Australian and Hong Kong entities buy QT Auckland hotel and former Queenstown backpackers for $118.5m

The property was Bayleys real estate’s headquarters before it was converted to a hotel.

EVT chief executive Jane Hastings said: “We are pleased to secure ownership of one of our flagship QT hotels, reinforcing our commitment to growing earnings from owned hotel assets and advancing our broader hotel brand strategy.”

The transaction was negotiated by CBRE Hotels’ Michael Simpson, Peter Hamilton and Nick Hill.

Simpson said the QT sale highlighted strong investor appetite for good hotels in a low-interest-rate environment.

Marcus Reinders of NZ Hotel Holdings was pleased with EVT’s expansion in New Zealand.

NZ Hotel Holdings is owned by the NZ Super Fund, Russell Property Group and Lockwood Property Group. It owns properties in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Rotorua and Queenstown.

CBRE said the Shotover St property was bought by an entity associated with Gaw Capital Partners, a Hong Kong-based private equity fund led by Goodwin and Kenny Gaw.

The purchase expanded Gaw Capital’s footprint in New Zealand, following its renovation of the Haka House flashpacker hostel in Wānaka, CBRE said.

CBRE Hotels’ Peter Hamilton and Wayne Bunz acted on behalf of Prakash Pandey of CP Group, who sold the property.

The property was vacant at the time of sale and included developed plans for a 69-room boutique hotel.

The 977sq m freehold site has high visibility, benefits from heavy foot traffic, and offers proximity to key attractions including Queenstown Mall, the Skyline Gondola and TSS Earnslaw Lake Cruises.

CP Group is one of New Zealand’s largest hotel owners.

Hotels have been in strong demand lately, with two fetching $340m last year.

In October, Malaysian infrastructure conglomerate YTL Corp bought the new 225-room Hotel Indigo Auckland on Albert St for $160m.

YTL Hotels executive director Dato Mark Yeoh said the purchase reflected the company’s confidence in New Zealand’s visitor economy.

YTL had a growing hotel portfolio, Yeoh said.

It had opened Malaysia’s AC Hotel by Marriott Ipoh last January, the Moxy Kuala Lumpur and Chinatown last April, AC Hotel Puchong in December 2024 and this year will open Moxy Niseko in Japan.

The Albert St project was worth $250m because it had the $160m hotel as well as many apartments above that, including a penthouse that remains unsold despite attempts last year to get about $16m for it.

In one of the biggest real estate transactions of 2025, NZX-listed landlord Precinct Properties struck a deal to sell its new InterContinental Auckland hotel to Singaporeans for $180m.

The landlord said it would sell to Singapore Exchange-listed Hotel Properties, an established owner, operator and developer of hotels, resorts and shopping centres in 17 countries.

The buyer has interests in 41 hotels under various brands, including InterContinental Hotels Group.

Precinct chief executive Scott Pritchard said the Kiwi company bought the building in 2012.

It then contracted LT McGuinness and undertook a comprehensive redevelopment of what it called One Queen Street.

The block became the Deloitte Centre and the InterContinental Auckland.

CBRE’s Zoltan Moricz listed the hotel sale as 2025’s third-largest transaction.

It was only outranked by Spark selling 75% of its data centre business portfolio to Australia’s Pacific Equity Partners for $467.2m and Goodman Property Trust’s $252.7m sale of 28% of its $2.1 billion Highbrook Business Park.

The list from Moricz showed an extremely active commercial, retail and industrial market.

Many of the deals were done by multibillion-dollar NZX-listed entities, including Kiwi Property Group and Stride Property.

Many of the buyers were from overseas: Australia, Canada, Singapore and Malaysia.

Anne Gibson has been the Herald‘s property editor for 25 years, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.