Savills predicts regional hotel transactions to top £2b in 2014
Regional hotel transactions could reach £2b in 2014, according to Savills.
According to the estate agent's UK hotel monitor, transactions for regional hotels hit £1.7b in 2013, a rise of 138%. It predicts market volumes to rise further this year.
Savills pointed to a significant increase in activity by smaller private groups and high-net-worth individuals in 2013, including the acquisition of Menzies Hotels by Topland for £80m. It said these kinds of transactions would continue in 2014, with the market further boosted by increased overseas investment.
Savills' head of UK regional hotels Martin Rogers said: "The UK regional hotel investment market had a tremendous year in 2013, reporting the highest level of liquidity since 2007. We expect that we will continue to see strong volumes in 2014; however, we believe that single-asset transactions will dominate, as opposed to the large portfolio sales we saw last year."
He added that the regional hotel market accounted for 43% of the volume of UK hotel transactions in 2013.
"This is an improvement over the past few years, although still significantly down from the 82% it accounted for before the downturn," Rogers said.
"The increased interest we are seeing demonstrates investors' confidence and more realistic pricing by vendors and this will help to boost the percentage in 2014."
