London hotel investment volumes reaches £2.6bn in 2018

Hotels in London attracted £2.6bn of investment in 2018, up 17% on 2017 according to international real estate advisor Savills.

The capital represented a 39% portion of total UK hotel investment volumes which hit £6.6bn last year. Deal count for London hotels reached 39 in 2018, comprised of 33 individual and six components of portfolio deals.

Price per key in the city averaged £415,000 last year with highest price reaching £1.8m notes Savills. All of the top 10 values per key in the UK were achieved in London with eight of the top 10 individual transactions (by value) taking place in the city. Single asset transactions accounted for £1.64bn of the market, with an average deal size of £51m.

Key London deals included the acquisition of The Hilton London Kensington for £261.5m by the Cola Holdings and the sale of the Beaumont by Grosvenor to the Barclay Brothers, RIU Hotels acquired 1 Neathouse Place next to Victoria station with the vision to open a 350 bedroom hotel in 2020.

Gary Witham, director in the Savills Hotels team, said: “London remains one of the global leading cities and is top of the list for investors looking to Europe as a whole. The strength of the tourist and corporate markets continues to drive successful trading even with increased cost pressure. The safe haven of the UK legal system also attracts money from political turmoil from around the world.”