Nama hotel sales to increase

NAMA is expected to pick up the pace of Irish hotel sales in the coming 18 months — so far, it has sold just 19 of the 136 in its control, and so has 117 left to sell, a conference organised by the Irish Hotel Federation heard this week.

In a stark day of number crunching for the sector which is striving to emerge from crushing debt, Aiden Murphy, partner in accountancy firm Crow Horwarth, said 240 Irish hotels were in financial difficulty, with 69 in receivership and a number would have to be sold consensually or otherwise, or refinanced.

About 12% of the country’s c 950-plus hotels are in Nama, and of the 117 left to sell by the agency, just 16 are no longer trading, according to Nama, which was represented by its hotels specialist Patrick Ryan. Fourteen of the 19 sold so far are in Dublin, where hotel business recovery has been most marked to date.