Scottish hotel investment soars by 60%

by XPRESS, 22 January 2018

Investment in Scottish hotels reached £195m in 2017, a 60 per cent increase on total investment volumes recorded in the previous year.

According to figures from Savills, all of Scotland's cities recorded increases last year, with Edinburgh leading the way.

Key deals among the 23 recorded include the sale of the Scotsman Hotel in Edinburgh to Stefan King's G1 Group, and the £33.3m deal for the Premier Inn St Enoch Square in Glasgow.

The highest volume of investment was in the capital as Edinburgh accounted for 64 per cent, or more than £117m, of the total. That was a 58 per cent increase on 2016.

As a result, Edinburgh has displaced both Birmingham and Liverpool to become the second-largest target city outside of London.

Investment into Glasgow more than doubled last year to £35.8m, while Dundee and Aberdeen both saw “encouraging” year-on-year investment increases to £5.5m and £5.7m respectively.

Overseas investors dominated 2017 transactions in terms of buyer type, accounting got £57.4m of all deals. That was more than seven times larger than the level of international investment the previous year.

US investors took the lion's share of activity, followed by those from India, Singapore and Hong Kong.

“2017 marked a year whereby the operational and investor sentiment of hotels were both at strong points in the cycle,” Savills associate Steven Fyfe said.

Article Credit: insider.co.uk