne Bunz and Hayley Manvell have been exclusively appointed to sell the 21-room hotel, which opened in January 2021 after a multi-million-dollar refurbishment.
“Byron Bay is firmly on the world stage as a celebrity hotel hot spot and this will drive interest in The Sunseeker from high-net-worth investors, both from Australia and globally,” Mr Bunz said.
