Apartment hotel in Rotorua CBD up for sale

Quest apartment building

The land and building making up one of the few serviced apartment hotels in Rotorua's central business district is up for sale, says Bayleys Rotorua's Bill Wilson.

The 2282 square metre, three-storey Quest apartment building in Hinemoa St (pictured) was converted from a commercial office block and caf in 2012 for the Quest chain. "The trust which owns the site is associated with a developer who has a fair amount of work on currently, and has decided this is a good opportunity to sell on the property and free up some capital," said Mr Wilson.

Macphee Hospitality - operator of the Quest franchise - has a 10-year lease on the bulk of the building, expiring in 2022 with three further five-year rights-of-renewal. The lease generates an annual rental income of $486,540. Employment agency Workbridge Incorporated has a three-year lease on a corner of the ground level - generating annual income of $30,000 per year, with two further three-year rights-of-renewal.

The property is being marketed by tender, closing on August 6.

Statistics New Zealand data showed there were 85,000 international visitor nights spent in Rotorua's commercial accommodation in April this year - up 14 per cent on the same period in 2014.

Rotorua's attraction and activities sites also experienced 14 per cent growth in international visits to 155,000 visits.

"With this ever-increasing local business confidence, Bay of Plenty investors are looking more at buying commercial-grade investment properties in Rotorua rather than Auckland where the yields are now often less than 5 per cent," said James Chan, from Bayleys Auckland, who is co-marketing the sale.

"That's a big tick of support for the local region," he said.