Roosters add Paddington apartments to $100m property portfolio
The Sydney Roosters NRL team has bought a 26-room apartment block across the road from its home ground in leafy Paddington as it builds a real estate portfolio with a value that has already topped $100 million to reduce its reliance on gambling revenue.
The immediate rationale for buying the serviced apartment block converted from a large terrace-style residence on Moore Park Road is to give younger athletes attending the Sydney Roosters Academy a place to live.
The acquisition of the Moore Road property, worth around $10 million, also follows a longer-term strategy by the Roosters to build up a respectable commercial real estate portfolio, rather than depend solely on revenue from its pokies operation.
Roosters chief executive Joe Kelly said the purchase was the latest step in the club’s aim to “future-proof” its finances with “astute property and other strategic investments”.
“We’ve had a long-term strategy to have a more diversified portfolio, not being reliant on our licensed clubs for their mainstream business activities,” he told The Australian Financial Review.
In buying the property the Roosters, chaired by Rich Lister Nick Politis, are taking a page from the NRL’s financial playbook. Under commission chairman Peter V’landys, the NRL has spent tens of millions of dollars expanding its real estate portfolio.
Kelly said the Roosters’ strategy had ramped up over the past three or four years to include properties across Sydney and beyond. Some were being used for club purposes and others for generating rent.
The club now earns more than $5 million, or close to 12 per cent of its total revenue of $42.8 million, from rent, according to its 2024 annual report. Its tenants include medical, retail, hospitality and cosmetic businesses.
Income from poker machines earned the club $29.3 million in the past financial year. But the future of the revenue stream has become less certain as successive state governments have come under pressure to take action on problem gambling.
The club’s real estate portfolio comprised 12 properties across NSW worth $106 million before the Paddington addition, including four hospitality venues – Easts in Bondi Junction, Berkeley Sports in Berkeley, Kingswood Sports in Kingswood, and Waverley Bowling Club in Waverley.
The club has another five commercial properties in Bondi Junction, Randwick and Lithgow that generate rental income.
One is the Old Randwick Post Office, which was bought in 2000 and now houses the Ted Noffs Foundation, the country’s largest provider of drug treatments for young people.
Andrew Jolliffe, Asia Pacific director at HTL Property, managed the sale of the Paddington property, alongside Andrew Jackson and Scott Callow.
Jolliffe said sporting clubs buying property was not a new thing.
“We’ve seen the NRL doing it successfully as well as the governing body and other sports, but it’s certainly not a theme,” he told the Financial Review.
“It’s one that’s got longevity, and it’s also one that I think enjoys the benefit of good practice.”
Property in Australia had proven to be a very sound investment for organisations, he said.
“If there are vertical integration levers as the NRL has explored itself geographically where the acquisitions are made and where they might be taking the game, then it’s clearly a well-considered view.”
Under V’landys’ stewardship, the NRL has purchased a string of hotels, including the Ibis Styles in Port Macquarie for $15.6 million and the Mantra Terrace in Brisbane for $24.2 million, as well as Quest Woolooware Bay Hotel and Gambaro Hotel in Brisbane.
Similarly, Panthers Group, owner of Penrith Panthers, struck a deal with Accor in 2022 to open the 153-room Pullman Sydney Penrith as part of its $1 billion redevelopment of the Penrith Panthers sports, hospitality and entertainment precinct on Mulgoa Road.
