PGIM Real Estate has sold an open-air hospitality portfolio of premium resort-style camp sites in Veneto and Tuscany Italy to Sandaya, one of the leading campsite operator in Europe.
The sale was made on behalf of PGIM Real Estate’s European value-add strategy.
Financial details were not disclosed.
Since 2021, PGIM Real Estate has built its portfolio of premium open-air hospitality sites through strategic acquisitions of existing campsites in central and north east Italy, two leading tourism destinations.
The portfolio consists of three sites in Tuscany and one in Veneto; Europa Camping Village (Veneto), International Camping Etruria, Pianacce Camping Village (Tuscany) and Toscana Bella Camping Village (Tuscany).
Through a dedicated capex programme aiming to increase the overall asset quality and customer experience, the team optimised operational, sales and management processes across the sites, installed new luxury mobile homes and refurbished existing amenities.
Musie Bocrezian, head of Italy at PGIM Real Estate, said: 'Italy is the second biggest open-air hospitality market in Europe. This traditionally family-owned asset class is largely untapped by institutional investors but with the right expertise, there is a huge investment opportunity to transform a granular asset strategy into an institutional platform.
'We maintain a strong conviction in this sector and are currently seeking investment opportunities in Italian open-air hospitality.'
The sale follows the group’s joint venture with Sierra in hospitality, which aims to target sizable hotels in consolidated leisure destinations and deploy to maximise value creation. The first acquisition, in April this year, was a top-tier premium hotel in central Porto.
Nabil Mabed, senior portfolio manager of European value-add strategy added: 'Hospitality in Southern Europe (Italy, Spain and Portugal) has been one of our preferred asset classes since the great reset. In particular, we see a lot of value in some sub-segments of the market such as open-air hospitality in Italy.
'We are very proud of this successful exit for our European Value-add strategy as we have been able to generate a lot of value for our investors in a short period of time during a very challenging market environment. This has been achieved through our ability to source deals off market of granular undermanaged sites, to significantly increase the EBITDA through intensive asset management and to sell an institutional quality portfolio.'
