According to the report prepared by the Hotels division of Colliers International, the accumulated investment in the last 12 months reaches a total of €3,633 million.
The first semester of the year was characterized by the extraordinary activity of purchase-sale of hotel portfolios, the great distinction of Blackstone, the limited investment activity in Barcelona and Madrid regarding previous years and the strong inertia with which starts the second half of the year, mainly with respect to the materialization of ongoing operations, such as Blackstone's takeover bid on the non-controlling share of Hispania capital or the takeover bid submitted by Minor on NH.
The purchase-sale operations of hotel portfolios have registered an investment volume of €1,048 million, concentrating 60% of the total investment registered, becoming the real protagonists of the semester and acquiring a huge significance regarding to previous years. In fact, the level of investment in hotel portfolios exceeded by 71.4% the number, a record until now, registered in the first half of 2017 (€612 million).
The Canary and the Balearic Islands have accounted for 53% of the total registered investment, far ahead of the rest of the destinations. The sharp drop in investment in Madrid and particularly in Barcelona stands out. While in the first half of 2017 Madrid and Barcelona recorded respectively €549 and €310 million of investment, in the same period of 2018 the records are 154 and 71 million, respectively.
Unlike the first half of 2017, the period in which investment was almost 50% divided between the urban and the holiday segments, in the first half of 2018, 71% of the investment went for the acquisition of holiday hotels, and this is mainly related with operations such as the purchase of Alua by Hispania, the investment of Blackstone in Hispania or most of the assets acquired by the Socimi Atom.
From the point of view of investors, socimis and international funds are the main players in this first half of the year, which together represent 65% of the registered investment volume.
Blackstone is the international fund most visible in the market at the moment. Socimis, along with Hispania, Elaia or Covivio (formerly Foncière des Murs), highlight the initiative supported by Bankinter to lead the creation of the Socimi Atom, generating an alternative investment in the hotel sector for its base of Private Banking customers. The vehicle, which currently has a total of 19 hotels and more than 4,500 rooms, is a Core profile vehicle.