Year: 2015

Outlook 2016: House Prices Will Rise By 7% & Sales By 17%

28 December 2015 – Expansión

(…). According to the XXII edition of the Real Estate Pulsometer published by the Institute of Business Practice (IPE), the outlook for 2016 is promising. Next year, house prices will rise strongly (by 6.6%), sales will increase by 17.2%, construction of new homes will rise by 12.2%, mortgage lending for urban properties will increase by 16% and stock will decrease by 24.7%.

In addition, the report forecasts a gradual recovery in the rental market, a sharp increase in yields on housing and a full-blown recovery in the non-residential sector, which has broken records in 2015 and on course for a positive 2016, with fewer operations but higher prices.

The most tangible indicator of the real estate recovery will be “the increase in the sales of homes, offices, warehouses, retail premises and land (especially urban)”, says José Antonio Pérez, Director of the Real Estate Department at IPE and the author of the report. (…). We expect to see around 820,000 operations closed in total in Spain in 2016, which represents an increase of 8.1% with respect to  2015 and 23.7% more than in 2014.

Increases across all regions

More than half of the properties sold will be homes. Specifically, next year, 481,500 homes will be sold, i.e. 17.2% more than in 2015 and 50.7% more than in 2014, according to the study, prepared using data from the MAR Real Estate network of estate agents and the Network of Qualified Real Estate Advisors, cross-checked against official figures from INE, the Ministry of Development, the registries and the notaries.

Sales are expected to grow by the most in País Vasco (by 26.8%) in 2016, followed by the Balearic Islands (24.5%), Madrid (23.5%) and Cataluña (22%). Only Castilla-La Mancha is expected to experience a decrease next year: operations will decrease by 2.4% in that region, which has the highest volume of stock per capita in Spain.

In other words, the recovery will continue to take place at two speeds, but the differences (between the speeds) will be less marked, in the sense that, although we will see different speeds, improvements will be seen across almost all of Spain.

In the context of more transactions and increased mortgage lending, house prices will increase significantly. On average, by 6.6%. If we also take into account non-residential assets, property prices will increase by 8.17%, on average.

The market for new builds will also be affected. According to the Pulsometer, cranes will return to our cities, albeit gradually. Specifically, construction permits (which indicate future construction activity) will increase from 58,636 in 2014 to 82,682 in 2016. Up by 41% in two years (in 2015, they already increased by 9% YoY). Moreover, construction will begin on 39,000 residential properties in 2016, up by 12.2% compared with 2015 (34,700). (…).

The changes will also help to reduce the stock of unsold new properties. This surplus amounts to 433,583 homes at the end of 2015. In 2016, a quarter of that supply will be used up, taking it down to 326,295 units. That figure represents less than half the number in 2014 (675,945), according to the IPE’s study.

More mortgages

The real driver behind this consolidation in the residential market is financing. Mortgage lending for urban properties (in other words, not only homes, since the report does not break down non-residential financing) will amount to 426,647 (individual mortgages) in 2015, up by 23% compared with 2014. The figure for 2016 will increase again to 494,890, i.e. 16% more than this year. (…). The average mortgage in 2016 (€122,500) will be higher than since 2011 (€124,862). (…).

Original story: Expansión (by Juanma Lamet)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Metrovacesa To Carve Out Property Development Business

28 December 2015 – El Economista

Metrovacesa will hold an extraordinary shareholders meeting on Tuesday (29 December) to approve its division into two companies, so that it can segregate its entire land, development and house sale business, currently controlled by Santander, into a separate company.

This development activity will be transferred into a newly created company, called Metrovacesa Suelo y Promoción, which will take on assets and liabilities with a net value of €1,000 million.

This new company will have the same shareholders, with the same percentage stakes as Metrovacesa’s currently ownership structure. Therefore, in addition to Santander, which will control 72% of Metrovacesa, the other shareholders with be BBVA with a 19.4% stake and Banco Popular, with a 8% stake.

Meanwhile, the current Metrovacesa company will retain the the real estate business, in other words, it will continue to hold the portfolio of properties (with a combined surface area of 1.1 million m2) comprising office buildings, shopping centres and hotels, mainly located in Madrid and Barcelona, which are operated under lease agreements.

This operation to separate the businesses into different companies forms part of the debt restructuring programme that the real estate company is working on ahead of the “significant maturity” of its liabilities, primary linked to the real estate developer business, which fall due in the third quarter of 2016.

