Tag: Andalusia

Andalusian Regional Government to Sell Land and Buildings Worth €320 Million

15 October 2019 – The Andalusian regional government is preparing an auction of unused buildings and plots of land. The region’s General Directorate for Heritage has begun the process to sell, in a series of separate auctions, tens of thousands of square meters of land and of unused buildings. The public auction is expected to raise as much as 320 million euros, according to the draft budget for 2020.

The government has already announced the first sale, 22 properties with a base price of 47.1 million euros, though Andalusia hopes to raise much more. After that, the government plans to sell a batch of urban plots of land in the first quarter of 2020.

Original Story: ABC de Sevilla – Antonio R. Vega

Adaptation/Translation: Richard D. K. Turner

Xpandia to Invest €43 Million in Hotels in Valencia, Andalusia and Madrid

16 September 2019 – Xpandia, a developer specialising in building hotels, announced that it expects to invest a total of 43 million euros in eight assets throughout 2019. The company currently has five projects underway and is looking to acquire another three. All but one of the assets are located in Valencia and Andalusia. The last is in Madrid and would be Xpandia’s first investment in Spain’s capital.

Original Story: Eje Prime – Marc Vidal Ordeig

Adaptation/Translation: Richard D. K. Turner

The Regional Government of Andalusia to Invest in New Logistics and Tech Platform for the Bay of Cadíz

25 July 2019 – Richard D. K. Turner

The Regional Government of Andalusia confirmed that it would maintain its planned investment of 188 million euros to develop the Bahía de Cádiz Technology and Logistics Platform, replacing the Aletas project. With this, the government plans to make the logistics sector boost economic growth in the Bay of Cadíz area.

The government would transfer the bulk of Aletas’ current assets and liabilities into a new company called Logic, maintaining a 45% participation.

In total, Logic has 257 hectares, including 160 hectares of new land and 97 of available land. Logic plans to develop a total of approximately 450 hectares of productive land.

Original Story: El Vigía

Tech Firm Keysight Leases 2,000 Square Meters of Office Space in PTA

10 October 2018

Iberdrola Inmobiliaria has leased space in its Malaga Business Park, located within the Technological Park of Andalusia (PTA), to the American multinational Keysight.

Malaga is still on a roll. The capital of Malaga is no longer just on the map of the Spanish real estate market because of its residential sector, as evidenced by Iberdrola Inmobiliaria’s rental of 2,200 square meters of offices to the US multinational Keysight Technologies.

The Californian company will take over space in several buildings in the Malaga Business Park, located within the Technological Park of Andalucía (PTA). The operation is one of the largest this year in the province, by volume, and also completes the occupation of the office complex.

Keysight will now become a neighbour to other large corporations such as PwC, Riplife Gaming Technologies, Unitono and Eurocem, as noted by Iberdrola’s real estate arm. In its entirety, the Malaga Business Park has 18,000 square meters of constructed area.

This most recent transaction is a reflection of the growth of the office market in the city of Malaga, where the occupation of its prime areas exceeds 90%, as EjePrime reported last March. The Malagan office market saw significant demand in the central zone and the financial area of ​​the capital in 2017. In these two areas, the stock of available offices was significantly reduced, which led to an increase in rents to 18 euros per square meter in the central street Larios, according to a report by Savills Aguirre Newman.

Original Story: EjePrime

Translation: Richard Turner

Airbnb Delists 18,000 Andalusian Rental Flats Lacking Registration

5 October 2018

Since Monday, the online short-term rental platform is only displaying properties in Andalusia that are registered with the tourism office, reducing its supply to 40,800 listings.

Beginning this week, the vacation rental giant Airbnb will only display listings for homes in Andalusia that comply with local regulations and have the relevant registration number. The new requirement has led the online platform to eliminate 18,000 listings in Andalusia, reducing the supply in the region to 40,800, the company announced. The new rules are a severe blow to informal offerings in the region which will now no longer be able to advertise on the most important website for holiday rentals. “This unique agreement provides present and future hosts with the security and clarity they need to share their home responsibly,” the company stated.

Although the platform does not have data by province, statistics provided by the Tourism Registry of Andalusia points to a high concentration of tourist apartments on the Costa del Sol, an area that accounts for more than half of the supply of tourist housing for the region as a whole. The latest figures showed that 24,342 tourist apartments were registered in the province of Malaga, equivalent to a total of 127,218 beds.

