Tag: Andalucía

BBVA Research: RE Sector Makes “Good Start” To 2017

6 June 2017 – El Mundo

BBVA Research has given the real estate sector a “good mark” for the first quarter of 2017, following a “positive” trend in terms of sales, which accelerated the growth in prices. However, the organisation indicated that the sector showed signs of a “significant heterogeneity” by region once again, and that there was a loss of “momentum” in terms of new loans in April due to a decrease in refinancings.

That was according to the latest Real Estate Observatory for Spain report, prepared by BBVA Research, the financial entity’s research service, which acknowledges a “positive trend” in terms of house sales, given that, based on data from the Centre for Statistical Information from Notaries (CIEN), 48,695 homes were sold during the month of March.

This means, after correcting the series for seasonal variations and calendar effects (CVEC), there was a stagnation in sales with respect to the previous month, but an increase in sales (19.5%) in YoY terms. In this way, sales during the 3 months to March rose by 16.2% YoY, above the average for 2016, in large part thanks to the fact that the main determinants of demand “continued their positive tone during the first quarter of the year”, said BBVA Research.

In this sense, it highlighted that employment is continuing to evolve positively, given that the number of people registered for Social Security in April and May grew at an average MoM rate of 0.4%, above the average monthly rate recorded during the first quarter (+0.3%) (…).

Fewer new loans

Nevertheless, the report warns that new loan operations to buy a home stagnated in April, due to a sharp decline in the number of refinancings. According to data from the Bank of Spain, during the fourth month of 2017, new loans to buy a home decreased by 41.6% YoY, a reduction that actually reflects the high volume of refinancings that took place in April 2016. As such, if we exclude refinancings, the number of new loan operations remained stable with respect to the same month last year (-0.1%).

BBVA Research is “certain” that the stagnation is related to the fact that Easter fell in April this year. In fact, the sum of new operations in March and April rose by 13.1% YoY. With this, during the first four months of the year, new loans to buy a home rose by 10.6%, with respect to the same period a year earlier. Excluding refinancings, which decreased by 86% during the same period, the increase in new mortgage loans amounted to 16.5%. (…).

Heterogeneity in terms of price rises

Meanwhile, the growth in house prices accelerated during the first quarter of 2017. According to the Ministry of Development, the average house price amounted to €1,525.80/m2 during the first quarter, up by 0.7% in QoQ terms, after correcting for seasonality (CVEC), in other words, 0.2 percentage points higher than during the fourth quarter of 2016. Moreover, the YoY evolution saw an acceleration in the growth rate to 2.2% during Q1, up by 0.7 percentage points compared to the previous quarter.

In any case, BBVA Research indicates that the evolution of house prices was still “significantly heterogeneous by region” between January and March. After correcting the series for seasonality, price rises were reported in nine autonomous regions (Andalucía, Canarias, Cantabria, Cataluña, Comunidad Valenciana, Madrid, Murcia, Navarra and País Vasco), with particularly noteworthy rises in Cantabria, Navarra and País Vasco – the three regions have shown less activity in previous quarters.

By contrast, average house prices fell during the first quarter with respect to the previous quarter in all of the other autonomous regions, led by Aragón and La Rioja, which saw QoQ decreases of around -2%. (…)….whilst the price increases being recorded in the Balearic Islands, Madrid and Cataluña exceeded 10% in all three cases.

Housing permits on the rise again

Finally, the first quarter of 2017 closed with a renewed growth in construction activity. (…). The number of housing permits rose by 18.7% during Q1 2017. In this way, almost 20,000 new homes were approved during the first three months, up by 3,141 compared to the same quarter in 2016. (…) .

Original story: El Mundo

Translation: Carmel Drake

Taylor Wimpey Keen To Sell Its Spanish Subsidiary

3 March 2017 – Expansión

The British group has said that it will consider offers for its subsidiary, which builds homes along the Mediterranean coast and owns assets worth €150 million.

Taylor Wimpey said on Monday that its presence in Spain “is not strategic over the long term”, which is why the company is willing to sell its business in the country if an interested party submits an attractive acquisition proposal.

The Spanish subsidiary of the British real estate company generated an operating profit of GBP 20.6 million (€24 million) in 2016, a figure that doubled the amount (GBP 10 million) it obtained in the previous year. The improvement in results was due to an increase in house sales in the Balearic Islands, Andalucía and Alicante, the main areas where the company has developments.