The ultimate goal is to capitalise this debt, strengthen the company’s equity and thereby guarantee the future viability and profitability of the two businesses, according to the company’s comments in its carve-out plan.

Segregation process

The division of the current Metrovacesa entity into two companies will take place through a process involving three successive capital increases, which will be approved at the shareholders’ meeting on Tuesday.

The first increase will be non-monetary, but will involve the shareholder banks contributing certain real estate assets to the company. The second increase will involve the capitalisation of the debt held by these entities for conversion into new shares.

Meanwhile, the third increase will be monetary and will be aimed at the minority shareholders who still hold shares representing 0.073% of Metrovacesa’s share capital, so that their stakes are not diluted.

Once these capital increases have been completed, the new Metrovacesa Promoción y Suelo company will proceed make a block acquisition of all of the assets relating to this business from Metrovacesa.

This final carve-out step will be ratified at another extraordinary shareholders’ meeting, scheduled for 12 January, when the board of the new company will also be appointed.

In this way, Metrovacesa is embarking upon a new phase in its history, years after Santander and other banks took control of the real estate company, by foreclosing the debt held by its former owners, and excluded it from the stock exchange.

Original story: El Economista

Translation: Carmel Drake

CBRE: Non-Residential RE Inv’t Exceeds €13,000M In 2015

28 December 2015 – Expansión

The Torre Espacio skyscraper, Gran Vía 32 retail store, the Plenilunio shopping centre and the Hotel Ritz in Madrid are just a few examples of the real estate assets that have changed hands in the last year and which have placed the level of real estate investment in Spain at levels never seen before.

Between January and December, investment in non-residential properties (in other words, in offices, shopping centres, retail premises, hotels, warehouses and logistics centres) amounted to €12,250 million, according to the consultancy CBRE; and 2015 is expected to close with a total volume of €13,000 million, an unprecedented figure in the sector in Spain.

Even though the volume of real estate investment was strong in 2014, with a total of €10,000 million – returning to the pre-crisis figure of 2007 – that amount was surpassed within the first nine months of 2015: between January and September, purchases involving assets worth €10,800 million were closed, up by 57% compared with 2014 and by €600 million compared with 2014 as a whole.

This record figure is explained by the return of international funds to the Spanish market, following their exit when the bubble burst (they have been returning slowly since the end of 2013), as well as the rise in a new type of company: the Socimis.

This type of company emerged in 2009 when legislation was created for the launch of these vehicles, inspired by the American REITs. Nevertheless, it was not until the reform (of that legislation) in 2012, that the first Socimis, which were primary managing family wealth, started to flourish. Two years later, the first large real estate companies debuted on Madrid’s stock exchange and there are now four such listed companies: Merlin Properties, Hispania, Lar España and Axiare. (…).

Indeed, one of these, Merlin Properties, has starred in the largest operation in the sector this year, which, despite being a corporate purchase, is included because of its real estate component: the purchase of Testa, formerly a subsidiary of the construction group Sacyr.

Excluding this acquisition, the sector recorded total investment of €7,621 million during the 9 months to September, after a very active summer (traditionally a period when very few operations are closed).

The largest operations included acquisitions of single assets, such as the Megapark shopping centre in Bilbao, which the Socimi Lar España purchased for €170 million, as well as the purchase of batches of properties, such as the Thunder portfolio, comprising two office complexes in Madrid and Barcelona, acquired by Axa Real Estate; and the purchase of 16 supermarkets leased to Dia and Carrefour by the fund Kennedy Wilson, which paid more than €85 million.

Hotels

Hotels have also experienced a significant boost in terms of investment this year. “In 2014, hotel investment amounted to €1,100 million; this year, we have already exceeded €1,900 million and we expect to close the year with a volume of €2,000 million”, said Mikel Marco-Gardoqui, from CBRE. (…).

The experts at the consultancy firm expect interest from the funds to continue into next year. “We think that investment will amount to around €10,000 million in 2016, although we expect to see fewer operations, because prices are going to increase (…)”, says Heriberto Terual, Director of Corporate Finance at CBRE.

Original story: Expansión (by R. Ruiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Santander Sells €400M NPL Portfolio To Grove

28 December 2015 – Expansión

Santander is cleaning up its balance sheet. Within the last few days, the entity chaired by Ana Botín (pictured above) has completed the transfer of a portfolio of non-performing loans amounting to €400 million to the Grove group, a subsidiary of the US entity Encore.

