Lodging Asset Sales Show Slight Rise in Q2

LONDON-Hotel sales worldwide rose by 3% in Q2, marking the first increase after five consecutive quarters of declines, reports Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels. Is this a sign that more lodging assets will trade hands in the coming months?

Maybe, says Arthur de Haast, global CEO of JLL Hotels. “It’s a very modest rise,” he admits, “and we’re not sure it’s a strong trend yet. But it is an indication that the gap between buyers and sellers is perhaps just beginning to close now.”

Yet when measured on a year-over-year basis, first-half transactions amounted to $3.7 billion worldwide, a 78% drop from the first six months of 2008. Dissecting deal volume by region, the EMEA zone—Europe, Middle East and Africa—saw the most activity, with a transaction tally of $1.9 billion in the first half. Nevertheless, that represents a decline of 76% when compared to the same period in ’08. Next up is the Americas, which registered a precipitous drop in transactions, sinking 86% to $1 billion. Asia Pacific hotel trading activity showed a more moderate decline, comparatively, of 55%, to $900 million.

de Haast explains that the EMEA region is more diverse with individual countries performing at varying levels. For example, Ireland and the UK are experiencing similar problems as the US, whereas France and Italy are not witnessing as a severe constriction in debt. “Also, you tend to have hotels in Continental Europe, especially in German and France, that are leased,” de Haast states. “That means a relatively secure income and that is attracting institutional investors.”

Across all regions, larger-scale deals are more difficult to consummate due to the inability of potential buyers to obtain debt. Globally, just 13 transactions priced above $100 million traded in the first half versus 34 during the same period last year.”With the relatively low amount of leverage available at the moment—50% to 60%, especially on the bigger deals—a buyer must write a very big equity check,” de Haast maintains. “There are not many investors who can do that, and even those that can are reluctant to put that all into one deal because they are very risk averse now. Everybody is tending to focus on smaller transactions rather than portfolios.”