The recovery of the tourism sector this summer in Barcelona, with an occupancy very close to that recorded in 2019, standing at 88%, is linked to the interest it has aroused among real estate investors. According to data from the consulting firm CBRE, Barcelona's hotel sector closed 2023 with an investment of 517.6 million euros, 118% more than the 237 million euros recorded the previous year. Already in the first half of 2023, hotels led real estate investment in the Catalan capital, concentrating 462 million euros out of 1,100 million, more than 40% of the total. "The results of the tourism industry confirm the full hotel recovery," defends the director of Hotels in Iberia at CBRE, Jorge Ruiz.
Although it has been difficult to recover the number of visitors the city receives compared to pre-pandemic figures, the same has not happened with the real estate sector. The investment in hotels achieved in 2023 is the second highest since 2019, only behind the record figures of 2021, when it was 683.7 million euros.
A total of nine properties were transacted in 2023 in the province of Barcelona, six of which were located in its capital and the other three in Sitges. High-category hotels have represented more than 95% of the total invested, a budget that is divided between 13% for 4* hotels, 51% for 5* hotels, and 33% for 5*GL hotels. This dominance also fits with the sector's desire to shift towards high-purchasing-power tourists, a trend reflected in the record figures achieved by establishments last summer in the price per night, with an average amount of 186.6 euros, 36 euros more than in 2019 (+24%); and 9.5 euros more than in 2022 (+5%).
The main operations of the year in Barcelona have been the sales starring the hotels Mandarin Oriental and Sofia de Barcelona. Reig Capital Group, owned by the Andorran businesswoman Maria Reig, sold the establishment on Paseo de Gràcia to the Saudi investment group The Olayan Group, thus culminating its divestment in the hotel sector. The transaction closed for a record amount of 240 million. For its part, the Hotel Sofia de Barcelona was acquired by the Blasson Property Investments fund and the French insurance group Axa, for 180 million.
In 2023, another major hotel operation also took place with the Meliá hotel chain taking over the management of a city asset such as the Hotel Rey Juan Carlos I, which is finalizing its opening as Gran Meliá Torre Melina ---initially it was going to be called Gran Meliá Miranda de Pedralbes--- after an investment of 40 million.
The other public operations that have closed in 2023 in the city are the Hotel Pedralbes, owned by Alting Grupo Inmobiliario which has now been operated by the German Limehome, and the Hotel Gallery, acquired by Meridia, Javier Faus's fund. In Sitges, the REIT Atom sold the Ibersol Antemare hotel to Ibersol itself for ten million euros, and Hotusa has taken over the management of Dolce Sitges, bought by Perial Asset Management for about 75 million euros. It has been renamed Eurostars Sitges.
Although during the first half it concentrated 33% of the transacted volume in all of Spain, for the year as a whole, the investment that has remained in Barcelona represents 13% of the total, behind the Canary Islands, Balearic Islands, Madrid, and Malaga. According to CBRE data, the hotel sector has consolidated as a focus of real estate investment throughout the country, with a total of 4.1 billion euros in 2023. In Barcelona alone, it has been the segment that has dominated real estate investment in the first three quarters, taking away the prominence that offices had had in recent years pending the year-end closing data.
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