The operation represents one of the last divestments in the banking sector in 2015 after those signed (in recent weeks) by Bankia, which sold €650 million corporate loans to Deutsche Bank; and by CaixaBank, which sold €800 million doubtful developer loans to TPG and Goldman Sachs.

Santander’s sale forms part of Project Hungaroring, which initially included €700 million non-performing loans to SMEs. In the end, the perimeter has been reduced to €400 million.

This is one of the largest operations involving the sale of non-performing (unsecured) loans in 2015, given that entities have been more focused on getting rid of assets linked to the real estate market, such as mortgages and doubtful loans to property developers.

Deceleration

As a result, during 2015, non-performing loan portfolios worth around €3,000 million have been transferred in 2015, such as the portfolio sold by Sabadell (€800 million) to Aiqon; the portfolio sold by CaixaBank (€780 million) to Cerberus; the portfolio sold by Cajamar (€640 milion), also to the US fund; the portfolio sold by Ibercaja (€200 million) to Seer Capital; and BMN’s portfolio (€350 million), which has just been sold to Link Financial. Popular was also recently sounding out the sale of a portfolio worth just over €300 million.

Even so, the figure of around €3,000 million in non-performing loan sales in 2015 is significantly lower than previous years. In 2013, €12,000 million of loans were transferred and in 2014, the figure reached around €15,000 million.

Project Hungaroring is the first major operation performed by Santander this year. The group launched two projects during the first half of the year: Project Formentera, with €170 million of hotel debt; and Project Mamut, with €800 million overdue mortgages. Nevertheless, the latter was suspended during the summer following the change in the market due to the Greek and Chinese crises.

Santander had a default rate of 6.61% in Spain at the end of September, compared with an average of 4.5% for the group as a whole. Its real estate balance sheet has grown by €5,600 million in the last year, due to the inclusion of its stake in Metrovacesa.

The financial institution began to divest from property in 2013, with the sale of 85% of its real estate platform Altamira, to the US fund Apollo for €664 million.

In order to continue its sale of these assets, Santander has hired the Spanish director of Morgan Stanley, Javier García Carranza, as the Deputy General Manager and Head of Restructuring, Real Estate, Investments and Private Equity.

Buyer

The purchasing fund, Encore, is one of the main groups operating in the recovery business on the global level. It is conducting the operation through its subsidiary Grove, which recently acquired a loan management platform in Spain, called Lucania. Encore is listed on the Nasdaq with a market capitalisation of US$ 760 million (€695 million).

Another company owned by this US group, Cabot Credit Management Group, also made its first investment in Spain recently, with the purchase of Gesif from the US fund Elliott.

Original story: Expansión (by J. Zuloaga)

Translation: Carmel Drake

GreenOak Buys Building on c/Fuencarral For €21M

28 December 2015 – Expansión

International funds are starting to invest in the residential market. Whilst their first acquisitions (in Spain) involved offices and shopping centres, now many investors are interested in purchasing homes and land for development. Such is the case of GreenOak. This US fund has just completed the purchase of the building at number 77 on Calle Fuencarral in Madrid. The property, measuring around 8,000 m2 in total, contains homes and offices covering a surface area of around 6,000 m2; the ground and first floors are occupied by a shopping arcade measuring more than 2,000 m2.

The aim is to completely renovate this property to convert it into homes. “Our aim is to offer a quality asset at an attractive market price. We do not know the details of the project yet, but it will be high quality, in keeping with the neighbourhood and bearing in mind the (needs of the) residents of Chueca and Malasaña”, explains Javier Zarrabeitia, partner at GreenOak in Spain.

International experience

The fund, which opened its office in Madrid this summer, having channelled all of its investments until then from London, has invested €21 million on the purchase of this building. “It is the first time that we are developing a property in Spain, but we have already undertaken similar projects in Los Ángeles, New York and London. We are a team of 60 people and we all get involved in these types of projects”.

This is GreenOak’s first residential project in Spain, a market in which it has been particularly active in recent months. “We have invested more than €400 million this year and we have the capacity to invest €700 million”, says Zarrabeitia. “We have closed 18 operations this year, and have been heavily focused on the logistics segment, where we now own 350,000 m2 of surface area, primarily in Madrid, but also in Bilbao. We have also purchased four buildings in the Avalon de Madrid complex, another one in La Moraleja and one in Barcelona, as well as the Sevilla Factory shopping centre, with a surface area of more than 16,000 m2”.

