Optimism in hospitality sector
16 Apr 2022
The hospitality sector has been in the doldrums for the past two years but with the reopening of borders, nearly half of the respondents in a survey say the disruption will likely end this year.
Interestingly, 64% of the respondents to a survey by Knight Frank are also considering increasing their exposure to the Malaysian hotel sector.
This is a sharp rise compared with 36% back in 2020.
Investment in hotels, across Malaysia, fell from a 2017 high of RM2.2bil to just RM556mil in 2020 and RM177mil in 2021.
The hotels have conservative levels of gearing. The survey shows that 43% have less than 49% loan to value ratio whilst 17% have no debt at all.
On the whole, hotel owners with conservative gearing have managed to weather the pandemic storm and have not had to sell at fire sale prices, according to the Malaysian hospitality investment intentions survey report by Knight Frank.
A total of 74% of respondents experienced an increase in their occupancy rates in the last three months of 2021 and further increases can be expected with the easing of travel restrictions.
A total of 77% of the respondents to the survey are from Malaysia, followed by those from other South-East Asian countries (15%) ) and the remainder from other parts of the world.
Source: The Star
