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Athens is the commercial and financial centre of Greece, situated in Attica on the southern tip of the Greek mainland. Given its rich history, monuments and buildings, the city naturally attracts the leisure segment, but it also attracts a substantial corporate market owing to its many government institutions. Athens has a somewhat broad seasonality whereby the strongest periods are spring and autumn, owing to business- and conference-related demand. The summer months are less busy as people travel to the country’s island destinations, and winter is a very low demand period.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Greek economy had been continuing its recovery and experienced more than three years of expansion. In 2020, according to the International Monetary Fund, the Greek economy contracted by more than 9.0% owing to the pandemic, which affected the country’s tourism industry, given the weight of the tourism sector in Greece’s economy. However, the country’s economy started recovering in 2021 and continued into 2022, experiencing 8.3% and 5.2% GDP growth, respectively, and it is expected to expand at a more subtle pace from 2023 onwards, fostered also by the continuing recovery of its tourism industry.

Athens had also been on a post-Grexit recovery path in the years pre-pandemic: between 2014 and 2019, Athens’ RevPAR grew at a compound annual rate of 7.0%, mainly driven by rate increases, until the global setback in 2020. Visitation to the city showed a very positive trend, with total traffic at Athens International Airport reaching more than 25 million passengers in 2019, up 6.0% from 2018, thanks to robust growth in international passenger movements. Athens was in the top 15 European destinations of 2019, according to the results of the eighth European Best Destinations (EBD) online competition. Performance in 2020 contracted significantly on the back of the pandemic. 2021 saw the start of recovery, with some RevPAR improvements. In 2022, hotel demand recovered to around 75% of the pre-pandemic volumes, while double-digit rate growth led to RevPAR almost returning to pre-pandemic levels in nominal terms.

The Athens hotel pipeline consists of nine projects, which are expected to increase the current hotel room supply by 7%, bringing around 1,300 additional rooms to the market. Part of the future supply includes three upscale hotels from the same operator, Brown Hotels Group: the 42-room House Sans Rival by Brown Hotels (opening in May 2023), the 43-room Brown Hotel Domino Athens (June 2023) and the 63-room Brown Hotels (September 2023). Other openings include the 75-room Graphe Autograph Collection Hotel (set to open in January 2024), the 117-room Pentelikon Athens Curio Collection by Hilton (June 2025) and the 129-room ibis budget Athens (March 2026). Three remaining independent hotels (the 500-room Inspire Athens, the 100-room Piraeus Port Hotel and the 200-room Sokratous Street Hotel) are in the planning phase, with no opening dates announced as yet.

Although the Athenian market remained relatively illiquid in terms of existing hotels changing hands, investment activity surged from 2018-22, with dozens of buyouts of standalone buildings recorded. The transactions mostly pertained to abandoned hotels or offices which were in the process of being remodelled and converted into fresh lodging properties. The most recent hotel transaction in Athens recorded the sale of the 124-room Oscar Hotel in March 2022, which was sold for approximately €5.5 million (or €44,000 per room) by Indotek Group.

Overall, our HVI analysis indicates a value increase of 7.6% per key in Athens in 2022 compared to 2021 – values per room remain 4% below the 2019 values for this market. Interest in the market remains very strong, as low brand penetration and a relatively tired stock present multiple investment opportunities in a market which, compared to other European gateway cities, is not yet fully priced. This could drive above-average value growth for this market over the next few years.

ADR, Demand, Occupancy, RevPAR, and Supply Projections:

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Market Supply Growth

Change In Value For Market: (€Euro)

Athens RevPAR Change (€Euro)

Athens RevPAR (€Euro)

For more information, please contact:

Sophie Perret, MRICS, MBA Managing Director [email protected] +44 0 2078787722 (w) +44 0 7725781037 (m)