Canberra hotel Clifton Suites sold for $65 million

Interstate investors continue to swoop on Canberra’s commercial properties, lured by market affordability and the city’s multimillion-dollar airport upgrade.     

Perth-based investment group Ascot Capital has made its second Canberra purchase in just weeks, acquiring CBD hotel Clifton Suites for $65 million in a joint venture with hospitality asset management company Facilimate, also headquartered in Western Australia. Last month, Ascot Capital bought office tower Australia Place in Canberra for $41.5 million.

Facilimate managing director Stephen Lauder partnered with Ascot Capital to acquire the 153-room Clifton Suites in one of the biggest hotel deals in Canberra in years.

Lauder says the opportunity to purchase a well located apartment-style hotel with vacant possession was an opportunity Facilimate had been seeking for some time.

“We view the Canberra hotel market as an attractive one to invest in as it is underwritten by corporate and government business with a large element of domestic tourism,” Lauder says.

The recent $450 million upgrade of Canberra Airport had also been a drawcard, Lauder says.

“Canberra Airport is now a real international alternative for entry to Australia. With no time curfew, it allows the Chinese airlines to arrive in the early hours of the morning, an option not available to them in Sydney. This will stimulate international visitation to the capital city,” Lauder says.

Clifton Suites at 100 Northborne Avenue opened in 2006 and was most recently owned by local developer Ivan Krizaic. It will be rebranded as Pacific Suites Canberra.

The deal is the second joint-venture acquisition between Facilimate and Ascot Capital, with the businesses acquiring Pacific Hotels Cairns in July last year.

The off-market deal was brokered by Mark Durran of JLL Hotels & Hospitality Group.  

“This is one of the larger non-portfolio hotel transactions to occur in Canberra in many years,” Durran says.

“The Canberra market is on the upswing with RevPAR (revenue per available room) growing by 10 per cent for the year to date compared with the same period last year, on the back of solid increases in both occupancy and average daily room rates.”