Published: July 30, 2010
Volume could double by end of the year.
Activity in the EMEA hotel investment market is “picking up”, according to research released by property advisory service Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels.
In the first half of 2010 €1.6bn was spent in the market, 6% more than during the same period last year with the firm believing that the second half of 2010 will witness stronger investment levels which could even double the figures recorded in the first half.
Hotel operators, institutions, investment funds and private equity players have shown a strong appetite for the market accounting for almost 65% of hotel investments in EMEA during the opening six months of the year.
Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels’ chief executive for EMEA, Mark Wynne Smith, says that activity during the rest of the year is “likely” to increase driven by vendors agreeing that values are acceptable given the current economic climate.
He adds that there is a “substantial” volume of stock being marketed and there are more deals in the pipeline than there were in the first half of 2009, many of which will close over the coming months. “This will be supported by improved access to credit from lenders and increased certainty about underwriting projects.
“The market conditions experienced over the first half of 2010 are reminiscent of what we saw in 2002. The second half of 2002 saw a doubling of transaction volume and I anticipate that we will see a similar outcome over the remainder of this year.”