Hotel sales in 2015 reach $42B worldwide

It seems like Monopoly had it right: it’s all about the hotels.

Global investors poured a whopping $42 billion into hospitality properties in the first half of 2015, with Asian and Middle Eastern buyers providing a major boost, according to JLL’s Hotel & Hospitality group.

That figure represents a 56 percent increase over the same period last year. Over half the total, $24 billion, was invested in hotels in the U.S., a 73 percent increase, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The greatest growth came from investments originating in Asia and the Middle East. Those buyers spent $9.8 billion collectively in the first half of 2015, up from only $2.3 billion last year.

The Chinese insurer Anbang purchased the Waldorf-Astoria earlier this year for almost $2 billion, and China’s Sunshine Insurance Group bought the Baccarat Hotel for $230 million.

Middle Easterners, diversifying their investments in the face of persistently low oil prices, haven’t recorded major New York purchases this year, but in April, the Qatar Investment Authority, a sovereign wealth fund, bought a trio of hotels in London, paying $2 billion in total.

The 2015 activity in the sector still trails the pre-crisis record of $62 billion in the first half of 2007. [WSJ] – Ariel Stulberg