The key to this investment whirlwind is the fund’s capacity to invest in operations of different sizes, explains its CEO. “Our smallest investment in Spain amounted to €8 million and the largest will amount to around €40 million, but our capacity is unlimited, and we invest in volumes where the Socimis and other funds do not operate, which gives us a niche to be competitive”.

Next year, the fund will continue closing operations in Spain. “We believe that it will continue to be possible to raise capital for Spain: with very low interest rates, a significant decrease in prices, sellers with needs and growth in the country thanks to the low euro, we expect to see the restructuring of the labour market and banking sector, as well as a recovery in tourism”.

Original story: Expansión (by Rocío Ruiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Sidorme Puts 7 Hotels Up For Sale For €25M

28 December 2015 – El Economista

The hotel chain Sidorme is negotiating the sale of a portfolio of seven assets with an asking price of around €25 million. According to Jairo González, the CEO of Sidorme, the objective is to sell the hotels in a single transaction; and interested parties include large investment funds and Socimis. For the time being, “we have not reached any agreements in terms of price, but we are negotiating the returns”, says González.

Through this operation, the group, which is currently in the middle of a growth phase, may deleverage its balance sheet in order to target new investments, but it acknowledges that it is not in any rush, given that it is currently obtaining yields “that it feels very comfortable with”.

Besides these seven hotels that it owns, the chain also has another three hotels that it leases, which together contain 1,230 rooms. It is also constructing another three hotels.

The company’s hotel location strategy is proving key to its success, with the tenth hotel recently opened to the public on Calle Fuencarral 52 (Madrid) and the eleventh hotel currently under construction on the central street of Calle Montera 10-12 (also Madrid).

A twelfth hotel is also under construction and is located between the airport of Donostia San Sebastián and the Guipúzcoan capital; and a thirteenth hotel will open in January in San Sebastián de los Reyes (Madrid), close to La Moreleja and Terminal 4 at Madrid’s Barajas Airport.

The company is going to spend €10 million on the opening of its new hotels, in addition to the €45 million that it has already spent to create its existing portfolio since it began operations back in 2006, with the opening of its first hotel in Mollet del Vallès. With these investments, the chain expects to record turnover of more than €10 million in 2015, with an EBITDA of more than €2.7 million and a net profit after tax of more than €1.3 million, according to González.

The success of this chain is due to its commitment to intelligent accommodation. Its “smartsleep” concept seeks to maximise the simplification of the product offered, eliminating anything that is superfluous for guests and optimising all of the services to reduce operating costs as much as possible, without affecting the quality of its customers.

Thus, its hotels offer modern rooms with simple designs, large beds, showers with a sauna effect and free wifi. They are have offices with fruit and coffee available for clients, but they do not have internal cafeterias or restaurants, although they have reached agreements with nearby restaurants to offer room service at some of their hotels. These savings comes in addition to the fact that the hotels are constructed to require very little maintenance and to consume minimal energy.

Original story: El Economista (by Alba Brualla)

Translation: Carmel Drake

KKR Acquires 5.34% Stake In Quabit Worth €6.8M

28 December 2015 – Valencia Plaza

KKR has acquired a 5.438% stake in the share capital of Quabit Inmobiliaria, a percentage that it has obtained by subscribing to part of the capital increase recently performed by the company. Its stake is worth €6.8 million on the basis of current market prices.

The US fund thereby becomes a key shareholder of the company that is controlled and chaired by Félix Abánades (pictured above) through Rayet, the company that has seen its stake in Quabit diluted from 29.2% to 21.2% following the capital increase. Meanwhile, Martibalsa, the other main shareholder now holds an 11% stake.

Through this operation, KKR reinforces its commitment to invest in Spain and increases the range of sectors in which it operates in the country to include real estate.

Specifically, the fund has acquired 136.29 million shares in the company Quabit Inmobiliaria through the capital increase that the company completed two weeks ago, a shareholding equivalent to 5.34% of its capital, according to the registers of Spain’s National Securities Market Commission (CNMV).

Growth

KKR has become a shareholder of the real estate company at a time when it is embarking upon a growth phase, with the launch of a new strategic plan to 2020.

The plan involves a total investment of €470 million and focuses on the development of land in Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia and the Costa del Sol, as well as in other areas that it considers have “potential housing demand”.