Airbnb stated that almost half of the 18,000 listing for flats that were delisted for not having the necessary registration with the Tourism Registry of Andalusia had not had any reservations in the last year. The rest operated normally, despite not complying with the regulation. Airbnb’s new requirement served to remove those offerings from the market. That became possible after the company reached a compromise with the local government, through which Airbnb implemented a simplified online registration system earlier this year aimed at helping Andalusian hosts to comply with local rental laws.

“Airbnb’s agreement with the municipality was implemented in full on October 1. After the creation of a simplified online registration system, we have deactivated the advertisements that, as of September 30, did not include a registration number in accordance with the Andalusian tourism law,” the company announced. After the reduction, the platform now has 40,800 listings for tourist properties in Andalusia. The company also stated that almost 80% of property owners, or hosts, as the company calls them, have just one listing, while just 2% have more than five.

The typical Andalusian host is 47 years old and rents their property for 33 days a year. The majority of hosts are women (53%), and 79% of them have between 30 and 59 years of age.

The platform values its cooperation with the municipality and sees it as a model for the future. “Airbnb cooperated with the Andalusian government to create a tool that helps to support the community of responsible home sharers and is the only platform that is committed to sharing data with the authorities, making the task of inspection easier.”

Other online platforms grouped under the PAT banner announced that they would request mandatory registration for any new holiday homes in Andalusia starting this week. The association, made up of HomeAway, Rentalia, Spain-Holiday.com and Niumba, has a total of more than 60,000 holiday homes in Andalusia. It is another step towards the elimination of the informal market in the region and will further encourage the registration of flats that operate in the sector. Also, the PAT platforms announced their commitment to seek “solutions and tools” to extend the registration requirement to the entire supply of flats in Andalusia. The local government also announced “concrete actions” to create a new state framework for the sector by the end of the year.

Original Story: Diário Sur – Pilar Martínez

Photo: Francis Silva

Translation: Richard Turner

Andalusia Decrees Safeguards to Prevent Sale of Protected Housing to Vulture Funds

28 August 2018

Regulatory changes were approved to reinforce the social function of the stock of public residential housing.

The Governing Council of the Regional Executive approved a decree on Tuesday amending the Regulation of Protected Housing in Andalusia, in force since 2006, to strengthen the social character of the stock of  and shield it from private capital.

The norm, called Defence Decree for Publicly-Owned Residential Housing of the Autonomous Community of Andalusia, adapts the regulations to the current state of the real estate sector and increases the guarantees that prevent the properties from ending up in the hands of vulture funds, with the consequent damage for families with limited resources.

As a spokesman of the Andalusian Regional Executive explained in a press conference, the text expressly prohibits the sale of property owned by the public administration to legal entities, thus formalising a measure that the Junta de Andalucía already applies in practice. To date, the executive has never carried out this type of operation with profit-seeking private entities.

The approved decree, which enjoyed input from social agents through the Andalusian Housing Observatory, also incorporates measures that guarantee compliance with the housing’s social function. Among them are included further specification of the people who can use protected housing and in what situations it can be accessed, setting new mechanisms to ensure that the properties remain the habitual and permanent domicile of the chosen families.

Thus, the regulation establishes that only natural persons may be awarded residency and excludes legal entities, though not non-profits, which may be the official tenants provided that the end users belong to groups with special difficulties in accessing a home.

A response to increasing prices due to tourist accommodations

On the other hand, the text broadens the powers of administrations’ rights of first refusal and withdrawal over any protected dwelling, regarding both ownership and rent. Also, with the increase in rent as a result of the interest in tourist accommodations, added guarantees were introduced to prevent that any property is used by any party other than the authorised family.

However, the protected homes may now be used to carry out any economic activity, provided that it is the habitual and permanent residence of the person who exercises it. Likewise, swaps and transfers of protected homes owned by the same developer will not be considered as assignments. Consequently, those transfers will not be subject to the municipal registry by the claimants.

Finally, the decree also modifies the regulation of these registries, in effect since 2012, to give priority in the adjudication processes to registered people promoting housing cooperatives and not, as it has been the case to date, to plaintiffs who express their interest in forming part of them.

Original Story: Eldiário.es / Europa Press

Translation: Richard Turner

 

The Future of Seventy Plots of Land in Central Málaga Unblocked Today After Failure of “Technocasas”

7 August 2018

The City Council and the Board will meet to distribute payments and land through an agreement that must be ratified by the regional administrations.

