Wealthy Australians are expected to buy up some of Australia’s best known resorts in 2022

With the pandemic keeping offshore investors away, Australia’s ‘millionaires and billionaires’ are expected to snap up some of the nation’s most-renowned resorts, with many of them already in Aussie hands. SEE WHO OWNS WHAT

With Covid-19 putting the brakes on international investment, cashed-up Australians are expected to swoop on some of the country’s most-renowned resorts this year.

Over the past two years, the pandemic accounted for billions of dollars in lost tourism revenue.

However, it has also opened up a wave of opportunities for Australians to buy some of the nation’s tourism gems.

JLL vice president investment sales Adam Bury said despite Covid-19, Australian “billionaires, millionaires and fund managers” will continue where they left off last year in their quest for quality resorts.

“We will see more resort transactions — especially coastal resorts — this year with tourism dollars getting spent in Australia as opposed to overseas,” he said

Daydream Island, in the Whitsundays.

“There’s a weight of capital in the market for quality well located resorts. In the same way that Asian investors can’t fly in, Australian investors can’t fly out. So Australian investors will continue to focus their capital at home.

“Importantly, Australian-based high net worths and fund managers don’t have the competition which they had in previous years from investors coming down from Asia and they have been able to compete on properties.”

This year the China Capital Investment Group is expected to continue to shop around Daydream Island while Australian-based Sojourn Properties — owned by the Rumble family — has had Pumpkin Island and its eco resort on the market for a couple of years with an initial price of $25m.

The family also own Elysian Retreat on Long Island in the Whitsundays which is also on the market.

Australian-based private equity company Upsense Media Capital’s deal to purchase Dunk Island resort from the Bond family for between $20m and $25m recently fell through and the resort remains up for grabs.

CBRE Hotels associate director Hayley Manvell said sales campaigns for a number of resort properties will be launched in 2022.

“The biggest challenge is getting stock, with investors lining up to buy,” she said.

“We would urge owners to take advantage of the current lack of stock in the market, as incredibly strong competition for stock has meant that the winning bidders are cashed up investors who move quickly and bid unconditionally.”

Lizard Island which was bought by Andrew Forrest’s investment vehicle Tattarang.

Ms Manvell said “the world has changed” and travellers, and by association buyers, were seeking less crowded and more nature-based destinations they could drive to, with a real focus on wellness and experiential travel.

“The pandemic has seen interest flip on its head to what we would traditionally see, in the past, most inquiry would be primarily focused on tier 1 CBD corporate assets,” she said.

“Last year was an incredibly strong year for the sale of leisure and resort assets and we believe 2022 will be largely similar to 2021.

“With Australians rediscovering their own backyards, some leisure assets, especially those in coastal and regional locations, have been performing at record levels.”

Gina Rinehart is negotiating to buy Great Keppel Island. Picture: Getty Images

Last year two of Australia’s richest people Gina Rinehart and Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest took the plunge on two Queensland island resorts.

Mr Forrest and his wife Nicola splashed out $42m for the luxurious Great Barrier Reef retreat Lizard Island that was owned by Hong Kong Stock Exchange-listed SEA Group.

Ms Rinehart is negotiating to buy Great Keppel Island, from Sydney-based Terry Agnew’s Tower Holdings for about $50m and she has big redevelopment plans provided leases and other issues can be ironed out.

Sydney-based Oscars Hotel Group operated by brothers Bill and Mario Gravanis paid close to $20m for the Long Island resort in the Whitsundays from hotelier and former merchant banker David Kingston.

Sources say the Palm Bay, another resort on Long Island, is understood to have sold to an undisclosed buyer.

In a double deal Oscars also picked up Mr Kingston’s Beachcomber Hotel & Resort on the NSW Central Coast for $19.7m.

Other major mainland resort deals this year were Sydney-based Sam Arnaout paying about $105m to a Singapore-based company for Lasseters Hotel & Casino in Alice Springs.

Mr Forrest, through his private investment company Tattarang, paid $30m for Olivia Newton-John’s luxury wellness resort Gaia Retreat & Spa in Byron Bay.

Australian regional tourism, holiday and caravan park operator G’Day Group has expanded its $1bn portfolio with the acquisition of El Questro Wilderness Park in West Australia’s renowned Kimberley Region and the Kings Canyon Resort north of Uluru in the Northern Territory.

Fitzroy Island's new owner Darwin-based entrepreneur and property developer Doug Gamble

Australian base Baillie Lodges group, backed by US investment firm KSL, paid about $10m for The Louise Barossa in South Australia.

Queensland Tourism Industry Council chief executive Daniel Gschwind said buying a resort was a commitment and investors needed to be prepared for the “good and bad times”.

“What we have learned is that investment in tourism is more than just a speculative buy and an easy way to make money,” he said.

“There are plenty of opportunities and cases of investors with a genuine interest like the Oatley family on Hamilton Island making a long-term commitment which has delivered its rewards.

“But if you go in just with debt then it’s going too be hard to ride out the early years of the investment. You have to have the resources and the knowledge of the industry you’re getting yourself into.”