European hotel investment in 2015 burst through the €20 billion mark for the first time in the history of the asset class, demonstrating the increasing appreciation of hotel real estate as an institutionally-accepted and progressively mainstream investment class across the continent.

Over the past 12 months, the institutional appetite to invest in core real estate has heightened considerably thanks to low interest rates and the associated impact on bond yields, and Middle Eastern investors continue to target luxury assets in capital cities for the preservation of wealth and prestige.

Countries where the hotel landscape is considered to be further along in the cycle, such as Germany, France and the United Kingdom, continue to register mounting deal volumes, attracting significant institutional interest and a growing weight of Asian capital.

At the end of Q3 2015, European hotel investment volumes had risen 42 percent year-on-year, with the sector accounting for