22 Jul 2022
Words
Christine Retschlag Informer 103
From Refugee to Rubbish Royalty to Motel Maven & Caravan Park Queen
Vietnamese refugee Le Ho arrived with her family in Australia on a fishing boat when she was just 18 days old. After building a $10 million garbage empire, she has made the leap into commercial property with the purchase of the $5.885 million of the Jolly Knight Motel followed soon after by the Badgee Caravan Park.
“About 18 months ago I came across a ResortBrokers’ listing for the 1960s-style Jolly Knight Motel and I fell in love with the land size,” Ms Ho says.
“After speaking with ResortBrokers, I quickly realised if I purchased the motel, I would be running a business while making a capital gain on the land.
“Motels and hotels never crossed my mind until I met ResortBrokers who shared their incredible insights and knowledge. The motel space will only get a lot busier. I intend to spend $1.5-$1.6 million to transform this motel with an industrial chic look.”
Ms Ho’s latest business venture is a far cry from her early years when the fishing boat on which her family was travelling broke down and was captured by a pirate ship. The family was sent to a Thai refugee camp before arriving in Australia in 1981.
Now 42, at the age of 21 she opened her first business selling bridal shoes and wedding gowns but closed that in 2010 with the surge of online shopping.
She went on to take over Sydney-based waste management company Capital City Waste Services – a business which was losing $20,000 a month – for $50,000. Working from the boot of her car in the first year, her hard work paid off and in her first five years her business turned over $10 million.
Ms Ho stepped away from that business to “retire” and take care of her ageing parents and has now decided to venture into the motel industry after investing in residential, retail, office and industrial space.
“With Australia beginning to recover and rebuild after COVID, we are starting to see travellers venturing out of the CBDs and explore regional Australia and the motel space will just get busier,” she says.
“Now that I am ‘retired’ the acquisition of motels and caravan parks have become of real interest to me. I am definitely keen to continue investing strongly in this area.
“Previously my strategy has been about a business making a profit and investing that in real estate. But in the motel space you can invest in real estate while running a business and enjoy the capital gain on the property.”
“It never leaves my mind that my parents have gone through so much adversity and struggle to come to Australia which has so much opportunity and platform to succeed.”
“To be successful you’ve got to use adversity to be the best you can be. There are so many other people in the world that are far less fortunate,” Ms Ho says.
“Working with ResortBrokers it is not just a transaction, you become part of the family and you grow with them. I feel for the next five years I can grow my commercial property portfolio quite quickly working with ResortBrokers.
“I’d like to be in a position to one day create a big asset to house lower income earners and refugees and migrants coming into Australia and that will be my legacy.”
