Voice of the Region: Hotels special – south coast leads recovery

LISTEN Investor demand for hotels in the tourist hotspots and national parks of the south coast sparked a recovery in the transactional hotel market, which has now returned to pre-Covid levels of activity, according to Ed Bellfield, regional director of hospitality south at Christie & Co.

Christie & Co comfortably leads in the Radius On Demand Rankings for investment sales in the hotel and leisure sector, with almost £70m of sales across 43 deals for the UK as a whole. It also leads the investment rankings in both the South West and South East.

Bellfield said the transactional market for hotels ground to a halt in mid-2020. Recovery came first to the tourist destinations on the south coast, where visitor numbers were bolstered by city dwellers looking to escape their urban environments. It then spread to the larger towns and cities. He also said there is a healthy development pipeline for new hotels, with environmental performance now a critical factor.