Hoi Hup buys Four Points by Sheraton in Sydney for A$201.8m in first Australian hotel deal

Singapore developer Hoi Hup has paid A$201.8 million to acquire the Four Points by Sheraton Sydney, Central Park from US private equity firm KSL Capital Partners. The 309-room hotel in Chippendale marks Hoi Hup's first commercial property investment in Australia.

Singapore developer Hoi Hup has made its first foray into Australia’s commercial property market, paying A$201.8 million (S$144.6 million) to acquire the Four Points by Sheraton hotel in Sydney’s technology precinct from US private equity firm KSL Capital Partners, according to a statement from JLL, which advised on the transaction.

Hoi Hup will add the Four Points by Sheraton Sydney, Central Park at 88 Broadway in the inner-Sydney suburb of Chippendale to its portfolio of two Singapore hotels, the Andaz Singapore and Courtyard by Marriott in Novena. Hoi Hup declined to comment on the purchase.

“Investment-grade hotel assets in Sydney remain tightly held, and opportunities to acquire properties of this calibre are rare,” said Gus Moors, managing director at JLL’s hotels and hospitality group. “The competitive sale process reflected strong interest from both domestic and international investors.”

The hotel is popular with visitors to Tech Central, a state government-backed development that has grown to support a A$42 billion economy with more than 100,000 workers. Technology giant Atlassian chose the area around Chippendale’s Central Railway Station to build its A$1 billion headquarters, which will eventually house 4,000 employees, and office projects nearby include Dexus and Frasers Property’s A$2.5 billion Central Place Sydney, with more than 140,000 square metres (1.5 million square feet) of office space.

The property, which opened in 2018, has 309 guest rooms including 45 suites and 270 square metres of conference and meeting space. KSL recently converted an under-used conference floor into 12 new guest rooms, among other enhancements to the Marriott International-managed property. The property’s ground floor food and beverage outlet was also recently renovated and re-positioned to take advantage of foot traffic in Chippendale, which hosts some of Australia’s largest higher education institutions, including the University of Sydney and University of Technology Sydney, which have a combined student population of about 125,000.

The transaction is the largest in Sydney’s hotel market since March, when Australia’s Wentworth Capital and Hong Kong’s Sun Hung Kai & Company paid A$390 million to acquire the 525-room Novotel Sydney on Darling Harbour Hotel and the 256-room Ibis Sydney Darling Harbour complex from UAE sovereign wealth fund Abu Dhabi Investment Authority. Denver, Colorado-based KSL Capital Partners acquired Four Points by Sheraton Sydney, Central Park in 2021, paying an estimated A$150 million according to reports at the time.

Singapore-based Hoi Hup is best known as a developer of residential properties, with a portfolio of 10 projects in the city state. Its international investments include three commercial buildings in London. In 2019, the company paid S$475 million to purchase the 342-room Andaz Singapore hotel from M+S Pte Ltd, a joint venture between Malaysia’s Khazanah Nasional and Singapore’s Temasek Holdings. The acquisition by Hoi Hup follows a flurry of Australian real estate deals involving Singaporean capital this year, including OUE REIT’s acquisition of a stake in Sydney’s Salesforce Tower, and GIC’s investment in a Sydney office tower through its capital partnership with Investa.