One of the largest real estate funds in the world, Brookfield, is launching itself into the hotel market of the Costa del Sol. This Canadian company has appointed the real estate consultancy firm JLL to find a buyer for the Benalma hotel, a four-star property in Benalmádena (Málaga) and for which it is asking around 80 million euros, several sources in the real estate industry confirm.
The Canadian fund, whose real estate manager in Southern Europe is Alberto Nin, acquired this asset in 2022 for just over 40 million from the British manager Benson Elliot, which was then called Palladium Costa del Sol and was managed by the Ibizan company. After the purchase, Brookfield invested in its renovation, changed the name of the accommodation facility near Playa Bonita, in the town of Malaga, and handed over management to Selenta, a brand owned by the North American giant.
Brookfield is one of the largest real estate funds in the world, with a portfolio of real estate assets under management worth approximately 272 billion dollars (approximately 235.6 billion euros, at current exchange rates). In Spain, it has just been involved in one of the most important transactions of the year, selling its student residences platform called Livensa to CPPIB, another Canadian giant, which bought it for 1.2 billion through the operator Nido.
In 2021, Brookfield acquired Selenta, one of the riskiest hotel operations during the pandemic, saving the Catalan company of entrepreneur Jordi Mestre, buying a portfolio of four assets (the Sofía and Expo hotels in Barcelona, the Don Carlos hotel in Marbella and the Mare Nostrum complex in Tenerife) for 440 million euros. It was the most dramatic moment of the pandemic, with all the hotels closed and companies earning huge Ertes and with no prospects of improving the health crisis. Global vaccination and the desire to travel after two years cooped up at home then led to an explosive recovery in tourism and in parallel hotel revenues and profits, which was used by Brookfield to make its investments profitable. It sold the Sofía hotel to Blasson Property Investment and AXA in April 2023 for 180 million euros and sold the Mare Nostrum complex to Spring Hotels for 430 million in June 2025.
The sale of Mare Nostrum has in fact broken a national record, becoming the largest transaction in history for a single hotel asset.
To these four Selenta hotels has been added the accommodation in Benalmádena, now on sale, which has 336 rooms and suites, “Mediterranean style”, according to what we read on the Selenta group website and has two outdoor swimming pools, seven restaurants and bars. Brookfield declined to comment on the Benalma deal.
Only two assets remain of the initial portfolio purchased in 2021 and both are restructured and prepared to be brought to market four and a half years after the acquisition. The Expo hotel in Barcelona, managed by Selenta and which currently carries the Moxy brand, Marriott’s lifestyle brand, and the Don Carlos hotel in Marbella, also managed by Selenta. The 414 rooms of the Expo hotel, near Barcelona’s Sants station, have been completely renovated for a total of 28 million euros and were due to open in October 2024, while the Don Carlos hotel in Marbella reopened last summer after a total 45 million renovation.
The Benalma hotel is one of the trophies left on the Costa del Sol after the record year 2023, in which Malaga concentrated 13% of sales in Spain, with 21 transactions for an amount of 560 million euros. The purchase of 35% of HIPartners (Blackstone) by GIC, the investment arm of Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, which included seven hotels in the province, and the purchase of the Equity Inmuebles portfolio by Adia, the investment arm of Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund, which included two hotels: Meliá Marbella Banús and Sol Guadalmar, contributed decisively to this achievement.
In 2024 the investment was reduced by half (269 million euros), coinciding with the first of one of the large purchase operations of 2022 (Kimpton Los Monteros Marbella). The Swiss fund Stoneweg and Bain Capital bought it for 47 million euros and Stoneweg invested 47 million in the renovation to open it in the summer of 2024 with rates of 500 euros per night. And in the first half of 2025, asset spending on the Costa del Sol fell to historic lows, at just €30 million.