The firm completed the sale of 304 Spanish properties in 2016 at an average price of €358,000, exceeding the 251 homes sold the previous year at an average price of €315,000. Most of those properties were sold to foreigners wanting a second home in Spain for their holidays or to retire. In total, Taylor Wimpey recorded turnover of GBP 93.6 million in Spain during 2016, compared with €58.1 million during the previous year.

“The residential market in Spain remained positive throughout 2016”, said the company on Monday during the presentation of its results for last year. “Although the weakness of the pound had an impact on British buyers, we still managed to generate a healthy rate of sales during the year, thanks to our diverse client base”. Citizens from Germany, Belgium and Sweden made up for the decrease in interest from UK investors, who in addition to being hit by a reduction in purchasing power due to the depreciation of the pound, were also fearful about the possibility of losing their rights to travel to and reside in Spain post-Brexit.

Pete Redfern, CEO at Taylor Wimpey, was asked during a meeting with analysts about the possibility of selling the firm’s business in Spain, once its profitability has been restored after the losses it suffered during the real estate crisis. According to Redfern, “the environment in Spain has improved, although it is still an environment that is not seeing a significant entry of new capital. Our business is functioning well, but if a good offer appears to buy it (then we would be interested). Our strategy over the long term does not involve staying in Spain”.

Taylor Wimpey has assets on its balance sheet in Spain worth GBP 123.7 million (€145 million). On 28 June last year, five days after the Brexit referendum, the company undertook a €100 million bond issue, to cover the currency risk of its Spanish business, whereby ceasing to finance its assets in pounds. Those bonds pay out an annual return of 2.02% and have a repayment term of seven years.

In total, the Spanish subsidiary has 19 developments, with a portfolio of 293 homes reserved, for a value of GBP 88 million.

The real estate company left the market in Gibraltar three years ago.

The Taylor Wimpey group, which besides Spain, operates only in the United Kingdom, recorded turnover of GBP 3,676 million in 2016 and generated a net profit of GBP 589.7 million.

Original story: Expansión (by Roberto Casado)

Translation: Carmel Drake

INE: House Sales Rose By 17.3% YoY In Nov 2016

16 January 2017 – El Economista

House sales rose by 17.3% in November 2016 compared to the same month in 2015, to reach 33,806 operations, according to data published on Thursday by Spain’s National Institute for Statistics (INE).

This increase, which represents the tenth month of consecutive YoY increases, exceeds the rise recorded in October 2016, when those operations rose by 6.5% YoY.

Transactions involving second-hand homes rose by 19.8% with respect to November 2015, to reach 27,996 operations, whilst sales of new homes rose by 6.8% YoY to reach 5,810 transactions.

90.3% of the homes sold during the eleventh month of the year were unsubsidised and 9.7% were protected (unsubsidised). Sales of unsubsidised homes rose by 17.4% YoY in November, to reach 30,514 transactions, meanwhile operations involving protected (subsidised) homes increased by 16.5% to 3,292 transactions.

During the first eleven months of 2016, house sales recorded a cumulative increase of 14.2% compared with the same period in 2015, thanks to an increase of 18.5% in terms of second-hand house sales, whereas new build house sales declined by 1.4%.

In monthly terms (November 2016 compared with October 2015), house sales rose by 15.1%, their highest MoM increase in more than five years.

Andalucía leads the house sales ranking

In November 2016, the highest number of house sales per 100,000 inhabitants was recorded in the Balearic Islands (138), the Community of Valencia (133) and Andalucía and the Canary Islands (99 in both cases).

Andalucía was the region that saw the most absolute house sales during the eleventh month of the year, with 6,541 sales, followed by Cataluña (5,476), the Community of Valencia (5,216) and Madrid (4,563).

The autonomous regions that saw the lowest absolute number of house sales were La Rioja (233), Navarra (363) and Cantabria (440).

In relative terms, the regions that saw the highest YoY variations in the number of house sales were the Balearic Islands (+32.8%), the Canary Islands (+26.3%) and Aragón (+25.8%). YoY increases were recorded in every single autonomous region.

