Five 'prime' tourist destinations – Madrid, Barcelona, Balearic Islands, Costa del Sol and Canary Islands – have accumulated a total of 1.3 billion euros in hotel investment in the first half of the year, 86% of the total volume invested in the country, which amounts to 1.5 billion euros, according to the Hotel Investment in Spain report prepared by Colliers.
During the first half of 2022, the so-called 'prime' destinations, located mainly on the coasts and in the main capitals, have concentrated the interest of hotel investors in Spain.
At the urban level, Madrid leads the investment ranking with 443 million euros and a total of 9 projects, beating Barcelona, which has accumulated 220 million euros in 6 transactions.
In the vacation segment, the Balearic Islands are the preferred destination for investors, with 293 million euros and 12 transactions. In the six-month period that has just ended, Costa del Sol has regained a leading role with 200 million euros in hotel investments, doubling the figure recorded during the same period of the previous year and accounting for 13% of national investment.
According to the report, the Canary Islands, for its part, has accumulated 146 million euros invested in a total of 4 operations.
Another of the most noteworthy aspects of this first semester has been the relevance of the urban segment, concentrating 57.4% of investment and beating the holiday segment, which has registered 42.6% of the total, something that reverses the usual market trend in Spain, in which the holiday segment has dominated over the urban segment.
The report concludes that despite the slowdown in hotel investment activity that will be experienced in the coming months, the outlook for 2022 as a whole remains positive.
"The good base of the Spanish tourism sector, the existing excess liquidity in the market and the strong investor appetite will continue to act as supports for investment in the hotel sector," the report justifies.
Thus, prime hotel assets, those that best weathered the pandemic thanks to their high liquidity and low sensitivity to uncertainty, will maintain their prominence this year, also favoring investment.
All these reasons, together with a current portfolio of operations in the process of the sale of approximately 1.8 billion euros, as well as the closing of some relevant transactions already announced in July, lead experts to expect a positive end to the year in terms of the hotel investment.
