JLL Hotels & Hospitality Group today announced that it has advised over JPY1 trillion ($6.8 billion) in hotel transactions in Japan since 2000, reinforcing the perennial demand for hospitality assets in the country and the advantage of on-the-ground advisory expertise.  

JLL reached this milestone through the recent sale of the Smile Hotel Asakusa Tokyo on behalf of an established Singaporean investor. The Smile Hotel Asakusa, featuring 96 guest rooms, occupies a prominent freehold site in Asakusa, a popular destination for overseas travelers.  

Markets like Asakusa are benefitting from the continual growth in inbound visitors, which reached 14.6 million for the year to May 2024, a 6.5% uplift on the same period in 2019 according to Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) data. 

“Despite the Bank of Japan raising interest rates by 15bps, Japanese hotel assets still provide extremely attractive cash-on-cash yields in comparison to other countries. In addition, data tracked by JLL shows the new hotel supply pipeline to be extremely subdued, driven by high construction costs. With demand remaining strong and supply flat, the fundamentals for future RevPAR growth look strong and investors are recognizing this,” commented Charlie Macildowie, Executive Vice President, JLL Hotels & Hospitality Group.  

Off the back of this investor demand, JLL recorded JPY378 billion ($2.58 billion) of hotel transaction volumes for H1 2024, representing a 64% uplift on H1 2023. With several large transactions in the market, including the recently announced sale of Hilton Fukuoka Seahawk to ML Estate, a transaction advised by JLL, JLL is forecasting total transaction volumes of JPY600 billion ($4.1 billion) for 2024. This would represent the most active year for Japan hotel investment on record.     

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