Hotel Investors in Asia Turn towards Debt Finance

Thursday 7th of May 2020

Hotel Investors in Asia Turn towards Debt Finance

Hotels owners in Asia are looking towards debt financing in order to maintain their cash flows in the pandemic as they face an extraordinary period of historically low occupancy rates, closed borders and severe limitations on air travel, states Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) real estate company in America.

Adam Bury, Executive Vice President of JLL Hotels & Hospitality Group: Through our conversations with owners and lenders across the region, we see concerted efforts to mitigate the potential for loan default, or worse. Many owners are immediately seeking additional credit lines in order to stabilise their businesses and temper the downturn until demand returns. Generally speaking, owners that are the most concerned are those in resort destinations, reliant on a high proportion of international guests.

The company expects debt financing solutions are most likely to be needed in the resort markets of Southeast Asia, including pure tourism destinations such as the Maldives, as well as Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam. However, due to scattered islands, Maldives tourism is also expected to be one of the firsts to recover.