While 2025 isn't likely to go down in the history books as a great year for hotel transactions broadly speaking, Singapore-based City Developments Limited has continued to make deals.
Speaking on the latest episode of the CoStar News Hotels podcast, David Ling, CDL's global head of hospitality investments and asset management, discussed how his company was able to pull off two marquee hotel deals in just the previous two months: The £280 million ($376.8 million) purchase of the Holiday Inn London — Kensington High Street and the 14 billion yen ($89.2 million) sale of the Bespoke Hotel Osaka Shinsaibashi.
While CDL is typically a long-term holder of assets, Ling noted it's hard to resist an opportunity to sell when offered nearly double what you acquired a hotel for just two years earlier.
"It was not our intention to sell the Bespoke Osaka Shinsaibashi," he said. "I [wouldn't] dream of selling it within two years, but someone walked in with a big check."
CDL bought the Bespoke property in Japan for 8.5 billion yen in August 2023 before announcing the 14 billion yen sale to Blackstone in November.
Ling mentioned how that deal is a sign of the continued interest in Japan both for travelers and investors, even as tensions rise with China and the government cautions travelers to not go to Japan.
"Both Osaka and Tokyo [are], in fact, still very strong," he said. "Toyko is in the mid 80s (for occupancy). Osaka is in the high 80s. We haven't seen much impact from the travel restriction from mainland China. I suppose it's such a popular destination, so Japan hasn't really felt it."
STR's Jesper Palmqvist also joined the podcast and noted many Southeast Asian resort markets aren't nearly as resilient when large source markets fall off. He noted there are some interesting trends in Thailand, in particular, even though the previous months was overall "pretty positive" after a stretch of soft demand.
"Source market is so critical to these Southeast Asian resort markets," he said. "And it was such a telling example when you compare Krabi, Phuket, Samui and those markets."
For more from CDL's Ling and STR's Palmqvist, listen to the podcast episode embedded above.