The hotel sector in Asia Pacific showed its strength in the second quarter of this year with total investments of US$5 billion, according to real estate firm CBRE. The strength was part of a growing amount of turnover in Asia's property sector as a whole, which rose 12 percent quarter-on-quarter to US$21 billion.
The figures are somewhat deceptive. Although turnover rose in Q2 from Q1, investment this year is down a significant 21 percent from a much stronger 2014.
Other metrics have been better. Cross-border transactions have increased 31 percent from the second quarter in 2014 to US$7 billion for real estate investments as a whole.
In the hospitality space, assets in Japan and Australia were in particularly sought after, in no small measure due to strong tourist spending in both markets. The depreciation of both the Australian dollar and the Japanese yen likely also helped attract investment.
Large institutional investors led the pack in terms of cross-border M&A, particularly sovereign wealth funds from the Middle East.