For 2022, international real estate consultancy firm Cushman & Wakefield (C&W) recorded a total hotel transaction volume of EUR 1.9 billion in Germany. This is 25 percent below the previous year's figure and falls almost 60 percent short of the 10-year average. The year was again characterised by single-property transactions, contributing approximately 85 percent of transaction volume. Only four portfolio transactions were recorded. The average transaction size was EUR 29 million.
German investors contributed about 68 percent or EUR 1.3 billion of transaction volume. They were followed by investors from the UK (9 percent) and then those from Spain, Austria and France, contributing 6 percent each.
The most active investor groups were institutional investors and private investors or family offices, with a combined contribution of 58 percent. These were followed by private equity investors (19 percent), hotel operators (10 percent), real estate companies (9 percent) and property developers (4 percent). Non-operator sales accounted for around 50 percent of transaction volume.
"Many operational hotel markets have recovered significantly from the effects of the Covid pandemic in recent months. Nevertheless, higher interest rates, inflation and fears of recession have severely weakened momentum in the investment market. Pricing is currently another major challenge and has led to considerable uncertainty. Some market participants expect yields to continue to rise and would prefer to observe investment activity for the time being. The first half of 2023 will therefore probably still be characterized by uncertainty and restraint," comments Josef Filser, Head of Hospitality Germany & Austria at Cushman & Wakefield.
The largest transactions in Q4 2022 included:
1) Sale of the vacant Grandhotel Hessischer Hof hotel together with an adjacent office property to Peakside Capital Advisors:The seller of the 5-star, 121-room hotel, built in 1952, and the office with 560 sq m of lettable area was Hessische Hausstiftung. Peakside plans to refurbish and re-let the hotel.
2) Sale of the double-brand Hotel Moxy and Residence Inn with a total of 264 rooms in Kühnehöfen in Hamburg to BNP Paribas Reim: The seller was the developer Benchmark Real Estate. The operator of the hotels is Odyssey Hotel Group.
3) Sale of the 186-room Campanile Offenbach of the insolvent Eyemaxx Real Estate to French asset manager Perial for around EUR 18 million. Louvre Hotels had taken over the building in 2020 for its Campanile brand from the Chinese hotel group Plateno Premium-Hotels.
4) Purchase of the Premier Inn Hannover near the main railway station by Perial: The purchase price was around EUR 27 million. The seller of the property was Bavaria Investments. There is a long-term lease agreement in place with Premier Inn.
5) Sale of the Cari & Selig development project on Tegernsee by developer Planquadrat to die Union Investment: The 125-room holiday hotel is to be launched in March 2023 as part of the Marriott Autograph Collection. An operating company of the Soravia Gruppe will operate the property.
