Real estate investment is still very active in the Barcelona hotel market. La Llave de Oro, one of the main Catalan real estate developers, has just closed the purchase of its second establishment in the city. This is the Hotel Ciutat Barcelona, ??in Ciutat Vella, which until now was owned by the Ciutat Hotels group. Market sources indicate that the operation has been agreed at 29 million euros.
With this acquisition, the Marsà family company follows in the footsteps of other Catalan real estate developers, such as Núñez i Navarro and Vertix, and reinforces its property business in the hotel segment. It is not the first step of the Golden Key in this real estate market. The company debuted more than a decade ago with the purchase of the Andante hotel, a three-star establishment on Drassanes Avenue.
The Ciutat Barcelona, ??which is located at number 33-35 Calle Princesa, is a three-star establishment with 79 rooms. The building has parking and a terrace with a swimming pool. After the sale of the establishment, Ciutat Hotels maintains an offer with tourist apartments in Barcelona and two hotels in Granollers and Mollet del Vallès.
The Golden Key, which assumes direct management of the establishment, has acquired both ownership of the property and the management company. The promoter’s plans include subrogating the entire staff and maintaining activity in the coming months to take advantage of the good forecasts for the tourist season. Later, the real estate developer will study a possible reform to reposition the asset in a better category.
The sector’s forecast is to maintain and even increase the good evolution of the last two years, years in which record prices and good occupancy rates have been set. In fact, the main hotel companies based in Barcelona have already managed to exceed pre-pandemic figures with new billing peaks.
Hotel investment was the main protagonist of the real estate market last year, marked by the slowdown of large investors due to the rise in interest rates. The volume transacted in Barcelona in this segment reached a total of 518 million euros, according to CBRE. The volume was marked by two large operations, the sale of the Mandarin Oriental, for more than 200 million, and the Sofia hotel, for 180 million.