€500m in Prague hotel assets sold in record-setting 2019

Last year was record-setting for Prague when it comes to the volume of sales made in the hotel sector. Deals worth more than €500m were completed, the most ever and two-times the average for the past five years. Cushman & Wakefield writes in a new study that 2019 pushed Prague into the Top 10 in European cities. But it adds that 2020 should be considerably stronger with as much as €1bn in deals in the pipeline. C&W partner Frédéric Le Fichoux says that one reason for the renewed interest in hotels is that they come in a huge variety of sizes and risk profiles. "From variable riskier income, but with relatively high returns, all the way to stable and less risk," he says. But the lack of more traditional investment product is also playing a role. C&W notes that many hotel owners have decided to cash in on the huge rise in values their properties have undergone in recent years. Others are worried about a potential downturn in the economy and have been discouraged by rising operating costs, especially staffing expenses.