Construction on a 56 room (112 key) Quest Apartment hotel in Ascot has commenced following the successful completion of a $11.5 million development fund by M/Group and subsequent settlement of the 2,211sq.m development site. It is the second property undertaken by M/Group for the apartment hotel giant, with the first in Joondalup currently nearing completion.
The Quest Apartment Hotel in Ascot is located at 266 Great Eastern Highway, near Perth Airport and enroute to the Perth CBD. Its strategic location is in close proximity to Ascot racecourse, Optus Stadium, Crown Casino, Perth CBD and Perth airport, and is serviced by a road network that will see some 63,000 vehicles pass the site each day.
The property is being constructed by M/Group’s building division, M/Construction, which is currently engaged on a number of multi-residential and commercial projects across Perth, including Quest Joondalup.
M/Group Managing Director, Mr Lloyd Clark, said M/Group’s recent success and track record in fully subscribing property funds suggests a thirst in the market for secure investments.
“It’s difficult to dispute the investment potential and returns of a project that has a long- term lease agreement with a multi-national operation, as well as an independent valuation uplift created through the development delivery process,” he said.
“Quest Ascot is one of several property funds M/Group has successfully subscribed, largely due to a group of investors that now follow our projects based on our capacity to deliver.”
Quest is Australia’s largest apartment hotel operator by number of properties and is the second largest by the number of rooms. The Ascott Limited (wholly owned by Singapore’s CapitaLand) owns 80% of Quest . It has over 43,000 operating serviced residence units in key cities around the world with a further 31,000 units under development. Ascott is the largest serviced residence provider in Australiasia and is targeting to double its global portfolio to 160,000 units over five years.
The Quest Ascot development project was negotiated by M/Group in an off-market arrangement.
“We are delighted by our growing investment portfolio and the success it has had in recent months. Some of our investment offers have out-performed expectation, which both demonstrates a solid model and market interest for income-generating funds,” Mr Clark continued.
“We are currently working on a number of new opportunities to meet investor demand.”
M/Group is an integrated property organisation that has over $185 million of Investor funds under management with a projected asset value of approximately $1 billion. The company recently expanded its portfolio to the eastern states to add to its string of regional shopping centres with one centre recording an independent valuation uplift of $10.5million in under a year.