land Market News: Spanish Real Estate Intelligence

20 May 2019 - Diario Sur

The growing demand for land in Málaga has reactivated an operation involving the site that used to be home to the former Cervezas Victoria factory, situated alongside the Azucarera-Intelhorce highway to the west of the city centre.

Thirteen years ago, the Town Hall approved the urbanisation of those plots, which were divided into four blocks in order to house offices, businesses, warehouses and parking lots. The urbanisation work was completed but the economic crisis hit before the plots could be occupied. They ended up in the hands of the banks, specifically, Unicaja, which has now managed to offload most of them onto entrepreneurs who are keen to develop the area.

According to sources familiar with the operation, local and German investors have teamed up to acquire the plots, which are crying out to be transformed into a new business centre. The plots span a surface area of 50,137 m2 in total and the investors have spent €7 million to date buying up the land.

Original story: Diario Sur (by Jesús Hinojosa)

Translation/Summary: Carmel Drake

20 May 2019 - El Confidencial

Aedas Homes has reached an agreement with its main shareholder, the US fund Castlelake, to ensure its supply of long-term land, without having to make any major investments in the short-term.

Specifically, the property developer and the fund will create ad hoc companies for each non-finalist plot in which they decide to invest, whereby Aedas will take a 10% stake and will reserve the right to buy up to 25% of the homes built on each one of the sites.

Aedas’s team will be responsible for managing the vehicles, processing the urban planning formalities and obtaining the finalist land status. The company has already identified six plots in Madrid, Valencia and Sevilla, on which more than 9,200 homes could be built.

It will take between 4 and 5 years to transform those plots into finalist sites and the idea is that Aedas will build at least 2,500 of the homes permitted, with the remainder being sold for development to other property developers.

This strategy will ensure that Aedas has a supply of finalist land over the medium and long-term at affordable prices.

Original story: El Confidencial (by Ruth Ugalde)

Translation/Summary: Carmel Drake