Thus, it expects to deliver around 3,000 homes over the next five years and exceed the turnover threshold of €1,000 million by 2020.

Original story: Valencia Plaza

Translation: Carmel Drake

RE Firms Prevalent On Hacienda’s List Of Overdue Debtors

24 December 2015 – El Mundo

The tax authorities have published their list of overdue debtors for the first time.

Four large construction companies from the bubble – Reyal Urbis, Nózar and the Cordoban companies Prasa and Arenal 2000 – together owe the tax authorities €852 million.

The real estate bubble was made possible not only thanks to the banks’ willingness to grant loans, but also because the property developers that borrowed money stopped paying their taxes. That is the main conclusion to be drawn from the list of overdue debtors that the tax authorities have published for the first time just days before Christmas Eve – which features construction companies and manufacturers of construction materials in abundance. (…).

Almost none of the stars of the Spanish real estate bubble are missing from the list of major overdue borrowers. Four names stand out in particular: Reyal Urbis, owned by Rafael Santamaría; Nózar, owned by the Nozaleda family; the controversial property developer Rafael Gómez ‘Sandokán’ (Arenal 2000) and the Cordoban group Prasa, owned by the Romero family. Together, the four owe debt amounting to €852 million.

Reyal Urbis leads the ranking of overdue borrowers with a tax debt of €378.2 million. (…). But countless other companies owe millions of euros. From Fernando Martín, the major shareholder of the bankrupt Martinsa Fadesa (€65.39 million) to Carlos Cutillas, one of the main operators in the north of the capital with his company Inmobiliaria Chamartín (€20.53 million). Alongside them feature hyperactive property developers from the boom years, such as Dirusa (€40 million), the Lábaro group (€27.8 million) the Álvarez family (Gedeco-Avantis, with €17.7 million) and Detinsa (€29 million).

Riofisa, the construction company created by the Losantos family and acquired at the height of the boom by Luis Portillo, owes €31.97 million. Another one of the major overdue borrowers is Hilario Rodrígeuz Elías, who was considering listing Group Tremón, a construction company with operations in Madrid and Andalucía, on the stock exchange. His companies Atlantis Servicios Inmobiliarios and TR Hoteles Alojamientos y Hosterías together owe €47.77 million. Other less well known property developers that also have sizeable debts with the tax authorities include: Ventero Muñoz (€11 million); the unknown Ramón Olivareas Garrigós (€68.6 million), owner of Grupo Casoli and the company Vivienda y Bienestar SL; Carlos Monteverde de Mesa, owner of Grupo Monteverde (€13.9 million) who was linked to the “Blesa case”; José Ávila Rojas (€4.3 million); and the Torrego family (Conther), former owner of Cine Bogart and Continental Auto (€2.5 million).

Sahanuja, the great Catalan saga

The Sanahuja family owes the tax authorities €37.2 million through three of its companies -Sanahuja Escofet, Sacresa Terrenos and Sacresa, Terrenos y Promociones-. (…). Another one of the largest overdue debtors is Vicente Roig, owner of Grupo Coperfil, who owes the tax authorities €69.79 million through four companies.

Marina D’Or and the Valencian clans

Jesús Ger, who was behind the Marina D’Or golf complex, owes the tax authorities €46.3 million through his company Comercializadora de Mediterránea de Viviendas. (…). The Community of Valencia is very well represented in the list of overdue debtors. Another illustrious surname is that of the Serratosa Caturla brothers, who together have a debt of €15.9 million. They are joined by Bautista Soler, the partner of Luis del Rivera, who owes €26 million through the companies Inmobiliaria Lasho and Urbanas de Levante. Andrés Ballester, owner of Edificaciones Calpe and the company Nereida, with a debt of €17.7 million. And the controversial builder from Alzira, Vicente Girbés Camarasa, owner of Grupo Blauverd, with €20.6 million. And Juan Cotina and his companies Asedes Capital and Asedes Infraestructuras, with €21.4 million.

Other (in)famous overdue borrowers include the Mexican businessman Luis Nozaleda Arenas; the Romero family, the Sánchez Ramade brothers and Rafael Gómez Sandokán, all from Cordoba; and Facundo Armero, the Murcian developer behind Polaris World, who owes €78.5 million.

Original story: El Mundo (by José F. Leal)

Translation: Carmel Drake

El Corte Inglés Sells Building In Sol To Thor For €65M

24 December 2015 – Expansión

The operation has been closed for almost €65 million and reflects ECI’s strategy to selectively divest real estate assets to reduce its debt.

