Chart of the Day: Hotel room growth predicted at 5.3% in 2014

Is this good news to all?

According to CIMB, in the hotel segment, growth in new rooms in 2014 is forecast at 5.3% (an average of 3,200 rooms per year between 2013 and 2015), still slightly ahead of the expected demand growth of 5%. 

As the new supply of rooms gets digested by the market, a stronger turnaround in the global economy, more events in 2014
compared to 2013 and recovering corporate travel/spending are expected to stabilise RevPAR in 2014 after the weakness witnessed in 2013.

Here's more from CIMB:

As at end-3Q13, about 77% of the total debt taken by S-REITs was fixed rate and only around 10.8% of their total debt will be due for refinancing in 2014, a result of the pre-emptive approach taken by REIT managers to refinance most of their debts in 2013.

In addition, with S-REITs largely borrowing for periods of one to five years, we expect S-REITs to continue to enjoy low interest costs for any new debt taken up over the next 12 months, assuming that the Fed funds rate remains low.

These factors reinforce our belief that rising interest costs will have a minimal impact on the performance of S-REITs in 2014.