In the totality of the rehabilitation and construction of new buildings in Málaga’s historic centre throughout the boom in tourist accommodations and the recovery of the real estate market after the worst years of the financial crisis, there remains the unresolved question of seventy vacant plots of land and buildings. The properties were set aside 15 years ago by the City Council and the Regional Government of Andalusia to be used in a plan involving ‘technocasas’, rental housing targeting home-office workers. Five years ago, the Ministry of Development and Housing, run by Izquierda Unida at the time, opted to renounce the project as unfeasible.

More than two years ago, in May 2016, the Consistory and the Andalusian Government agreed to divide the lots, liquidate any pending financial committments from their expropriation and allow private initiative to decide on a use for some of the lots. In April, answering questions by the parliamentarian Mariví Romero (PP), the counsellor for Development, Felipe Lopez, announced that the situation would be resolved “in a few days.” However, a few bureaucratic procedures must still be resolved before the situation is, in fact, resolved, though decisive steps are expected today.

The areas included

San Felipe Neri – Plot of land and unoccupied buildings in Alta, Parras, Chinchilla (links Alta street with the church of San Felipe Neri) and Dos Aceras (stretch between Guerrero and Gaona streets) streets.

Lagunillas – Plot of land and vacant buildings in the sector bounded by Ana Bernal, Lagunillas, Esperanza, Agustín Moreto and Victoria streets.

Cobertizo del Conde – Plot of land and unoccupied buildings in the Cobertizo del Conde, Poeta Luque Gutiérrez and Gómez Salazar streets.

Rosal Blanco, Álvarez and Ermitaño – Plot of land and unoccupied buildings located behind the convent of Mercedarias, in the neighbourhood of El Molinillo.

Pasaje Meléndez Passage and calle Cabello – Plot of land and unoccupied buildings next to Calle Ollerías.

Gigantes – Plot of land and empty buildings at the back of Carretería Street, including Grama Street.

Ñuño Gómez – Plot of land and empty buildings between Nuño Gómez and Biedmas streets.

It is the end result of a commission to monitor the technocasas compact, which involved parties responsible for urban planning and housing of the two administrations to come to an agreement regarding the distribution of land and economic obligations and housing development to be assumed by the City Council and the Andalusian Government to liquidate the matter. The conclusion of the commission is the necessary procedure so that the case, with the resolution document of the original technocasas agreement, signed in 2005, can be sent to the legal office of the Regional Government of Andalusia for final approval. When will that definitive ratification arrive and free up the lots? Sources at the regional administration consulted by this newspaper stated that it should is not expected to take too long, because it is an issue that is already extensively analysed.

Commitments

Under the terms of the agreement reached between the City Council and the Board on the issue, the Consistory would pay a total of 2.5 million euros to the Board for the purchase of various plots for road and equipment, including the birthplace of Canovas del Castillo (valued at 645,831 euros) and the land on Dos Aceras street in which a citizen centre was built (valued at 437,036 euros). Of that amount, 942,436 euros would be used to pay expropriations of the ‘technocasas’ plan that private individuals have yet to receive.

AVRA, in turn, would yield to the City Council land to build a total of 104 subsidised homes on Lagunillas street and 32 on Gigantes street. The 42 homes planned in the plots on Alta and Parras streets would be developed by the Board. The rest of the lands would be left unattended, in the hands of their owners, or they would be used by the regional Administration for the development of subsidised homes if their expropriation ends.

The construction of VPO is planned for the Lagunillas, Gigantes, Alta and Parras streets

During his appearance last April, the Minister of Development and Housing recalled that the Andalusian Government would develop 28 homes on land on Parras street and 16 in a multi-family home on Curadero street, involving an investment of more than three million euros.

However, the resolution of the ‘technocasas’ agreement is still pending, which, as this newspaper reported (see SUR 30/7/2018), is also impeding the new road connecting the Victoria and Lagunillas streets.

Original Story: Diário Sur – Jesús Hinojosa

Foto: Sur

Translation: Richard Turner

Popular Sells Banco de Andalucía’s HQ In Sevilla For €25M

18 February 2016 – Expansion

New real estate fever is making a large number of transactions boom in Andalusia, especially assets on sale for years. According to EXPANSIÓN, the latest major deal has been featured by Banco Popular, to close a sale agreement of the historic headquarters of Banco Andalucía in Sevilla for EUR 25 million.

