Could a NZ buyer acquire Super Fund JV’s $600m+ hotel portfolio? NZHH’s Marcus Reinders on the prospects

8th May 2025 By Paul Yandall | paul@propertyticker.co.nz | @propertyticker

It is not out of the question for a domestic buyer to emerge for a $600m+ New Zealand hotel portfolio but interest so far is coming from overseas, says NZ Hotel Holdings.

The company, a joint venture between the NZ Super Fund, Russell Property Group, and Lockwood Property, has decided to sell what it says is the largest portfolio of its kind to come to market, with seven hotels across the country.

CBRE’s Michael Simpson, Peter Hamilton and Nick Hill are managing the sale via an international expressions of interest campaign.

But could a New Zealand buyer snap up the assets, estimated to be worth more than $600m?

“It all depends,” New Zealand Hotel Holdings chief executive Marcus Reinders told the Ticker.

“There are not necessarily too many [in New Zealand] with the capacity to do a whole portfolio.

“They could partner up with funds and so they could come from anywhere but my guess, if I had to, would probably be from offshore.”

In fact, it was interest from overseas that started the ball rolling on the sale of the portfolio. Launched in 2019, it now comprises of Auckland hotels Four Points by Sheraton, QT Auckland, and Adina Apartment Hotel Britomart, as well as Rydges Rotorua and Rydges Wellington, Sofitel Queenstown Hotel and Spa, and BreakFree on Cashel in Christchurch.

“We got a bit of an expression of interest from a couple of different parties last year,” Reinders said. 

“We certainly weren’t ready, but it got us thinking, is there an opportunity there? 

“The sale of [Precinct Properties’] InterContinental earlier this year, which was a [$180m] record-setting sale, helped prompt that along as well.”

The timing of the divestment was also supported by the wider environment and the portfolio’s development.

“We set out to build a portfolio and over the last five to seven years, we’ve spent a lot of time and effort and money upgrading the properties and getting them to where they needed to be. From that perspective, it was good timing,” Reinders said.

“The market still has a lot of growth opportunity. As you know, we’re still only at 90% of pre-Covid levels and there are a lot of good things that are still to happen.

“Globally, we’ve seen the tourism market in general really going great, and it still is. That’s still to come in New Zealand, so I think the timing really is a combination of all of those things.”

CBRE’s international expressions of interest campaign closes at 4pm NZST, Thursday 26 June 2025.

“Depending on the interest, I would say that we would go through the second round of due diligence, which would probably take another two or three months,” Reinders said.

“It all depends on the type of buyer and the type of interest expressed. There’s obviously opportunity with the assets but there’s also opportunity with the entity as well. So, it all depends on what type of buyer and what they’re looking for.” 

He added that the portfolio, which was built mainly during the pandemic years, had performed “really well”.

“There are certain assets that have exceeded our expectations, the likes of Rydges Rotorua, Sofitel Queenstown – they’re really just going from strength to strength.

“Auckland in general is obviously impacted by the large amount of supply that has come online but the good thing is the New Zealand International Convention Centre. We’ve got a date now [opening in February 2026] and I think that’ll help soak up a lot of that supply.”

On completing the sale, will that be the end of NZ Hotel Holdings?

“If someone wanted the entire entity, then who knows?” Reinders said.

“It’s just really too early to say. Until we know who the buyer is, that narrative could be anything.”