Asia Pacific hotel transactions are seeing a boom, with sales expected to be around US$3.7 billion (S$5.2 billion) – or 29 percent of global sales – in 2010, according to Jones Lang LaSalle.
It said that transaction volume is estimated to reach US$12.8 billion (S$18.1 billion) this year.
Asia Pacific even surpassed the Americas by around 46 percent with total sales volume of US$3.2 billion (S$4.5 billion) for the first time ever in 2009, said JLL.
According to a sentiment survey by the company, Asia Pacific investors’ expectations on hotel performance over the next six months to two years continue to trend upwards.
In terms of market sentiment, investors’ expectations for Sydney and Singapore were the strongest.
Asia has bucked the downward trend during the last two years, growing 22 percent while global sales dropped, JLL added.
The firm said this is due to a higher level of confidence in the region, and an overall stronger balance sheet for investors during the downturn as well.
Mid-scale and budget hotel segments are starting to capture the interest of Asia Pacific investors, said JLL.
The company believes that, going forward; investors will see these assets as having the ability to deliver important returns in a market, which is under-supplied across most of the region.