Increase in the total number of properties sold

If we look at rural and urban (homes plus other properties of an urban nature) properties, then property sales in November amounted to 143,470 in total, up by 6.8% compared to the same month in 2015, to reach the highest absolute figure since June. (…).

In November 2016, the highest number of property sales registered per 100,000 inhabitants was recorded in Aragón (628), Castilla y León (604) and La Rioja (577).

Original story: El Economista

Translation: Carmel Drake

Värde Will Start Building c.900 New Homes In Q1

11 January 2017 – Cinco Días

The new real estate company Dospuntos, which wants to become one of Spain’s major property developers, will start the year by marketing a significant number of new build properties in a sector that has started to wake up slowly, without any star players. “We are going to start 18 developments containing around 900 homes during the first quarter of the year”, confirmed Javier Eguidazu (pictured above), CEO at Dospuntos, a company controlled by Värde Partners.

These homes will be located in Madrid, Galicia, Andalucía, Castilla y León and Cataluña, primarily in large cities and metropolitan areas. In La Coruña, the real estate company already announced last month that it was beginning its first project there, known as Casa Vega, in the centre of the city. The company will also debut soon in Sevilla, Málaga, Valladolid, Barcelona, Leganés (Madrid) and Oleiros (La Coruña).

“The market has finally woken up. There is pent-up demand because hardly any new homes have been constructed over the last decade. Every property that comes onto the market is sold”, said Eguidazu regarding the recovery in the property development sector.

His company is looking to become one of the largest property developers in the country. After the real estate crisis, almost all of the major players disappeared – went bankrupt – or took time out whilst they waited for better times. Just a handful of companies such as Pryconsa, Vía Célere, local developers, cooperative managers such as Domo and new platforms linked to the banks (Aliseda, Altamira, Solvia…) continued to build at a slow pace. Other listed companies, such as Realia – controlled by the magnate Carlos Slim – and Quabit, are only resuming their business now. Anida, owned by BBVA, also strengthened its business at the hand of Manuel Jove, founder of the now bankrupt company Fadesa.

Dospuntos emerged in June 2016, after Värde purchased the damaged real estate business from the San José Group. It was created to construct around 7,000 homes on land coming from several sources: purchases by the US fund, inherited from San José and even some new acquisitions. “The company has financial muscle. In 2016, we spent €150 million on land”, said Eguidazu.

Along with Neinor Homes, owned by the Texan fund Lone Star, Dospuntos leads this new type of property developer, owned by overseas funds and interested in investing in the real estate recovery in Spain, now that the traditional players have disappeared (…).

The real estate company’s main shareholder is Värde, which holds more than 50% of its share capital. The fund from Minneapolis manages assets amounting to more than €10,000 million all over the world. It has been particularly active in Spain, with the acquisition of Popular’s credit card business, as well as half of that bank’s real estate arm, Aliseda, in an operation for which it teamed up with the fund Kennedy Wilson. Moreover, it has entered the office business of Procisa, the owner of the La Finca business park in Pozuelo de Alcorcón (Madrid).

As a shareholder of Dospuntos, Värde (which means “value” in Swedish) is accompanied by the funds Marathon and Attestor, as well as by banks such as Bank of America and Barclays.

From 2019, the company wants to reach a cruising speed of 2,000 new homes per year on average, according to comments made by Eguidazu at a presentation last June. By then, the company forecasts that it will be generating revenues of between €500 million and €600 million per year.

The shareholders plan to invest €2,000 million between 2016 and 2021, at an average rate of €400 million per year, of which €800 million will be allocated to buying more land on which to build homes. Over the long term, between 30% and 40% of the company’s resources will come from bank financing. (…).

Original story: Cinco Días (by Alfonso Simón Ruiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Lar España Invests €250M In Mega Retail Complex In Sevilla

17 November 2016 – Expansión

Yesterday, the Socimi Lar España Real Estate presented its largest investment project to date, which will be built in Sevilla. The project will involve the construction of the Palmas Altas retail and leisure complex, which will be built on a plot of land measuring 123,500 m2 in the Andalucian capital. It will create 3,300 jobs in total, with a further 1,500 jobs during the construction phase.

The company expects the construction work at the site, which is located next to the district of Los Bermejales in the south of the city, to take approximately two years, which means that the largest shopping centre in the city, and one of the largest in Andalucía, will likely open in the spring of 2019. (…).

