Knight Frank grows hotels team as it hits £400m of transactions in 2019

Knight Frank, the global property adviser, has expanded its UK Hotels team with the appointment of Kirsty Brannon as an Associate in the Valuations team and Josh Aspland-Robinson as a Surveyor in the Agency team.

Kirsty joins from Santander, where she was a Credit Partner in the Specialist Corporate Credit Team, managing hotel credit applications and ongoing hotel portfolio management, having previously spent two years in the Property Credit Risk Team. Prior to Santander, Kirsty was at Colliers International for nine years working across its Leisure and Hotel Consultancy teams.

Josh Aspland-Robinson moves to the Hotel Agency team having joined Knight Frank as a Surveyor in the Hotel Valuations team last year. During his time in Valuations, Josh has focused on profit capitalisation, working on loan security, viability studies and valuations for specialist and institutional funds, with banks, owners, investors and occupiers predominantly within the UK.

Shaun Roy, Head of Hotels and Specialist Property Investment at Knight Frank said, “The growth of our dedicated Hotels team, which provides valuations, agency and investment advice, will enhance the service we are able to offer our clients at this exciting time in the hotels market. We are pleased to welcome Kirsty to the team and for Josh to be permanently joining the Agency team. These hires underline the depth in Knight Frank’s UK Hotels offer, ensuring we are well positioned to strengthen our market share in the sector.”

The Knight Frank Agency Hotels team completed on over £400m of UK hotel transactions in 2019, including the sale of Fairmont St Andrews Hotel, Cotswold Inns & Hotels’ portfolio, luxury hotel 15 Great Pulteney, and the acquisition of the ground rent of the Como Metropolitan Hotel.

Roy added, “With further clarity provided by the recent election we anticipate more hotel opportunities coming to the market, but the continued demand from investors will outstrip supply and therefore pricing will remain robust. Clients are looking to recycle capital by way of sales so they can refurbish existing assets or look to develop new hotel assets. We do expect to see more open marketing campaigns to take place in 2020 due to increased certainty in the market, however off market transactions will remain prevalent as vendors want to minimise disruption to their businesses.”