First quarter of 2012 cannot be called very successful for hotels as investments into properties located in Europe, Africa and the Middle East fell down by 39% comparing to the same period of 2011. On the other hand, impressive figures of 2011 were significantly geared up by three large deals – European Accor portfolio, Marriott Champs Elysées, and Ritz Carlton Moscow worth €1billion. The beginning of this year is free of such large investments, so the volume of transactions is much more modest. If we deduct the abovementioned transactions from the Q1 2011 results, this year’s transactions are 7% higher comparing to the previous year. Deals with single assets have estimated 74% of the total volume of transactions.
Paris and London remain the most attractive destinations for investors. The total volume of investments into them estimated €645 million (14 deals in total). Experts foresee this trend to maintain in future. Quality locations in key cities have always been a good object for investment, but the volume of investments may slow down a bit due to uncertainty of the Eurozone. Some popular European cities have posted declines in revenues. The level of RevPAR fell down by 7.7% for hotels in Munich, by 10% for hotels in Zurich, 11.5% for hotels in Dusseldorf, and 9.7% for hotels in Amsterdam. The volume of investments into the UK estimated €784 million with London taking the biggest part. The pricing gap between the regional UK and London becomes bigger, so many regions of the country are simply not interesting for investors. The transaction volume into hotels in France reached €252 million, and investments into German hotel industry estimated €70 million.