Almost two hundred brands have already said they want to open stores in the future shopping centre, the design of which prioritises sustainability and accessibility, according to its developers. The commercial and leisure area will cover 100,000 m2 of the plot, and will have space for 150 retail units, cinemas, green areas and restaurant spaces with various cuisines on offer, as well as children’s playgrounds, look outs, and a 6,000 m2 lake for recreational use, sporting activities and cultural events. (…).

The Socimi Lar España currently owns 26 real estate assets, worth €1,201 million in total. Of those, €901 million correspond to the fourteen shopping centres that the group owns in 13 provincial capitals all over Spain, including Madrid and Barcelona. It also owns four office buildings in those two cities, worth €168 million.

Original story: Expansión (by Nacho González)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Brexit May Shatter British Dream Of A Home In Spanish Sun

6 July 2016 – Bloomberg

Londoner Joanne Connor may sell her holiday home in southern Spain as a falling currency drives up the cost in pounds of her household bills and mortgage payments following the U.K.’s decision to leave the European Union.

“The cost of living in Spain has shot up for us overnight,” the 39-year-old mother of two from London said in a phone interview. “If the pound stays this low or continues to drop, we will end up having to sell.”

Sales in some coastal areas of Spain could tumble by as much as 20% in the next 18 months as a sliding pound erodes the spending power of British buyers and owners following the vote to leave the EU, according to Aura Real Estate Experts, an independent advisory firm focused on Spanish property. Britons make up the largest contingent of overseas home buyers in Spain.

Connor has to change pounds into euros to meet the 400 euros ($445) a month mortgage payments on the two-bedroom home. The 9 percent decline in the pound’s value against the euro since the Brexit vote will limit her visits to Spain to just one this year, compared with six times in previous years.

“It’s not just the mortgage which is now more expensive; it’s the car hire, the utility bills, food,” Connor said.

Foreign and domestic home buying in Spain evaporated when the economy collapsed during the financial crisis, leading to an international bailout of its banks and the worst recession in the country’s democratic history. While overseas buyers have begun to return to the market, prices are still well below their pre-crisis peak.

Connor purchased her Spanish property in 2005 for 120,000 euros and says it may now be worth 75,000 euros, based on the price for which similar properties are selling in the Mazarron Country Club in the southern region of Murcia, where her holiday home is located.

U.K. citizens represented 21% of the 46,090 purchases made by overseas buyers last year, data from Spain’s College of Property Registrars show. Foreign buyers made up 13% of all Spanish house purchases in 2015. In Murcia and Andalusia, Britons account for 54% and 29% of transactions by foreigners respectively, according to the study by Aura Real Estate Experts.

Purchases on hold

“We had 10 would-be buyers and two have put their plans on hold after Brexit,” said Mary Arro, partner at Mia Property Boutique in Alicante, which specializes in real estate deals along the Spanish Costa Blanca. “The concern is sterling — they want to know where the pound goes next.”

In the municipalities of Benitachell in Alicante and Benahavis in Malaga, sales could drop by around 20% and prices decline by around 9% in the next year-and-a-half as Britons sell or up or shun future purchases, according to Aura Real Estate Experts. The firm also identified 15 other towns in Alicante and Almeria where sales are expected to fall as much as 17% over the same period.

Spain attracted the largest number of British tourists in Europe, with 16 million people arriving in 2015, according to data from Euromonitor. In the five months through May, they spent almost 5 billion euros in Spain, 14% more than a year earlier, the Spanish statistics office said on Tuesday. Britons accounted for about a fifth of all spending by foreign tourists.

Dario Fernandez Palacios, an agent a Marbella-based real estate broker Prime Invest, said home sales to British buyers had already slowed “noticeably” in the months leading up to the U.K. referendum on June 23. “Now they are totally paralyzed,” he said by phone.

“The coming months, and probably years, are expected to be marred by uncertainty in and outside the U.K.,” said Wouter Geerts, a travel analyst at Euromonitor International.

Original story: Bloomberg (by Sharon R. Smyth and María Tadeo)

Edited by: Carmel Drake

Sareb Puts 564 Unfinished Developments Up For Sale

30 May 2016 – El Diario

Sareb, better known as the bad bank, has put 564 residential housing developments up for sale. The majority of the portfolio contains properties in the initial stages of development or work in progress and most of them are located in Cataluña, the Community of Valencia, Andalucía and the Canary Islands.

