Palazzo Versace Gold Coast quietly on the market for more than $100m

The iconic five-star Gold Coast resort has been listed off market by its Chinese-based owners amid a trend of overseas hoteliers offloading Australian assets.

The great Asian sell off of some of Australia’s best known hotels and resorts has stepped up with the Chinese-based owners of one of the world’s first fashion-branded hotels looking for a buyer.

Sources say the Palazzo Versace Hotel on the Gold Coast should sell for “well north of $100m” attracting local and offshore interest.

The 5-star hotel recently underwent a multimillion-dollar refurbishment and the off-market sale campaign is being driven by JLL Hotels & Hospitality who refused to comment.

In 2012 China’s Dong Run Group acquired the 200-room luxury hotel for $68.5m through Nanbai Australia, a company set up by the group’s chairman Jing Lin Zuo, as well as several other Chinese and Australian-based shareholders.

Palazzo Versace Gold Coast is on the market.

Despite the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic luxury hotel and resort sales have been strong in the past 12 months with Asian owners, who bought billions of dollars worth of assets in the decade leading up 2020 being net sellers.

The sell off has been blamed on a number of issues including the pandemic’s impact on occupancy, trade and political tensions between China and Australia and the attraction of selling while prices remain strong and putting funds back into other ventures.

Last year major Chinese property company Greenland sold its Primus Hotel in Sydney for $132m to the Pro-Invest Group Group and Singapore-based investment house Bright Ruby is seeking to sell its Australian centrepiece investment, the Hilton Hotel.

Bright Ruby paid $442m for the four-and-a-half star George St hotel back in 2015, and as hotel occupancies plummet to lows of 15-20 per cent across the nation due to Covid-19 restrictions, it has now put a rumoured $600m price tag on the 570-room property.

Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest and his wife Nicola’s private investment company Tattarang splashed out $42m for Lizard Island on the Great Barrier Reef that was owned by Hong Kong Stock Exchange-listed SEA Group.

The Shanghai-based China Capital Investment Group is quietly seeking a new owner for Daydream Island in the Whitsundays in Queensland. The group also owns South Molle Island.

Palazzo Versace was the brainchild of Sunland Group founder Soheil Abedian, who approached the Italian fashion house in 1997 with the idea of a Versace-branded hotel.

The hotel opened at Main Beach on the Gold Coast in 2000 and has since attracted the world’s wealthy and a host of celebrities.