112 LEGGETTFRANCE.COM
Leggett has seen a surge in people looking to
buy hotels in France - indeed we have created
a department specialising in this sector
to Paris after Brexit, for example,
will not only bring 200 jobs
to the French capital, but also
40,000 hotel nights a year. Looking ahead, the Olympics in 2024
are set to lead to a building
boom which will include hotels.
The bounce back is by no
means confined to Paris. Demand for
hotels is increasing
across the country. The resilience
of the hotel sector is due
to strength and variety of both
offer and demand. Demand
comes from a wide range of segments -
domestic and foreign,
luxury and budget, business and
leisure.
The key to France's attractiveness
as a destination is its
cities, which are in the top 25
worldwide for their "work and
play" qualities. Places like Lyon,
Lille, Bordeaux, Marseille and
Nantes are good destinations
for holidays and leisure but also
support a strong business ecosystem. They
are not just weekend destinations and they
are
not business cities that empty
at weekends. They are 7 days
a week trading cities that mix
business and pleasure and truly offer
the best of both worlds.
There are concerns that outside
Paris hotel supply is not keeping
up with demand - experts say
there are not enough new hotels
being built or existing ones being refurbished.
So it would seem a good
time to put money into the
sector as a long-term secure investment.
The Chinese certainly
think so: Jin Jiang International,
listed in Hong Kong but owned
by the city of Shanghai, acquired
Groupe du Louvre and has become
the largest shareholder in
French hotel group Accor, in the
process becoming the world's
fifth-largest hotel group. The
Chinese are not just investing in
a booming sector, but also seeking to cater for
the growing number of
Chinese tourists coming
to Europe. A staggering 31 million are
expected by 2025.
To foreign investors, France
offers diversification, safe euro-denominated
assets, a country in
a phase of political renewal and economic
renaissance.
The same characteristics should
appeal to domestic investors
too.
T
HE HOTEL SECTOR IS
booming in France
and prospects for the
rest of 2018 are extremely
positive. Tourism, which
generates over 7%
of France's national income, is
growing. The government expects 100m visitors
a year by
2020, up from 89 million in
2017 and 83 million in 2016.
Foreign tourists, in particular,
who had stayed away after the
terrorist attacks in Paris in 2015
and in Nice in 2016, have returned.
Across the country, hotel
occupancy rates have risen to
68.2% in 2017, the highest level for
nine years, and revenue
per room has also increased
by 4.5 %. Paris, which suffered
the most from the fall in tourist
numbers after the attacks, has
bounced back. Occupancy rates
have increased by 6% in 2017.
The city has 1,560 hotels open
and 80 in the pipeline. This year,
seven brand new luxury hotels
will open and six will have been
refurbished, appealing to both
business and tourism sectors.
The transfer of the European
Banking Authority from London
LOOKING TO
BUY A HOTEL
IN FRANCE ?
JOIN THE QUEUE !
Graham Downie
has 30 years
experience of
the international
property
market
COMMERCIAL PROPERTY LEGGETT MAGAZINE