Savills sells €172m Oslo hotel at record low yield

Savills and its Norwegian associate Heilo Eiendom have sold the Radisson Blu Oslo Airport Hotel for €172 mln (NOK 1.58 bn) to Ole G. Ottersland, an investor based in the coastal town of Arendal in southern Norway.

Savills and Heilo Eiendom were acting on behalf of Avinor, a wholly-owned limited company controlled by the Norwegian Ministry of Transport and Communications, which is responsible for 46 state-owned airports. The sale reflects a record low yield, according to the brokers.

Avinor has owned the full-service hotel at Gardermoen since both the main airport and the hotel opened in 1998. It has been extensively refurbished and features 500 bedrooms plus a restaurant, bar, substantial conference facilities and sports and wellness amenities.

The hotel is currently let to Rezidor Hotels on a 20-year lease with both fixed and variable rents.

'This is one of the largest single asset hotel investment opportunities to be brought to market in Europe in 2015 and it attracted fierce bidding from Norwegian and international investors,' said Rob Stapleton, director of hotels for Savills UK & Europe. 'The sale to Ottersland leaves several investors with capital ready to deploy in to high quality hotel assets across Scandinavia.'

Trond Sejersted Bødtker, partner at Heilo Eiendom, added: 'The high level of interest surrounding the sale of Radisson Blu Oslo Airport Hotel is representative of the increasing demand for Scandinavian hotels in core locations. The attractiveness of the Radisson Blu helped us secure the sale at record low yield, well below other hotel properties sold in the Oslo area over the last year.'

Savills, which announced last week the hiring of George Nicholas as global head of its hotels teams, is also managing the sale of a UK portfolio of regional country house hotels on behalf of Prima Hotels.

Located across Cheshire, South Yorkshire and Leicestershire the portfolio is offered at a guide price of over £18 mln (€25 mln).