01 Apr 2026
Words Lisa Allen The Australian

Country Motel Ipswich sets Australian motel sale record at $19.5m

Queensland’s 44-room Country Motel Ipswich, a resort-style facility nestled in Queensland’s high-growth Ipswich-Springfield corridor, has sold for a record price.

Selling agent ResortBrokers claim the sale of the four-star motel for a record $19.5m is the highest amount ever paid for a traditional motel in Australia and represents a new per-key record of $443,000 for a non-coastal motel.

The buyer is David Toomey’s newly created Deltine High Yield Motel Fund, which has grown to around $50m in assets since its first regional motel purchase less than nine months ago. The trust aims to be Australia’s largest owned and operated motel chain fund within five years.

Mr Toomey, an auditor from Brisbane, said he wants to unlock access for investors to a diverse portfolio of high-yielding commercial property in Australia and build the nation’s largest owned and operated motel platform to bring CBD hotel quality service standards to the regions.

The property, which sits in an area where population growth is six times the national average, is Deltine’s fourth motel acquisition, part of a larger buying spree across regional NSW and Victoria.

It follows the fund’s purchase of the 26-key New Crossing Place Motel in the Victorian township of Seymour last July, along with the purchase of the 22-key The Roseville Apartments in Tamworth, NSW, last November. The fund purchased the 29-key Amaroo Motel in Tumut, in NSW’s alpine regions, a month later.

The Country Motel Ipswich was sold by ResortBrokers’ managing director Trudy Crooks, who said the price reflected the attributes of the property, including a large, highly profitable four-star motel with a development application for nine extra units to help meet rising demand for accommodation in the area 40km southwest of the Brisbane CBD.

“ResortBrokers has long said the motel sector is primed for consolidation,” said Ms Crooks.

“While the hotel sector has seen significant institutional investment over the past decade, the traditional motel market remains largely fragmented,” she said.

“Funds like Deltine entering the space are helping to lead that consolidation, bringing scale, professional management and long-term investment to a sector that has historically been dominated by individual owner-operators.”

“Country Motel Ipswich is another astute acquisition for the fund. Deltine is a highly sophisticated buyer and sees the 11 per cent yield as sustainable, particularly given the motel’s location in one of South East Queensland’s fastest-growing regions and the significant scope to expand the asset,” Ms Crooks said.

Mr Toomey added that the pace of growth of the Deltine High Yield Motel Fund is “unusual for a first-time specialist property fund manager and reflects the strong confidence investors have shown in our strategy and our ability to execute”. END