Brookfield Asset Management gains Overseas Investment Office consent to buy 2 hotels for $250m

A summary of the decision would be published in the April edition of its newsletter, he said.

Rydges Hotel on Featherston St, Wellington. Photo / Google Maps

The vendor of the Wellington and Queenstown hotels is NZ Hotel Holdings, which last May said it wanted to sell seven hotels for $600m-plus.

NZ Hotel Holdings’ seven hotels, with 1402 rooms, are:

255-room Four Points by Sheraton Auckland, 396 Queen St;150-room QT Auckland, 4 Viaduct Harbour Ave, Westhaven, ex-Bayleys offices on leasehold land;167-room Adina Apartment Hotel Auckland Britomart, 2 Tapora St, Britomart, Auckland;203-room Rydges Rotorua, previously a Holiday Inn, 10 Tryon St, Whakarewarewa;280-room Rydges Wellington, 75 Featherston St, central city;263-room BreakFree on Cashel Christchurch, 165 Cashel St, central city;84-room Sofitel Queenstown Hotel and Spa, 8 Duke St.

NZ Hotel Holdings has also sold QT Auckland to ASX-listed entertainment, hospitality and leisure company EVT.

NZ Hotel Holdings is owned by the New Zealand Superannuation Fund, Russell Property Group and Lockwood Property Group.

Last year, it said it wanted to quit its national hotel portfolio after the record-breaking $180m InterContinental Auckland sale.

Sofitel Queenstown is one of two hotels being sold to Brookfield in a deal yet to become unconditional.

Brookfield has a market cap of US$75b, with its shares trading at about US$46. The company says it is a long-term New Zealand investor.

Last April, Brookfield entered a joint venture with Tainui Group Holdings to develop the Ruakura Logistics Intermodal Superhub in Hamilton.

Brett Russell of NZ Hotel Holdings. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Brett Russell of Russell Group last month expressed satisfaction about plans to sell two of the seven to Brookfield and said a settlement was anticipated this month.

Brookfield already owned assets in this country, he noted.

“We have interest in a couple of the others in the portfolio, too,” Russell said last night of further deals on the remaining five hotels.

The tourism sector is booming, hence hotel valuations are rising.

About 15,000 more overseas visitors travelled here in January than in the same month of 2025.

Overall numbers edged up to 97% of pre-pandemic levels.

Visitor numbers from Australia, the UK, the United States and Germany were up, but fewer people arrived from China and South Korea.

“The fall in overseas visitor arrivals from China … reflected the timing of the Chinese New Year,” Stats NZ said this month.

The most recent Lunar New Year started on February 17, compared with January 29 in 2025.

Anne Gibson has been the Herald’s property editor for 26 years, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.

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