Hotel investment volume in Austria cracks the billion mark for the first time – EuropaProperty

For the first time in history, the hotel transaction volume in Austria reached 1 billion Euro. This above-average result was already apparent in the first half of the year, as the hotel property specialist Christie & Co announced in a press release in July. The half-year result amounted to a total volume of Euro 360 million and was thus above the average of recent years.

“It’s been eventful months lately. Shortly after we published our half-year report, several other transactions were announced or concluded, including the sale of the Hilton Hotel Vienna am Stadtpark, which, as the largest single transaction, had a significant impact on volume,” explains Simon Kronberger, Associate Director at Christie & Co.

According to Christie & Co’s records, there have been more than 10 other hotel transactions across Austria since July 2019, with a general focus on Vienna. These included the already mentioned Hilton Hotel Vienna am Stadtpark, which is currently the largest hotel in Vienna with 579 rooms. It was sold by Invester United Benefits to a South Korean consortium for  Euro 334 million, representing a good third of the total transaction volume. Other transactions in Vienna included the Austria Trend Hotel Ananas (the second largest hotel in the city with 539 rooms), which was sold by Estrella Immobilien AG to Wertinvest. Also in August, the Radisson Blu Park Royal Palace Vienna found a new owner with 233 rooms. In addition, 2 forward deals were registered in which developments were already sold to final investors during the construction phase. These included a long-stay product “SMARTments” in the Muthgasse built by the project developers Strabag AG and GBI AG, which was sold to Catella Real Estate AG.

Even though hotels in the federal states have changed hands, the lion’s share of the 2019 transaction volume has so far clearly been contributing deals in Vienna.

“We will see what the last quarter of this impressive hotel investment year has to offer. Christie & Co alone is currently marketing 10 hotels with attractive returns of between 4 percent-4.5 percent in Vienna, so a further increase is to be expected,” Kronberger concludes.