Bumper Year for Tourism Boosts Hotel Investment Sector

World-leading real estate consultants CBRE have revealed that Spain's hotel investment market reached ?724m in the first six months of 2014.

The increase in investor-interest in the hotel sector of Europe's top tourist destination has been attributed to the record numbers of visitors and hotel occupancy rates in more than seven years.
Investment in the hotel industry has already exceeded those throughout the whole of 2013 which saw ?665m of transactions.

Extremely positive data from the underlying tourism sector has been driving interest in the market, with 124.5m overnight stays recorded in Spain in the first half of the year.

Foreign tourism has seen continued growth with increases in visitor numbers from Portugal, Finland and Poland, at the highest levels ever seen in the country.

Sun and beach destinations like the Costa del Sol remain the most popular although inland regions such as Aragon, Castile-la Mancha, La Rioja and Navarre are also benefitting from increased tourism.

As well as increased foreign tourism, domestic demand for hotel rooms increased by 3% in H1 2014, the first time positive data has been recorded since the onset of the financial crisis.

CBRE noted that Spain's national brands and investors accounted for 70% of all hotel transactions in the first six months of the year, notably listed Spanish real estate companies known as SOCIMIs.
Director of CBRE Hotels (Spain), Jorge Ruiz commented: "Investment in resort hotels represents half of the transactions so far this year, surpassing figures for 2013. Urban transactions have constituted the majority of the remainder although we are seeing some interest from buyers in hotels in secondary urban areas."

"Domestic investors, particularly SOCIMIs have been especially active in Spain's hotel markets so far in 2014, as demonstrated by the acquisition of the Hotel Guadalmina in Marbella, as well as two other hotels in Madrid leased to Spanish hotel chain NH by Hispania, he added.

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