Initially, Sareb will release 140 unfinished residential developments onto the market and will thereby supply almost 5,000 homes and a few tertiary use buildings.

Most of the unfinished developments to be sold during this first phase are located in Andalucía and Cataluña, with 28 buildings each, as well as in the Canary Islands, with 26; whilst by province, the supply is most abundant in Barcelona, Las Palmas, Alicante, Cádiz, La Coruña and Madrid.

In this way, the Canary Islands, with 1,166 homes; Andalucía, with 1,057; and the Community of Valencia, with 838, together account for more than half of the properties that will come onto the market at the start of this operation.

The General Business Director at Sareb, Alfredo Guitart, considers that “having overcome the crisis”, now is the time to provide a commercial outlet for these developments.

“In this way, the sale represents an investment opportunity for local property developers, who are very familiar with their environment and have the capacity to finish the construction work and bring the properties onto the market successfully”, said Guitart.

The company also resumed 68 developments between 2013 and 2015 and expects to finalise 20 developments, where work had been suspended, before the end of 2016.

Original story: El Diario

Translation: Carmel Drake

Redevco Iberian Ventures Buys 6 Retail Parks From Bogaris For €95M

27 April 2016 – Expansión

The shopping centres are located in Extremadura and Andalucía and have a combined surface area of 84,250 m2.

Redevco Iberian Ventures, the joint venture created between Redecvo and the funds managed by Ares Management, has acquired six retail parks located in Extremadura and Andalucía from the property developer Bogaris for approximately €95 million.

The parks, which have a combined surface area of 84,250 m2, are leased almost in their entirety to tenants such as the supermarket chains Mercadona, Aldi and Día, the fashion brands C&A, Kiabi and Merkal Calzados, and operators Burger King, Media Markt, Sprinter and Aki Bricolaje.

Specifically, the parks are: Mejostilla, in Cáceres; Kinepolis Pulianas, in Granada; Marismas del Polvorín, in Huelva; La Heredad, in Mérida; Retail Park, in Motril; and La Serena, in Villanueva de la Serena.

Ares and Redevco announced the creation of Redevco Iberian Ventures in September 2015 and following this operation, the total capital invested by the joint venture now exceeds €200 million. JLL and Deloitte acted as advisors to Redevco Iberian Ventures in the operation.

Original story: Expansión

Translation: Carmel Drake

BBVA Puts Logistics Warehouse Portfolio Up For Sale

13 April 2016 – Expansión

BBVA has put 441 properties on the market, primarily warehouses and logistics plots, which have a combined surface area of more than 500,000 m2.

BBVA has launched one of the largest operations involving the sale of industrial assets in the Spanish market. The entity has appointed BNP Paribas Real Estate to coordinate the divestment process of a portfolio covering a surface area of more than 500,000 m2 and containing primarily warehouses and logistics plots. The entity wants to tap into the investor appetite that exists in the market for this kind of asset, in the context of rising rents and the forecast recovery in demand.

According to sources, BBVA wants to close the sale of this portfolio, known as Detroit, by July. BNP Paribas Real Estate will be responsible for coordinating the whole process and for selling the assets. For the sale, all possible options will be accepted, ranging from the sale of the entire portfolio to a single investor, to the sale of different sub-portfolios to several interested parties. In addition, the sale of individual assets will also be considered. As such, potential interested parties include large international real estate funds, listed Socimis and several Spanish family offices.

Cataluña and Andalucía

The Detroit portfolio comprises 441 properties that currently sit on BBVA’s balance sheet, having been repossessed from borrowers in the past. 65% of the assets are located in Cataluña, the region in which the entity chaired by Francisco González took over six of the former savings banks. Another 20% of the assets are located in several provinces in Andalucía.

Other assets are also located in Galicia, Extremadura, Murcia, Baleares, Castilla y León, Valencia, Cantabria, Canarias and Castilla-La Mancha.

Of the 441 properties now up for sale, 327 are industrial warehouses, 28 are industrial or logistics plots and 86 are parking spaces. 376,000 m2 of the total surface area (550,000 m2) correspond to industrial warehouses.