The Andalusian company was taken over by Popular, which already had a 80% capital stake in 2009. The remaining stake was largely in the hands of Solis family. 
Two years after this move, the bank chaired by Ángel Ron cleared out the building, located in the heart of Seville. Specifically, it is located at Calle Fernández y González 4 y 6.

The asset has 7,000 square meters distributed in basement, ground floor and six more floors in height. The project of the new owner is opening a hotel, as well as marketing  other street level premises. 
According to sources close to the deal, the purchase has been mediated by Drago Capital on behalf of a company whose identity has not been given. This firm was founded by Oleguer Pujol and Luis Iglesias, currently under investigation for tax fraud and money laundering due to its relationship with the plot of the Catalonian president´s family. One of its most important transaction was the purchase of Santander branch network for 2,000 million.

Original story: Expansion (by Lydia Velasco)

Translation: Aura Ree

Solvia Will Create A Network Of 35 Real Estate Agencies

15 February 2016 – Expansion

Banco Sabadell property sold properties for 1.657 million in 2015, year in which it made a 24 million profit.


Solvia just closed the most important financial year since becoming the real estate subsidiary of Banco Sabadell. After integrating in record time the management of an asset portfolio from SAREB for a gross value of EUR 13,000 million, the company has doubled in size and rocketed both its income and benefits for its staff. Thus, assets under management have grown from EUR 15,000 million to 28,000 million, with a total of 140,000 sites operated throughout Spain, of which 66,400 assets are homes. 
The server is now preparing to take a new step in its growth strategy: to launch this year a network of real estate agents in order to capture private home sales market. This means that the company will now market homes that neither belong to the bank or to SAREB nor to promoters to which Sabadell has financed. 
The first Solvia street real estate office has just opened in Alicante as a pilot. However, the intention of the company is to extend the initiative and open 35 more agencies throughout 2016, as Javier Garcia del Rio – director general of the servicer, explains 
The plan of the real estate company is that its chain of agencies focus, in the first phase in Valencia, Catalonia, Balearic Islands, Andalusia and Madrid, the most populated areas and where Solvia has more business experience. “The goal of the agencies network of is not to sell homes already existing in our portfolio, but accessing the individual market, which is much larger and the fastest growing” he says.

Results

In total, the volume of sales mediated by Solvia in 2015 amounted to EUR 1.657 billion, exceeding by 20% the initial budget, which corresponds to the end customer´s sale price. This figure is 43% higher than that of 2014; but excluding SAREB portfolios – which did not compute through all the year, the increase was 17%. If transactions are calculated based on the gross value, sales totaled EUR 2,954 million. The goal for this year is to sell properties for 2,000 million in terms of the final sales price. 
Thanks to the commissions generated by these transactions and fees in management concept Solvia charges its customers and asset owners -Sabadell, SAREB and some international investment fund which has assigned to them their portfolios in Spain, the company invoiced 121 million in 2015. Earnings before taxes (EBT) reached 24 million- a 117% increase over the budget-, making Solvia a profitable subsidiary of Sabadell. The goal is a benefit exceeding 50 million in 2016.

The staff doubles 

Solvia increased its staff by 87% last year, going from 243 to 453 workers. 56% are located in Alicante, where the corporate headquarters and the core business of the company are, and also has employees in Madrid (20% of the total) and Barcelona (16%). 
35% of Solvia sales come from the network of independent real estate agents (APIs) it works with; 17% are contacts made by branches of Banco Sabadell, and the remaining 48% are direct sales made by the servicer through their website, participation in fairs and own agents.

The development, Key     

Another big Solvia´s business legs Solvia is housing development on behalf of Sabadell Bank on the best sites it has on its balance sheet. Since 2014, it totals 64 developments with more than 2,600 finished, in progress or planned homes. “With the direct development we allow the bank to maximize the value of their assets,” he explains. 
According to Garcia del Rio, unlike other bank real estate platforms, Solvia has an industrial and non-financial profile. In this regard, it promotes very little credit – only some portfolios coming from Ceiss- and its vocation is not to disappear once all the real estate bank load has been sold, but to expand its business to be a permanent real estate agent in the market. 
In this line, it is already negotiating with several funds in order to manage its assets and wants to grow in consultancy and sale of properties to family offices and all kind of investors in the middle segment of thye market Thus, in 2015 the retail sales of Solvia fell to 64% and the remaining 36% were operations with investors.

Original story: Expansion (by Sergi Saborit)

Translation: Aura Ree