Big Beasts Make Hay From UK Staycation Real Estate

Some of the world’s biggest real estate owners have seen big jumps in the profits from their UK hospitality assets, and debt markets are willing to extend huge loans to the sector. 

Center Parcs, the UK holiday village company owned by Brookfield, this week revealed increased earnings and almost full occupancy in quarterly results. 

And earlier this month, Blackstone completed a £2.9B debt package for its Haven holiday parks business, which implies a huge increase in the value of the company since its 2021 acquisition. 

Center Parcs said that UK earnings before interest, depreciation, taxes and amortisation rose 7.5% to £60.5M in the 12 weeks to 17 July, the first quarter of its financial year. That was from revenue of £147M, which was up 8.3% on the same period last year.

Occupancy of its five UK villages was 98.5%, up from 97.4% in the same period in 2024. Its average daily rate rose 6.7% to £233, and its revenue per available lodge rose 7.8%. 

The value of the company’s property was £1.5B, the results showed. While the performance of Center Parcs has remained robust despite inflation and a cost of living crisis, Brookfield has had its eye on selling the business for years. 

It bought Center Parcs through one of its opportunity funds for £2.4B in 2015 and attempted to sell it for £4B in 2023, but the rise in interest rates scuppered any deal. 

Blackstone bought Bourne Leisure, which owned the Haven, Butlin's and Warner Hotels businesses, for £3B in 2021. It raised about £600M from the sale of Butlin's in 2022, and in early August it completed a refinancing of the Haven business’s 39 holiday villages that valued the company at £3.9B.

The new debt package included a £1.5B securitised loan, another loan of £974M and a £339M capital expenditure loan.