Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels confirmed today that transaction volume across the Americas increased five-fold, reaching close to $12 billion in 2010.

According to its report, Americas Hotel Investment Highlights, the industry's solid recovery in hotel transaction volumes is marking some historic and new trends in deals.
 
"Hotel investment is back," said Arthur Adler, managing director and CEO-Americas for Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels. "Improving fundamentals, the breadth of equity capital and easing debt levels are generating further optimism. We expect deal volume to total at least $13 billion in 2011 in the Americas."
 
Many of the key deal indicators and averages are on the rise. For example, portfolio transactions, which were largely absent in 2009, started to resurface in 2010, accounting for 27 percent of investment volume during the course of the year. The average transaction size of single-asset transactions increased from $30.3 million in 2009 to $51.0 million in 2010. Concurrently, the average price per key for single-asset trades jumped from $129,500 to $194,000 due to the preponderance of transactions occurring in major urban markets.
 
The re-awakening of hotel debt capital markets is also influencing the rebound of hotel real estate deals. Now re-entering the market in search of yield, the pool of prospective lenders has widened to include CMBS lenders, as well as insurance companies, foreign and domestic banks, and alternative lenders. The increase of active lenders has compressed spreads and improved structure and terms.
 
Lenders are sizing loans using debt yields between nine percent and 13 percent, or DSCRs between 1.20x to 1.50x.