There is an “insatiable” appetite for London hotels from foreign investors which has contributed to more than £3bn of UK hotel investment in 2013 – almost double 2012’s total and the highest since 2007 – according to realtor Savills.
Total hotel sales for the first nine months of this year hit £2.4bn, two-and-a-half times higher than in 2012 and a large proportion of that is thanks to US investment into ailing British hotel chains.
The market in 2013 has been dominated by large deals from US investors. Starwood Capital bought Principal Hayley for £360m, KSL bought Hotel du Vin and Malmaison out of administration for an estimated £200m and Jurys Inns gained £160m from a consortium of investors led by capital management firm, Moun Kellett. The Qatari-backed Constellation Hotels also took control of London’s InterContinental located on Park Lane in a £400m deal and at present, Savills says that there are £1.5bn worth of hotels on the market across the UK.
The report says that it expects the strong performance of the year so far with at least a further £600m in deals to go through in 2013, bringing the total up to a forecast of £3bn.
