Lacalle: ‘I Am Afraid of a New Housing Bubble’

20/10/2014 – Expansion

The president of real estate exhibition Barcelona Meeting Point (BMP), Enrique Lacalle, celebrates return of foreign property investors and highlights that all companies that disappeared five years ago have now ‘jumped back in as Spain became fashionable’. But he also calls for prudence: ‘I am alarmed at the possibility of relapsing’.

Lacalle, well experienced in the real estate sector, recommends ‘learning from the past mistakes’. To begin with, the international investors came back focused on very specific type of properties, namely from ‘the prime group’. But as this kind of units for sale fall short, ‘they are buying properties which are not necessarily good at pretty high prices’. ‘It is just a feeling, nothing scientific, but I am afraid that a new housing bubble might occur’, the president admits.

‘I am truly pleased with the return of the international investors, I simply ask for cautiousness at the product choice and for great advising job from Spanish realtors as we should avoid the same mistakes as we have committed the last time’, he clarifies.

Likewise, he calls for ‘not listing properties which might leave a bad taste afterwards’.

The BMP, held from 29th of October to 2nd of November in Barcelona, has been already noted down in agendas of many large foreign investment groups.

Lacalle says that even though the Russian and the Chinese are gaining ground in real estate sales in Spain, predominant buyers come from the European countries.

This year, the Barcelona Meeting Point event will host 265 exhibitors having their stands on a 20.000 square meter area. ‘Really important transactions will be sealed during the subsequent Barcelona Funds Meeting‘, informed Mr. Lacalle.

Asked about his opinion on the Catalonian independence movement, Mr. Lacalle replies: ‘they are not serious on that, if they were, they would not come up’.

 

Original article: Expansión (by Marisa Ángles)

Translation: AURA REE