Almagro Capital Buys Four Residential Properties in Madrid

The residential Socimi has acquired four new assets in Madrid, where it already owns 60 properties, through the ‘reverse housing’ formula.

The Socimi Almagro Capital, which specialises in residential buildings for the elderly, has acquired four new properties in the city of Madrid, taking its portfolio of assets to more than 60.

The assets acquired are located in the neighbourhoods of Goya, Marroquina, Pinar del Rey and Aluche, as reported by the company this morning. In total, the new properties add more than 345 square metres of surface area to the Socimi’s portfolio. Almagro paid 810,000 euros in total for the assets, which it financed using its own resources.

British Fund Helikon Acquires a 3% Stake in Aedas

The stake of the manager, which has joined several other international funds that control more than 5% of the property developer, is valued at 21.3 million euros.

The British fund Helikon Investment has acquired a 3.05% stake in the share capital of Aedas Homes, a percentage valued at €21.3 million according to the current market price of the property developer.

Helikon, a recently created firm, directly owns a portfolio of 1,462 million shares in Aedas, as registered in the records of the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV).

GSA Completes the Purchase of a New Hall of Residence in Madrid

Global Student Accommodation (GSA) has reached an agreement with Corestate to purchase the Emilia Pardo Bazán student residence in Madrid, which has more than 300 rooms.

Global Student Accommodation (GSA) has closed the purchase of a student residence in Madrid. Specifically, GSA has acquired the Emilia Pardo Bazán complex, located in the Ciudad Universitaria area. The property has 302 rooms, both doubles and singles, for students.

The hall of residence, which opened in 2008, was owned by the German firm Corestate Capital Advisors.

Conren to Build 108 Homes on the Site of Hotusa’s Failed Luxury Hotel in Barcelona

The fund manager has purchased a plot on Paseo de Sant Joan where the Hotusa chain had been planning to build a five-star hotel.

The real estate manager Conren Tramway has acquired a plot of land located at the intersection of Paseo de Sant Joan and Avenida Vilanova, in the Eixample district of Barcelona, next to Arco del Triunfo metro station.

For more than a decade, the land has belonged to the Hotusa hotel group, which had planned to build a unique luxury hotel on the site. However, first, the refurbishment and expansion of the nearby metro station, and then the approval of the hotel moratorium launched by the city’s mayor Ada Colau when she arrived at the town hall (which prevents the opening of new hotels in the city centre) put paid to those plans. As such, the hotel group has now decided to sell the plot.

AXA IM Buys 919 Rental Homes in Madrid from Tectum for €150 Million

Axa’s real estate manager has starred in the largest turnkey operation involving rental homes in Spain to date.

The manager AXA IM-Real Assets, the real estate arm of the insurance company Axa, has given a clue as to where the Spanish real estate market may go in the short and medium term: it has purchased a portfolio of 919 social housing properties, located in the Community of Madrid, and intended for rent (known as build to rent) from Tectum for €150 million.

The vendor, Tectum Real Estate, is a company specialising in the development of properties for rent, together with its developer partner, Locare Real Estate, which has been advised by the boutique consultant TC Gabinete Inmobiliario. The consulting firm Colliers has advised Axa on the technical and environmental due diligences, and will be in charge of the Project Monitoring for the construction work.

Barcelona City Council Reactivates the Construction of 650 Social Housing Units

Barcelona City Council has assured that by the end of 2020 there will be 2,400 officially protected flats under construction, of which 83% will be for rent.

Over the next few days, Barcelona City Council will reactivate the construction of 15 affordable housing properties, comprising 650 flats, according to an announcement made on Wednesday by the Councillor for Housing, Lucía Martín.

She also revealed that the City Council will tender a package of 16 more projects comprising 1,500 flats in total between now and the end of the year. As such, by 31 December 2020, there will be 2,400 public flats under construction in Barcelona, of which 83% will be for rent. The rest will be used either for urban development or will form part of a surface area entitlement, whereby the city grants public land for use by the residents for 75 years.

New Home Permits Fell by 36.6% in March

Requests for permits to build new homes fell to 5,956 in March – when the health crisis first started – down by 36.6%. The first quarter of the year closed down 15%.

Applications for permits to build new homes fell by 36.6% in March, at the start of the crisis, with 5,956 applications registered, according to official data from the Ministry of Transport.

In this way, requests for authorisation to build homes fell from 9,086 the previous month and from 9,405 in March 2019.

The Reuben Brothers Buy 250 Hectares Next to the San Juan Reservoir to Build 650 Homes

The former owners of Santander’s Ciudad Financiera have acquired 250 hectares in the Madrilenian municipality of San Martín de Iglesias to build homes and a hotel.

The Reuben brothers, one of the wealthiest families in the United Kingdom, have acquired 650 hectares of land next to the San Juan reservoir, in the Madrilenian town of San Martín de Iglesias. On those plots, the Reubens plan to build a complex comprising 650 homes plus a hotel spanning 7,350 square metres.

Situated in the area known as Canto Redondo, the acquired land is located in an area that is already home to several luxury housing estates, which serve as refuges for wealthy families living in Madrid. Specifically, the land borders two and a half kilometres of the coast of the San Juan Reservoir, the only navigable motor and sailing reservoir in the Community of Madrid. It is also home to the Virgen de la Nueva freshwater beach, the first in the region to be awarded a blue flag.

Pozuelo, Getxo and Boadilla, the Municipalities with the Highest Income per Capita in Spain

Madrid and Barcelona are home to the 10 neighbourhoods with the highest income per capita in Spain, whilst Pozuelo, Majadahonda, Las Rozas and Sant Cugat are the municipalities with the lowest rates of unemployment.

Eight of the ten municipalities with the highest incomes per capita in Spain are located in the Community of Madrid, according to data released today by the National Institute of Statistics (INE). According to this ranking, which reflects figures from 2017, Pozuelo de Alarcón is the municipality with more than 20,000 inhabitants that has the highest income per capita in the country. It is the only municipality whose citizens have an average income of more than €25,000, specifically, €25,903.

The top 3 ranking is completed by the Basque town of Getxo, with an average income of €20,147 euros per inhabitant, and Boadilla del Monte, also in Madrid, which has a similar income per capita figure (€20,103).

Spain Needs 2 Million Rental Homes

The rental home market is booming, forced by the ever-tougher climate in the purchase market and, now, the crisis generated by Covid-19, which is also pushing property developers to offer properties via the build to rent route.

In Spain, there is a growing imbalance between rental needs and the available supply, with 23% of the population now living in rental properties compared to the EU average of 34%. That translates into the need to build around 2 million homes for rent in the country.

House purchases have basically been supported by the repositioning market in recent years, whilst demand from young people has continued to shrink due to the tightening of access conditions and job insecurity. During the post-coronavirus crisis, this situation is expected to get even tougher.