El Corte Inglés is continuing with its policy to selectively sell its real estate assets to reduce its debt. The company led by Dimas Gimenos has sold one of its properties in the Puerta del Sol in Madrid to the US fund Thor Equities for almost €65 million, according to market sources.

The building, which houses a bookstore, is located in one of the most important retail areas in the capital (on the corner with Calle Preciados) and has a total surface area of 1,344 m2 spread over three floors. El Corte Inglés has agreed with the fund Thor that it will continue to occupy the building as the tenant for one more year.

The department store group has a large portfolio of properties, worth almost €15,800 million, according to appraisals performed by Tinsa in 2014. Two years ago, it begin its new policy to divest its non-strategic assets with the sale of a building located next to the Plaza de Cataluña to the fund IBA, which also acquired another property from ECI on Calle Preciados in Madrid a few months later.

But not all of its activity involves property sales. Last year, the company acquired a plot of land that Adif had put up for sale on the Paseo de la Castellana. The plan is to expand the shopping centre that the distribution group has in that area, which is the great jewel in its asset portfolio.

The fund Thor made its first investment in Spain in September, with the acquisition of a property, also in Puerta del Sol, worth €9.5 million, which was previously owned by Kutxabank. It has also purchased number 16 Calle Fuencarral. In all three operations, Thor has been advised by the real estate consultancy firm Knight Frank.

Original story: Expansión (by R. Ruiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Pryconsa Buys 14 Plots In Valdebebas For €56.7M

23 December 2015 – El Confidencial

With just one week to go until year end, Madrid has witnessed one of the largest land operations ever seen in the capital. The veteran Madrilenian property developer, Pryconsa, has acquired 14 plots of land from the Valdebebas Compensation Board for €56.7 million, according to a statement by the Board itself. The plots have a buildable surface area of 92,000 m2 and between 900 and 1,000 social housing properties (VPPL) will be constructed there.

Pryconsa has paid approximately €600/m2 for the land, a price that is significantly below the price received by the Compensation Board (€800/m2) for one of the VPPL plots it put up for auction after the summer and which was awarded to the cooperative Esta Gestión 100, which is backed by the architect Enrique Taboada.

“Given that we are selling such a large batch of plots, it is normal to offer the buyer a discount on the price”, says Hernando de Soto, the Director of Business Development at the Valdebebas Compensation Board. “Half of the plots will be transferred in January and the other half will be transferred in a year’s time”. (…).

This operation involves the sale of the final residential land assets owned by the Compensation Board and uses up practically all of the land allocated to social housing in this urban development, since less than 5,000 m2 is left now. Moreover, following this transaction, only one third of the residential land in this area will remain available. The awarded plots are located next to one of the main squares in the new neighbourhood, alongside the planned shopping centre and JOYFE school, which will be built on land that also forms part of the Compensation Board’s assets and where construction is expected to start soon.

The Madrilenian property developer is one of the great survivors of the real estate crisis and is, moreover, one of the most solvent and least indebted companies in the sector. This position has enabled it to take on what is undoubtedly the largest land operation in recent years, using its own funds. (…).

Valdebebas, under the spotlight

Valdebebas is one of the most sought-after urban developments amongst managers, property developers and investment funds. In light of the scarcity of land in popular developments, such as Arroyo del Fresno, Montecarmelo, Sanchinarro and Las Tablas, this new neighbourhood in the North of Madrid, with its sizeable supply of land, has sparked a great deal of interest.

In fact, multiple land transactions have been closed in Valdebebas during the last year. At the beginning of September, for example, Amenabar Promociones Residenciales, another one of the most active players in recent years, submitted the highest bid for four of the residential use plots – private (unsubsidised) housing – in Parque Empresarial del Olivar, which had filed for bankruptcy. The developer acquired the plots of land for €45 million.

Another one of the plots was awarded to Premier España, which also recently acquired a plot for the construction of private (unsubsidised) housing from the Compensation Board. (…).

Valdebebas is an urban area measuring almost 11 million m2, located in the north east of the capital – between La Moraleja, el IFEMA, Sanchinarro and Barajas Terminal 4. (…). Land (covering a surface area of 1 million m2) is going to be developed there for use as offices and hotels, along with 13,500 homes.

Original story: El Confidencial (by Elena Sanz)

Translation: Carmel Drake