Spain has overtaken the United Kingdom and has become the favorite destination for European hotel investors following several contracts forged in that country, according to data from a survey released this Sunday by the British newspaper Financial Times (FT).
The United Kingdom has fallen to second place after occupying the top spot in the 2024 survey conducted by the real estate services firm CBRE, which also places Italy, France, and Greece among the top five destinations to invest capital this year.
The survey was conducted among more than 60 investors, including hotel owners, developers, and private funds.
“Spain is thriving due to record numbers in tourism and strong operational performance of hotel operators,” said CBRE’s Head of Hotels for Europe, Kenneth Hatton, to the FT.
He adds that “investors see the opportunity in Spain, both on the coast and in urban areas”.
The positive mood within the hotel sector has sparked a return to contracts after the pandemic and finds that more than two-thirds of investors planned to allocate more capital to contracts in that industry due to good commercial performance and the expectation that loan conditions will improve if interest rates decrease.
The findings of CBRE follow a series of major transactions processed in Spain last year, where the total investments amounted to 4.1 billion euros, 30% higher than the previous year and 70% higher than in 2019.
Among these agreements is, for example, the purchase of 17 hotels in Spain from the Real Estate Equity Fund by sovereign wealth funds from Abu Dhabi.
The FT points to a record of 85.1 million foreign visitors in 2013 in that country, 19 percent more than in 2022.
The survey also indicates that at the city level, London maintained its top position, but Madrid rose to second place after surpassing Paris, which will host the Olympics this summer.
