Valuation expert makes a comeback at Cushman

Cushman & Wakefield has strengthened its hospitality valuation team by bringing Mark Woolfitt back to the company. Woolfitt joins from CBRE, where he has spent the past nine years as a director in the hotels team. Earlier in his career, Woolfitt worked at Cushman & Wakefield for eight years in the valuations and advisory team. Prior to that he held surveyor roles at Lambert Smith Hampton and Avison Young. Woolfitt said: “Hospitality has proved its resilience as a sector, which is reflected in operators’ buoyant trading performance. The sector remains attractive to investors because of the ability to enhance income in a higher-inflation environment, coupled with the long-term prospects of capitalising on structural shifts. “Although the market experienced constrained deal flow last year, I expect to see an uptick in activity in 2024 as refinancing events take place and inflationary pressure subsides.” According to Cushman & Wakefield research, more than £2.4bn of UK real estate was transacted by hotel investors in 2023, covering 149 properties across the UK and representing 14,255 individual rooms. While the annual volume of deals was down compared with 2022, the final quarter of 2023 was 97% up on the same period 12 months earlier, at £745m and £379m respectively. Photo from Cushman & Wakefield