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Boom of hotels for auction in Central Italy
06 February, Geometra.info
The number of hotels for auction in Italy has decreased by 5.8% over the course of six months. In fact, the number of procedures concerning hotels, bed & breakfast, motels, campings and related facilities has gone from 121 to 114 as reported in July 2018. This is the first reduction in a row. Hence, the sector is moving in the opposite direction of the residential one, which reported a sharp increase. Looking at the geographical distribution, however, the trend varies according to the macro-regions. Northern Italy is substantially steady (41 properties in comparison with the 40 of six months ago), the South has markedly decreased (procedures have halved, going from 46 to 23 over six months, islands included), while the Centre reported the number of hotels for auctions has spiked, having gone from 35 to 50, resulting in a 42.9%.
Hotels for sale in Tuscany
Tuscany confirms to the Italian region with the highest number of hotels for sale with 35 properties (the figure has almost doubled since the last survey), followed by Trentino-Alto Adige (14, 10 of which in Trento), (12), Sardinia (8) and Emilia-Romagna (8, all located in the province of Rimini). Basilicata, Calabria and Umbria are at the bottom of the chart with no properties for auction at present. Concerning the provinces, there are Arezzo and Grosseto with 9 hotels, 7 for Frosinone, 6 for Pisa and Pistoia, and 5 for Nuoro.
Once again, this trend has mostly impacted small businesses: 59.7% of the hotels for auction has a starting auction price below one million euro. At the same time, the share of luxury hotels has reduced, having gone from 27 to 11, currently representing 9.7% of the total. This might also be interpreted as those who could afford to invest in larger facilities have already done so, as prices were definitely interesting after having been stuck in auction procedures for a long time.
The analysis by Sogea
Sandro Simoncini, head of Sogea research centre, explains: “The additional decrease in the number of hotels for auction is encouraging, although the time it takes to sell auctioned properties is not comparable to the present economic and financial scenarios, as this type of transactions originates from a problematic situation previously arisen. The south of the country continues reporting a positive trend, also considering that in many parts of the region, tourism is the main, if not the only, occupational resource. Banks are more cautious when dealing with borrowers in difficulties, and this helps to have more transparency in the historically most fragile regions of the country. The figures reported by the centre of Italy is worrying, with Tuscany at the top of the chart. In the region, procedures have doubled, and they represent now a third of the total.
From an investor point of view, on the other hand, the number of properties available on the market allows obtaining very interesting deals. Buyers should always make sure whether the management activity is included in the sale of the property, or whether it is possible to make an offer just of one asset of said property. Moreover, it’s important to establish which constraints and encumbrances will be cancelled and which will have to be covered by the buyer, to assess the effective time availability of the property, to acquire information concerning the surrounding environment, to be informed of the possible arrears and taxes”.
Source: Geometra.info
Translator: Cristina Ambrosi