Cititel Penang for sale at RM163m, about RM361,000 a room

Cititel Penang, the 19-storey, four-star hotel on Penang Road in George Town, is for sale by expression of interest (EOI) at an asking price of RM163 million. That is about RM361,000 for each of its 451 rooms. Rahim & Co Chestertons is handling the sale, and the EOI closes on 30 September 2026. The Edge Malaysia first reported the listing.

The hotel

• Building: 19 storeys and 451 rooms, built in 1997 and refurbished over the years, with basement parking, food and beverage outlets, a bar, a spa and function rooms
• Land: three freehold lots (Lots 832, 833 and 834) totalling nearly one acre
• Location: the Upper Penang Road area of George Town's heritage enclave, within walking distance of Komtar and the UNESCO World Heritage core zone, with views over the North and South Channels to the Penang Bridge
• Operator: Cititel Hotel Management Sdn Bhd, the hotel arm of IGB Bhd, which also runs Cititel Express Penang and The Wembley on the island

Who is selling

The owner is Cahaya Utara Sdn Bhd. According to a company search by The Edge, its two largest shareholders are Wah Seong (Malaya) Trading Co Sdn Bhd with 50% and Kota Johore Realty Sdn Bhd with 30%; the holder of the remaining 20% was not named. Its directors are Datuk Seri Robert Tan, Datuk Lim Chee Wah, Kuok Khoon Ho, Loo Hooi Guan and Aaron Tan Jian Hong.

Wah Seong (Malaya) Trading is one of the private companies through which the Tan family that founded IGB controls the listed group; the family held 53.74% of IGB in 2023. So the hotel's largest shareholder is an IGB founding-family company, while listed IGB runs the hotel. IGB has sold hotels before: the Cititel Express on Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman in Kuala Lumpur went for RM37 million to Singapore's The Royal Group, and the 910-room Renaissance Kuala Lumpur for about RM765 million in 2016, roughly RM841,000 a room.

The numbers

• Per room: RM163 million ÷ 451 rooms ≈ RM361,000 a room
• Per sq ft of land: nearly one acre is just under 43,560 sq ft, so the ask is above RM3,700 psf of land. That price buys a working 19-storey hotel, not bare land, so it does not compare directly with land deals
• Against the Courtyard by Marriott Penang: the 199-room Courtyard on Jalan Macalister, opened in 2020, sold for RM165 million in 2024 and goes into IOI's new REIT at RM166 million, about RM834,000 a room (our report). Cititel asks almost the same total for 2.3 times the rooms, or 43% of Courtyard's price per room. It is 23 years older and runs under IGB's own Cititel brand rather than an international one
• Against DoubleTree by Hilton in Batu Ferringhi: the 316-room resort was tendered at RM250 million in August, about RM791,000 a key (our report)
• Against Tune Hotel George Town: in August 2025 ECM Libra agreed to sell the 258-room, 11-storey hotel on 2,053 sq m (about 22,100 sq ft) of freehold land for RM51.89 million. That is about RM201,000 a room and RM2,350 psf of land, and about 2.5 times the RM21 million ECM Libra paid in 2018. Cititel asks about 1.8 times Tune's price per room

The market

Penang had about 22,500 registered hotel rooms in mid-2025, after 13 new hotels added roughly 2,311 rooms between August 2023 and 2025. In late 2025 about 10 more hotels were under construction and 11 approved, an estimated 4,000 rooms over 2025 and 2026. From January to September 2025, city hotels on the island averaged 67% occupancy at an average room rate of RM305, and beach hotels 71% at RM441, according to CBRE | WTW. The consultancy expects the new mid-scale and upscale supply to put pressure on rates and occupancy.

Rahim & Co's senior director Siva Shanker pitches the hotel on location scarcity, freehold tenure, scale and room to add value. The Cititel EOI closes on the same day as the RM140 million EOI for a 3.344-acre beachfront hotel site in Batu Ferringhi (our report).[SCOTT: your take — who buys a 29-year-old, 451-room city hotel at RM361,000 a room (an operator, a REIT, or someone who wants the land), and whether the site could be rebuilt at anything like 19 storeys under today's George Town height rules.]

*Cover photo: Rahim & Co, via The Edge Malaysia.*