Cluttons Launches Hospitality Service Line As The Sector Witnesses Robust Growth Across The Region

 Leading international real estate consultancy, Cluttons has announced a new hospitality service line targeted to individual investors, developers, operators and owners in the Middle East. The service offered is a one-stop-shop, where the hospitality team provides clients with strategic advice at every stage of the asset lifecycle, including acquisitions advisory, project appraisal and realization, operational excellence and asset management, as well as, asset disposal advisory.

Commenting on the new service, Richard Paul, Head of Professional Services & Consultancy, Middle East, said: “At Cluttons, we continue to build our capabilities across multiple service lines in the Middle East region. We have always been involved in the hospitality sector and are now in a position to build out our team and offer clients a full complement of hospitality services. The sector continues to be one of the top performing in the region’s real estate landscape, and we are keen to offer our clients related services based on the opportunities that exist due to this growth.”

Across the region, Cluttons has noted buoyancy in the sector as Middle East economies embark on a path of diversification. Occupancy levels have been improving across the GCC, according to Cluttons, despite growth in the number of rooms. Elsewhere in the region, Saudi Arabia dominates the hotel room pipeline, with almost 71,000 keys under development, followed by 202 properties, followed by the UAE with nearly 55,000 rooms under construction.

In Dubai, the hospitality sector is the one segment that stands out due to its robust expansion and positive outlook. According to Cluttons’ latest Dubai Spring 2018 Property Market Outlook report, during 2017, the city saw ten new hotel properties added, taking the total number of rooms up by 4,854 to a total of 82,733. Overall occupancy levels have also improved, reaching an average of 78% last year; up from 76% in 2016.Faisal Durrani, Head of Research at Cluttons, said: “The emirate appears well on track to meeting its vision of hosting 20 million tourists by 2020, with the Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing reporting a 6.2% increase in the number of visitors last year, pushing the total to 15.8 million. In order to accommodate the projected influx, it is not surprising to see the hotel development pipeline continuing to swell, with Downtown Dubai, Business Bay and the Palm Jumeirah remaining key locations for new hotel properties.

“We do expect that occupancy levels will be sustained as the city continues its aggressive drive to deliver enhanced tourism infrastructure, which is materialising in the form of new theme parks, world class hotel resorts and iconic attractions, such as the recently announced QE2 hotel,” Durrani added.