High asking prices hampering hotel transactions

More than 75 hotel properties are currently for sale at popular tourist destinations around Greece, but property market professionals say they are proving rather difficult to shift due to the sellers’ increased demands, which are discouraging potential buyers.

According to a recent analysis by Arbitrage Real Estate, more than 50 of these hotels are operating and the asking prices are above the average price of units of similar standards. There are also over 25 vacant hotel properties that are for sale.

Another 140 hotel properties, of a total value of some 282 million euros, are estimated to be in the bad-loan portfolios sold last year to investment groups such as Apollo Global Management, PIMCO and Bain Capital. Gradually those properties will also come up for sale in the market, either individually or as hotel portfolios.

Analysts say that “the active management of the above properties by foreign investors could generate more opportunities for the entry of new Greek and foreign investment entities, which would in turn contribute toward the gradual reform of the ownership and management status of the local hotel industry.”