€550 million. That is how much, according to CBRE, was invested in Austrian hotel real estate in 2025 — 57% more than the year before, and the third best result in the company’s history of observations. Vienna Marriott, Grand Hotel Wien, 25hours Hotel changed hands one after another, and 2026 began with the sale of Andaz Vienna — one of the assets that came to market after the collapse of the Signa group.
Behind such headlines it is easy to see a gold rush. But behind the big numbers lies a question that news never asks: what of this is available to you personally — and who are you entering the deal with? Hotel real estate is a segment where the difference between a good and a bad partner is measured not by the commission percentage, but by whether your investment will be working at all in five years. Browse our hotel investment listings.
My name is Ganna Buiadzhy. I manage VigoImmobilien — a boutique company specialising in hotel and commercial real estate in Vienna and the DACH region. This article is about how the market looks from the inside: without the gloss of investment reports and without fearmongering.
What lies behind the €550 million
Let us look at the figures soberly. According to CBRE, Vienna just had the best tourist year in its history — over 20 million overnight stays in 2025. And — this is the key point for investors — since 2015 the number of hotel rooms in the city has grown by approximately 27%, while the number of overnight stays in the same period grew by approximately 40%. In other words, demand is growing noticeably faster than supply. Average occupancy holds at around 71%, and congress tourism — thousands of events and millions of overnight stays every year — provides a base even in the quiet months. For comparison, see our current Vienna property price overview Q1 2026.
For investors, this means one structural thing: Vienna is not a seasonal tourist city like Barcelona, where demand exists for three months a year. It is a market that works year-round, with demand that systematically outpaces new construction. Precisely this combination — growing demand plus limited supply — is what makes the segment attractive for capital.
Who is buying these hotels — and why this is no reason to step back
Here reality begins. The biggest deals — Vienna Marriott, Grand Hotel Wien — are sums of one hundred million euros and more. Buyers at this level are international private equity funds, family offices, institutional investors. Market estimates suggest around three quarters of the 2025 volume came from foreign capital, primarily from Germany and Switzerland. Learn more about the Vienna commercial property market in our dedicated section.
But this does not mean there is no room for a private investor. It means something different: in this market you will not find a «hotel in a shop window» the way you find an apartment on a portal. The best properties move quietly, often before they appear publicly, and access to them depends on whose network you are in. This is where a specialist broker provides what a general residential agent cannot: access, understanding of the deal structure, and a filter that screens out problematic assets before you spend any time on them.
Real entry models for a private investor
Speaking honestly — and we always speak honestly — there are three viable routes by which a private or HNWI investor can enter the Vienna hotel market.
First — Serviced Apartments. A hybrid of an apartment and a hotel room: you buy a unit in a complex and an operator manages it on your behalf. The entry threshold here is significantly lower than for a full hotel — from a few hundred thousand euros per unit, depending on the project. Market benchmarks suggest gross yield typically higher than a classic Vorsorgewohnung — but the risk profile is also different: you depend on the operator, the season, the tourist flow. This is the choice for those who want hotel exposure without operational headaches.
Second — Zinshaus with conversion. Due to the shortage of vacant plots in the centre, more and more hotels are being created not from scratch but through the repurposing of existing buildings — offices, retail space, residential buildings. If you own or are buying a rental building in a strong location, conversion into a boutique hotel or Serviced Apartments may be the highest-yielding strategy in the entire portfolio. Read our material on Zinshaus in Vienna and development projects — there are concrete examples there.
Third — direct entry into a hotel property or hotel business: purchase of a building with an operator contract, Pachtvertrag for an operating hotel, or structuring the transaction as an asset or share deal. This is the most complex but also the most powerful instrument — and precisely where we at VigoImmobilien work the most. View hotels for sale in Austria.
Why Vienna specifically
Clients sometimes ask: why Vienna and not Milan, Prague, or Barcelona? Looking at the figures, the answer is obvious. RevPAR — revenue per available room — grows steadily in Vienna, the congress segment maintains occupancy all year, and the city has for years ranked among the top two or three most liveable cities in the world according to Mercer and the Economist. This is not an empty title: it means safety, infrastructure, legal stability — everything that for institutional capital is a prerequisite for investment, not a bonus.
Add to this the factor rarely spoken about openly: the consequences of the Signa bankruptcy. Part of the premium assets of one of Austria’s largest investment groups is gradually coming to market — and this is a rare window that will close as soon as the portfolio is sold off. Such opportunities do not wait for those who are «still thinking».
Complexity is not a reason to refuse — it is a reason to work with a specialist
If a hotel were a simple investment, every wealthy Viennese would already own one. Also consider the tax implications of property transactions in Austria — they differ significantly from the residential sector.
Staff. A hotel is primarily people, and Austria is experiencing an acute shortage of hospitality and catering workers. This directly affects operating costs and which operator can keep the property profitable at all. Assessing this before signing is work that a general agent will not do.
Operational complexity. A hotel is not an apartment you rent out and forget. It is a business with 365-day operations. Even when an operator manages it, you remain the building owner with all its issues — from energy efficiency to fire safety.
Regulation and transaction structure. Vienna actively regulates short-term rentals, and changes in legislation can affect your model. And the transaction itself — Pachtvertrag, operator contract, share deal — is a legal-commercial construction that needs to be read fluently, not taken on trust. My qualification as a Dr. iur. and more than twenty years of experience in law, compliance, and working with HNWI clients enable me to identify risks in transaction structures at an early stage — before they become problems.
Who this is really for — an honest portrait
From our experience, a direct investment in hotel real estate makes sense when three conditions align: capital from seven-figure sums for a whole property (for individual Serviced Apartment units the threshold is lower), a horizon of at least ten years, since cycles here are longer and liquidity lower than in residential real estate, and a readiness either to handle the operational side yourself or to pay an operator to do it. We recommend our comparison of Altbau vs Neubau in Vienna to better understand property type differences.
If the budget is smaller or the horizon shorter — perhaps Vorsorgewohnung or a Zinshaus would suit you better, and we will say that directly. For me it is better for the client to buy what suits their situation than to enter the hotel segment with false expectations.
Why VigoImmobilien
Hotel real estate is not a side activity for us — it is a specialisation. Meet our team of specialists. VigoImmobilien is a boutique company focused precisely on hotel and commercial investments in Vienna and the DACH region, with the confidentiality discipline that institutional partners are accustomed to: no property details before signing an NDA, no names in the public domain.
Our current portfolio includes around 30 hotel properties in Vienna, around ten more in other Austrian regions (Tyrol, Salzburg, Carinthia, Vorarlberg) and several hotels in Germany — from individual Serviced Apartment units to complete five-star properties.
The next step — one conversation
If you are seriously considering the hotel segment — or simply want to understand whether it suits your situation at all — start with a conversation. Contact us — we will assess your starting position free of charge: budget, horizon, risk profile, appropriate entry model — and tell you honestly whether entry makes sense and if so, exactly how. No obligation.
Ganna Buiadzhy — CEO, VigoImmobilien GmbH
Hotel and commercial real estate • Vienna and DACH Region
+43 664 99 8775 99 | [email protected] | vigoimmobilien.at
Market data sources: CBRE Hotelmarktbericht / Austria Investment Figures 2025–2026. The yield figures cited are general market benchmarks, not guaranteed results of any specific investment.
