GLOBAL hotel transaction volume, which plummeted to a ten-year low of US$10 billion in 2009, continued on the path to recovery last year, with US$31.2 billion worth of deals taking place, compared to US$26.8 billion the year before, according to research by Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels.
Speaking during the Investment Outlook panel discussion at the recent Hotel Investment Conference Asia Pacific (HICAP) UPDATE, Mike Batchelor, managing director, Investment Sales, Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels, revealed that investment activity spiked in Singapore last year, with 34.7 per cent of overall regional transactions taking place in the city-state.
Next on the list was China (22.9 per cent), followed by Japan (14.2 per cent), Hong Kong (10.2 per cent), Taiwan (7.7 per cent), Thailand (5.2 per cent), Vietnam (1.5 per cent), Indonesia (1.3 per cent), South Korea (0.8 per cent), India (0.7 per cent) and Malaysia (0.6 per cent).
Comparatively, Japan topped the regional transactions list in 2010 (20.2 per cent), followed by China (17.9 per cent), Hong Kong (16.0 per cent), India (14.4 per cent), Singapore (11.9 per cent), Thailand (6.6 per cent), Malaysia (5.6 per cent), Taiwan (5.1 per cent), the Maldives (1.6 per cent), the Philippines (0.6 per cent) and Vietnam (0.3 per cent).
Notable transactions for 2011 include the 254-key Laguna Beach Resort, Phuket in February; 469-key Sofitel Silom, Bangkok in March; 320-key Crowne Plaza Changi Airport, Singapore in April; 241-key ibis Novena, Singapore in June; and 112-key Phi Phi Village Beach Resort & Spa in November.
Properties up for sale this year include a five-star resort in the Maldives, one of Singapore’s best performing hotels, as well as a new-build hotel in Sukhumvit, Bangkok.
