In H1, hotel investments rose 469.5%

Investments in hotel developments in the Philippines jumped by over five times during the first half, while hospitality investments in the Asia-Pacific region as a whole hit a record high last year, according to global real estate consultancy firm Cushman & Wakefield.

In a report released last week, Cushman & Wakefield data showed that, as of end-June this year, hotel investments in the country reached $204.16 million, up 469.5 percent from $35.85 million in the first half of 2013.

The investments during the first six months of 2014 already surpassed the previous high of $96.34 million for the entire 2012.

The Philippines’ first-half haul ranked seventh among the 16 Asia-Pacific countries covered by the report.

“Thailand, Indonesia, and to some extent, Philippines [and] Sri Lanka could see more exciting times ahead with some major transactions to be closed,” Akshay Kulkarni, regional director of Cushman & Wakefield’s Hospitality Services for South Asia and Southeast Asia, said in a statement.

The total transaction volume in the Asia-Pacific region’s hospitality investment market climbed to $12.832 billion in 2013, almost a third more than the $9.774 billion posted in 2012.

Last year’s hotel investments in the region were “the highest in the last five years,” Cushman & Wakefield claimed. The bulk of these hospitality investments were poured into China, Singapore and Japan, receiving $2.636 billion, $2.634 billion and $2.610 billion, respectively.

During the first half of this year, the total investment volume of hospitality assets rose by almost a tenth to $5.203 billion from $4.751 billion last year. The top destinations of new hotel investments during the six-month period were China (with $1.679-billion worth), Japan ($881.74 million) and Australia ($654.27 million).

But for the entire 2014, Cushman & Wakefield expects the hospitality investment market to taper, ending the year with about $9 to $10 billion in transactions.