Hotel investment volume declines amid muted hotel performance: CBRE

Asia Pacific ranked second worldwide in terms of international tourism growth, reporting an increase of 6.0 per cent year-on-year. Growth was driven by Korea, which received a total of 8.4 million visitors during the period, representing growth of 16.9 per cent year-on-year.

Within Asean, Vietnam continued to record strong visitor arrivals on the back of strong government support for the tourism sector said CBRE in its latest Asia Pacific Hotels MarketView.

Lighter visa restrictions have helped arrivals grow consistently in recent years, with H1 registering close to 8.5 million visitors, representing growth of 7.5 per cent year-on-year.

Despite healthy visitor growth across Asia Pacific, occupancy stood at around 70.3 per cent for the 12 months ending July 2019, a decline of 0.4 percentage points.

Markets recording occupancy of above 80 per cent for the period included Hong Kong, Tokyo, Sydney, Singapore, Melbourne and Osaka.

Asia Pacific hotel performance weakened in the 12 months leading up to July this year, with RevPAR falling to US$70.54, equivalent to a 3.9 per cent decline over the preceding period.

Singapore continues to be the top performer in Asia Pacific, with RevPAR standing at US$198.41 for the 12 months ending in July. Strong performance was recorded during the period, particularly in July when occupancy rose above 90 per cent for the first time on record amid steady growth in visitor arrivals and shrinking supply.

Bali meanwhile was one of the region's top performers in terms of RevPAR growth for the 12 months ending July. This came after a challenging year with the eruption of Mount Agung and several severe earthquakes in Lombok. RevPAR growth stood at 19.4 per cent year-on-year in H1 2019, mainly driven by the 16.9 per cent year-on-year increase in ADR.

On the investment front, transaction volume registered approximately US$10.9 billion in the 12 months to July 2019, a decline of 23 per cent compared to the same period in 2018.

Yield compression was observed across the region and remained at low levels.

CBRE said it expects this trend to continue for some time due to the large pool of capital seeking opportunities and low interest rates. Asset prices were resilient but could come under downward pressure in the second half of the year.