Hundreds of people tuned in to listen to Ray White Commercial’s final Between the Lines Live webinar for 2022, as this month’s experts discussed pubs, tourism, and financing.
The webinar was hosted by Ray White head of research Vanessa Rader, who spoke to HTL Property director of Asia Pacific region Andrew Jolliffe, and HTL Capital national director Rick Woelms about how the hospitality and tourism sectors will play a key role in leading communities and businesses out of the deep freeze that was the global pandemic.
While NSW was a hub for hotel transactions in 2022, Mr Jolliffe said he expected to see other states take up the trend in 2023.
“Last year 100 hotels transacted in NSW alone, more than the other states combined,” he said.
“It’s the population and the nature of the ownership structure – they’re happy to move assets around. Whereas in other markets particularly in Victoria they’re more wedded to that asset.
“Next year we think QLD particularly, where we saw the second largest amount of transactions, but also Victoria and South Australia will increase the number of sales quite dramatically, and NSW might come off slightly to compensate for that.”
Mr Jolliffe said investment in regional hotels would also continue.
“That well worn path to regional areas from Covid will stick around. There are some groups that will recede from those areas but we think the trend will mostly continue,” he said.
“Investors got into those areas during Covid and realised how beautiful they were, and what that movement of people did was mean commerce could exist in those places, making those pubs more viable.”
Mr Woelms said there was finance available for regional hotels which ticked the right boxes.
“It’s about the operator, location, the quality of the asset, and the management/franchise agreement,” he said.
“But if the numbers are there and there’s proven trade, there’s lenders available.”
With an increase in domestic tourism, firstly due to Covid, and most recently due to high international travel costs, Ms Rader said motels had seen a resurgence, with savvy investors snapping them up and giving them new life.
Mr Woelms agreed motels were attracting the eye of investors.
“I love a funky motel, a repurposed, Palm Springs style motel. There’s some fantastic ones around Byron and Brunswick Heads,” Mr Woelms said.
“If they give you an experience and you feel like you’ve been transported to another place or another time, the owners might charge double what they had prior to being repurposed and reimagined.”
Mr Woelms said there would be continued opportunities for hotels and accommodation in 2023.
“There’s lots of support and confidence from banks and alternate lenders for those who have capital and want to expand their portfolios,” he said.
“There’s finite opportunities with those hotels and if they come to market there’ll be plenty of buyers and plenty of lenders wanting to assist.”
