Union Investment has sold the Hilton Garden Inn hotel in Innsbruck to the current operator Schiehser Hotels. The buyer will continue to operate the hotel under the Hilton Garden Inn brand in the future. The purchase price was not disclosed but it reportedly sold for €21 million.
The transaction is the latest sign that open-ended real estate funds are becoming a more visible source of hotel deal flow as managers recycle mature assets, boost liquidity and take advantage of renewed demand for hospitality real estate.
The deal also reflects continued investor and operator appetite for hotels. Union said the property's attractive size and Innsbruck's stable demand fundamentals helped create an opportunity to sell the asset to its existing operator after an 11-year holding period.
The Innsbruck hotel has been part of the portfolio of the open-ended real estate fund immofonds 1, which is sold exclusively in Austria. Union has three other open-ended funds targeting different parts of the world.
At the end of 2025, Union managed global real estate fund assets of €50 billion, around ten percent less than at the end of the previous year (€55 billion). The decline in assets under management in the real estate sector is attributable to the downturn in the market for real estate investments by private investors. Union Investment's three commercial open-ended real estate funds recorded a sharp decline in net sales of €2.32 billion over the past twelve months.