EDINBURGH is the top “hot spot” for hotel investment and development in the UK, having moved up four places in the table, a key survey has revealed.
Glasgow is ranked 10th among the hot spots in the survey by real estate services company Colliers International. The survey analyses 34 UK locations, using nine indicators. Manchester has fallen out of the top 10.
Colliers said Edinburgh had ranked top of the table because of a number of factors, including the fact the Scottish capital had recorded the highest occupancy out of the 34 cities in the study, at 83.7 per cent.
The commercial property services company also cited “benefits from strong growth” in revenue per available room (revpar), which was last year up by 12.5% on 2016. It also noted “strong buyer interest” in the Edinburgh hotel market.
The nine indicators used for each city include economic output per head on the gross value-added measure, hotel build costs per square metre, and land site prices. The indicators also include the active pipeline of new hotel rooms due to come on stream in 2018 and 2019 as a percentage of overall supply, market appetite, valuation exit yields, occupancy, the average daily rate for rooms, and a four-year revpar trend.
Colliers noted Edinburgh had had a “four-year upward revpar trend”.
Edinburgh is followed by Bath and then Belfast in the hot spots table. London is in eighth position.
Alistair Letham, a director in the UK hotels agency team at Colliers International in Scotland, said: “Apart from London, Edinburgh is the most popular city for visitors in the UK. It is therefore of little surprise that this is also reflected in the popularity of Edinburgh as [a] ‘hot spot’ for hotel development.”
He added: “This is further augmented by Edinburgh’s role as an important commercial, financial and political centre, which helps drive demand. The continuing growth in passenger numbers at Edinburgh Airport, alongside the ongoing worldwide popularity of Edinburgh as a ‘festival city’, is a further indicator of its strength.”
Edinburgh had the third-highest average daily rate for hotel rooms of the 34 cities surveyed, at £103. London was highest, at £149, with Bath on £122.
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