Property/ International

Shanghai developer buys NZ resort hotel

Bloomberg

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Published: 5:15am, 11 Nov, 2013

Updated: 5:20am, 11 Nov, 2013

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China is New Zealand's second-biggest source of tourists after Australia.

Shanghai CRED Real Estate has bought a New Zealand resort hotel and an adjacent vineyard and golf course which it plans to develop and promote to wealthy Chinese tourists.

Acquisition of the Peppers Carrington resort at Karikari, 330 kilometres north of Auckland, was completed recently after being approved by the New Zealand government in July, Shanghai CRED said.

The resort "can provide the sort of holiday experience that high-income Chinese and other international tourists are seeking", Shanghai CRED general manager Guo Gui said.

His company had been involved with similar properties in China and would promote Carrington through its many tourism contacts, he said.

China is New Zealand's second-biggest source of tourists after Australia. Spending by Chinese visitors is predicted to surge to 55 per cent of spending by tourists in New Zealand by 2018, New Zealand government forecasts published in August show.

Shanghai CRED bought the 1,100 hectare property from a US-based owner, it said.

The purchase price would not be disclosed, Cedric Allan, a New Zealand spokesman for the buyer, said at the weekend.