04 Nov 2026
Words
Alex Cook Informer
ON OR OFF?
In the management rights space, buyers are increasingly asking us if we have off-market listings. Sellers, too, are invariably attracted to the idea of selling off market.
Clearly, demand for off-market opportunities is there. But are they actually a good idea?
The short answer is it very much depends on the asset.
As brokers, our role is to get as many buyers to the table as possible in order to create competition and drive the best possible sale price. Traditionally, that’s meant an on-market campaign, where effective marketing with the widest possible reach — something ResortBrokers prides itself on delivering better than anyone in the industry — helps achieve that outcome.
That said, off-market sales absolutely have their place. In the right circumstances, they can deliver exceptional results,
just through a different strategy.
In our experience, off-market campaigns tend to work best for highly desirable management rights businesses. I’m talking premium assets, generally very high-netting businesses approaching $1 million in net income or more, located in prime locations and often ‘business-only’ with no associated real estate to purchase.
For these types of opportunities, ResortBrokers will typically have a shortlist of qualified, high-value buyers who we can approach discreetly. With a relatively limited pool of buyers operating at that level, you can often position a management rights asset with a premium price expectation and create urgency by being clear about what’s on the table by saying, “This is the opportunity. We’re only presenting it to a handful of buyers before it potentially goes on the open market.”
If you can generate genuine interest and a degree of competition among those buyers, it can lead to an excellent outcome without ever needing to launch a public campaign.
A recent-ish example was our off-market sale of the management rights to the Royal Albert Hotel in Brisbane CBD, which I transacted alongside Brisbane broker Jessie Shi.
Royal Albert Hotel was ideally suited to an off-market approach. The asset is a distinctive, heritage-listed nine-storey, 73-room hotel in a prime CBD position directly opposite the new Cross River Rail station — as strong a location as you could hope for in a city with an undersupply of hotels in the lead up to the 2032 Olympics.
We discreetly introduced the opportunity to 10 highly qualified buyers, including several of Brisbane’s most prominent operators. Ultimately, the successful buyer was Belmo Group (formerly Prestige Residential), a top-tier operator that has bought and sold a number of significant management rights assets across Queensland through ResortBrokers.
Strong results like this don’t happen by accident. They come from investing time in genuine, long-term relationships with corporate buyers and operators built over many years and multiple transactions.
It’s important to stress that only a relatively small number of management rights businesses are suited to an off-market sale.
As agents, we never shy away from the fact that marketing is incredibly powerful. Any agent who tells you, “I’ve already got a buyer,” should probably raise alarm bells. They may very well have one buyer, but one buyer will never create competition to reach the best sale price possible.
Our job as brokers is to maximise buyer engagement. Marketing remains one of the most effective ways to do that.
Unless there’s a genuine strategic reason to stay off market, sellers should keep in mind that off-market campaigns are not necessarily the best fit for every asset.
For buyers, there’s also an important takeaway. Given that some opportunities are sold quietly and never publicly advertised, building a strong relationship with a broker you trust — one with a proven, consistent track record — is key.
At the end of the day, there are two ways to approach finding your next acquisition: focus on the asset itself, or focus on the agency/broker who consistently has access to the right opportunities. The latter is often the best. END