Investor interest

“This is a great investment opportunity, given that industrial warehouses are becoming a sought-after asset in the market once again, due to the expected recovery in demand and the gradual absorption of the existing stock”, say sources at BNP. According to the real estate consultancy, rents for this type of asset are currently on the rise and yields are higher than those earned on other real estate assets, such as offices, shops and homes.

In 2015, tenants leased almost 1,000,000 m2 of logistics warehouses, up by 37% compared with a year earlier. The increase was particularly marked in Cataluña, where a historical record was broken for warehouse rentals, with 564,000 m2 of surface area leased, an increase of almost 80%, according to figures from JLL. The largest operations were closed in the fashion and automobile sectors, although the e-commerce sector also played an important role leasing facilities for the distribution of products purchased online.

In parallel, investment in the industrial and logistics sector amounted to €734 million in 2015, up by 25%. The main players were Socimis and overseas funds. The widespread interest caused yields to be compressed from 8% to 6.5%.

Original story: Expansión (by Sergi Saborit)

Translation: Carmel Drake

The Sale Of Homes Soars By 11.1% In 2015 On The Second-Hand Market

10 February 2016 – El Economista (Europa Press)

Second-hand home transactions increase by 37.2% in the year, reaching their highest level since 2007.

Home sales increased by 11.1% in 2015 with respect to the previous year, up to a total of 354,132 transactions, its highest level since 2011, the National Statistics Institute (INE) reported last Wednesday.

The second-hand market has been the driving force behind this annual growth, the second one produced after the home sales increase by 2% in 2014.

In the period of crisis, the worst year for housing transactions were 2009 and 2008, in which these transactions plummeted by 25.1% and 28.8%, respectively. In 2012 and 2011, double-digit declines were still taking place (-11.5% and -18.1%), while in 2013 the decline slowed to 1.9% due to the end of tax benefits for housing purchase.

Home sales hit the accelerator in 2015 in a context of low prices, although experts believe that the correction reached its lowest level last year and will moderately rise.

The recovery in home sales in 2015 was due to the growth experienced in second-hand home transactions, which rocketed by 37.2%, reaching 276,300 transactions, the highest figure since 2007. By contrast, transactions on new homes fell 33.7% last year, reaching just 77,865, the lowest volume of the series.

89.8% of homes transferred by merchanting last year were non-subsidized and 10.2% were subsidized. In total, the sale of non-subsidized homes increased by 11.1% in 2015, while subsidized home transactions increased by 10.8% reaching 36,077 transactions, after several years of decline.

Andalucía, ahead of housing sales

In 2015, the highest number of home sales per 100,000 inhabitants took place in Valencia (1,322) and the Balearic Islands (1,177).

Andalusia was the region performing the highest number of transactions during last year reaching 70,739, followed by Catalonia (54,571), Region of Valencia (51,788) and Madrid (50,373).

The regions that performed a lower number of sales were La Rioja (2,561), Castilla y León (4,298 transactions) and Navarra (4,313).

In relative values, home sales rose in all regions in 2015, except for Navarra, where they decreased by 1.7%. The regions where these transactions increased the most were the Basque Country (+ 17.2%) and Aragón (+ 16.6%).

Total properties transferred in 2015 increase by 4.6%

Adding the urban and rural properties (homes and other urban nature properties), the properties transferred in 2015 reached 1,634,670, an increase of 4.6% over the previous year, thus returning to positive figures after having fallen by 4.5% in 2014.

Properties transferred by merchanting increased by 8.1% with respect to 2014, while donations increased by 2%, exchange transactions fell by 9.2%, and those transmitted by inheritance advanced by 6.6%.

According to the INE, the number of rural property sales increased by 6.5% in 2015, reaching a total of 126,470 transactions, thus adding its fifth consecutive year of increase, while urban property sales increased by 8.4%, reaching 627,128 transactions.

In the last month of 2015, home sales increased by 6.8% with reference to December 2014, reaching 27,625 transactions and lowering by nearly seven points the 13.7% year-on-year increase registered in November. With the rise in December, home sales accumulates 16 consecutive months of year-on-year increases.

In month-on-month rates (December 2015 compared to November of the same year), home sales fell by 3.9%, compared with increases of 1.6% and 2.4% recorded in December 2013 and 2014, respectively.

Original story: El Economista (Europa Press)

Translation: Aura Ree