Thursday, 17 September 2026
Nordic hotels recorded a strong summer tourism season in 2026, with international visitors supporting performance across several major cities, while the investment market continued to face a more difficult environment shaped by financing conditions and differences between buyer and seller expectations.
Hotel transactions across the Nordic region reached €751 million between January and August 2026, involving 22 deals above €5 million. On the surface, investment volume was 54% lower than during the corresponding period of 2025. However, the comparison is heavily affected by CapMan’s large Midstar portfolio acquisition last year. Excluding that transaction, this year’s investment volume was around 5% higher than in the comparable period.
Several sizeable transactions continued during a period that normally experiences slower activity. In Copenhagen, AP Ejendomme and CapMan acquired the Crowne Plaza from Niam, while the property occupied by 25hours Hotel Copenhagen had previously changed ownership in March. In Finland, Balder expanded its hotel holdings through the acquisition of Lapland Hotels Arena in Tampere for approximately €40 million after also acquiring Scandic Meilahti in Helsinki earlier in the year.
Pricing conditions differed between the Nordic capitals. CBRE placed the prime yield for leased hotels at 4.70% in Copenhagen, 4.75% in Stockholm, 5.25% in Oslo and 6.00% in Helsinki. Stockholm’s benchmark was 25 basis points lower than a year earlier, Copenhagen was down 10 basis points and Helsinki was unchanged, while Oslo increased by 25 basis points.
Despite the increase in the number of transactions compared with the previous year, liquidity remains constrained. CBRE reports that some potential deals are being delayed or abandoned because buyers and sellers have struggled to agree on pricing. Higher Nordic swap rates and geopolitical uncertainty have added further complexity to investment decisions.
The operating side of the market presented a more positive picture during the summer. Denmark recorded RevPAR growth in three of the four markets covered by the research between May and August. Copenhagen increased 6.6% year-on-year to DKK 1,280, Aalborg rose 6.9% to DKK 509 and Aarhus advanced 1.0% to DKK 731. Odense was the exception, declining 2.0% to DKK 591. Copenhagen’s occupancy increased from 87.4% to 88.2%, while its average daily room rate reached DKK 1,451.
Sweden delivered some of the strongest growth among the markets covered. Stockholm’s RevPAR increased 12.0% to SEK 1,234, followed by Malmö with growth of 7.8% to SEK 932, Gothenburg at 6.1% to SEK 1,109 and Uppsala at 2.2% to SEK 801. International guest nights in Sweden increased 14%, compared with 3% growth from domestic travellers. Stockholm occupancy reached 76.0%, Gothenburg 79.2% and Malmö 82.1%.
Norway produced a more mixed result despite exceptionally strong visitor numbers. July hotel guest nights exceeded four million for the first time since the country’s hotel statistics series began in 1986. Bergen was the strongest major Norwegian city covered by the report, with RevPAR increasing 10.2% to NOK 1,774 between May and August. Stavanger recorded growth of 4.2% to NOK 1,066, while Oslo declined 0.9%, Trondheim fell 7.7% and Tromsø was down 7.2%.
Finland moved in the opposite direction to much of the region. Helsinki RevPAR declined 2.8% to €76, Turku fell 1.5% to €89 and Tampere decreased 4.1% to €76. Rovaniemi was the exception, recording a 14.0% increase to €41. Its improvement came from higher occupancy, which increased from 39% to 45%, while average room rates remained broadly unchanged.
The figures point to an increasingly differentiated Nordic hotel market rather than a uniform regional recovery. International leisure demand and stronger room pricing are supporting several Scandinavian cities, particularly Stockholm, Copenhagen and Bergen, while Finland’s larger urban markets experienced weaker summer performance.
Improving hotel operations have also not yet translated into a broad acceleration of investment activity. The €751 million invested through August was spread across a relatively limited number of transactions, while CBRE describes buyers as selective and reports continuing difficulties in bringing some potential deals to completion. This leaves location, operating performance and the potential to improve individual assets central to investment decisions across the Nordic hotel sector.
