Tag: banco popular

GS & Cerberus Exit ‘Project Elcano’ Due To Political Uncertainty

24 June 2015 – El Confidencial

Banco Popular, led by Ángel Ron (pictured above), is seeking to divest real estate assets worth €500 million (Project Elcano), but the political uncertainty in Spain is making investors nervous.

According to sources close to proceedings, the main candidates in the running to take over Popular’s portfolio – namely, the private equity fund Cerberus and Goldman Sachs – have decided to postpone investment until after the general election in November, by which time the current uncertain outlook in the country should have cleared.

The same sources add that these two candidates have indicated to Popular that, given the situation in the country following the results of the municipal and regional elections and the subsequent (political) agreements being made, they are not willing to pay the price demanded by the bank; i.e. if the entity really wants to sell, then it will have to lower its (price) expectations.

Ron’s response has been negative because he is not willing to assume additional losses over and above the provisions already recognised against this portfolio. Moreover, other parties are interested in the operation, which means that it could still go ahead before the elections. A spokesman for Popular declined to comment on this information.

This withdrawal is not an isolated case. The uncertainty generated following 24-M (the municipal and regional elections held on 24 May) has had a dual effect amongst the large international investors: firstly, it has made them cautious and slam down on the breaks, whereby delaying numerous deals. Secondly, it has made them reduce their bids, which has punctured the emerging bubble that was forming in the Spanish market, particularly with respect to high quality assets. (…).

Nervousness in the market

Thus, Popular is the latest victim of this new environment in the Spanish market. However, investors and asset managers consider that the case of this bank in particular in more concerning. They are worried about Popular’s sizeable exposure to real estate (it holds around €11,000 million of RE on its books, net of provisions), because they consider that it is not sufficiently provisioned and its latent losses may require new capital contributions. As a result, the announcement that it was going to divest an initial package of €500 million assets generated relief in the market.

For this reason, these latest problems around closing the sale have made some players in the market very nervous. Yesterday, that resulted in decreases of 1.16% on the stock exchange on a day of increases for the Ibex. Popular’s share price has increased by around 15% this year, i.e. by more than the rest of the sector, with the exception of BBVA and Sabadell, however its valuation still falls below those of the major players in the sector at 0.76 times its book value. (…).

Original story: El Confidencial (by Eduardo Segovia)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Sareb Is Selling The Assets It Inherited From Polaris

7 May 2015 – Expansión

The company has appointed N+1 to manage the sale of 3 golf courses, two 5-star hotels and several residential estates.

Sareb wants to cut its ties with one of the ‘great chapters’ of the real estate bubble as soon as possible. In the last few days, the company chaired by Jaime Echegoyen has started the process to dispose of the property it inherited from Polaris World, by putting a portfolio with a nominal value of €500 million up for sale. The market price may amount to less than half of that value.

The portfolio comprises three golf courses, two five-star hotels and several residential complexes, built in Murcia by Polaris, which Sareb inherited in the form of property developer loans from Banco Valencia and Bankia. The sale also includes loans with real estate collateral that have not yet been foreclosed.

Sareb has appointed N+1 to manage the process and according to sources at funds consulted by Expansión, the firm has already distributed information to potential investors (corresponding to the so-called) Project Birdie.

The assets and loans up for sale come from Inversiones en Resorts del Mediterráneo (IRM), a company created in 2009 by Bancaja, Banco de Valencia, Popular and CAM to manage the Polaris assets that were left after the property developer’s debt was restructured.

Sareb’s decision to sell has generated confusion for the other two creditors, Banco Popular and Sabadell – following the latter’s absorption of CAM – because they were not notified (in advance) and because they believe that the best way of maximising the value from IRM’s assets is a block sale, given that they comprise a single residential estate and six golf courses. As a result, it is likely that these entities will contact Sareb over the next few days with a view to repositioning the sale.

When IRM was created, the company held assets worth €991 million, although by the end of 2013 – the latest available accounts – they had deteriorated (in value) by almost €500 million. The owners of its capital are Sabadell – covered by CAM’s EPA (Asset Protection Scheme or Esquema de Protección de Activos) – Bankia, CaixaBank and Popular.

Original story: Expansión (by Jorge Zuloaga)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Popular Places A €1,000M Mortgage Bond Issue At 1%

25 March 2015 – Expansión

The entity has completed a 10-year mortgage bond issue amounting to €1,000 million.

The placement carries a coupon of 1%, the lowest historical rate for Popular in the last ten years. The most recent bond issue made by Popular in April 2014 carried a coupon of 2.125% and had a five and a half year term.

Specifically, 78% of the demand for the bond issue has come from international investors. It has managed to attract a lot of investors and achieve an oversubscription of 1.4 x.

In terms of the nationalities of the international investors: 31% were from Germany and 15% were from the UK and Ireland. Demand for the bond issue was highly diversified, comprising 80 orders. By type of investor, 47% were fund managers, 32% were central banks and 19% were banks.

Original story: Expansión

Translation: Carmel Drake

The State Will Lose €1,000m From Martinsa’s Liquidation

4 March 2015 – Expansión

The collapse of the real estate company will result in losses of €1,000 million for Bankia and the ‘bad bank’.

According to experts, Blesa assumed ‘a high risk’ in the company for ‘possible favourable treatment’.

The State will become the biggest loser following the largest liquidation in Spain’s history. The bankruptcy of Martinsa Fadesa will have already cost Bankia – due to the loans it inherited from the savings banks it acquired – and the bad bank Sareb more than €1,000 million and this amount may end up exceeding €1,3000 million, according to sources from the real estate sector.

The Chairman of Martinsa Fadesa, Fernando Martín (pictured), has filed for the company’s liquidation after he failed to reach an agreement with its creditors, led by Sareb. The bad bank holds debt of more than €1,400 million that it inherited mainly from Caja Madrid, but also from other nationalised savings banks. According to sources at Martinsa, it would have been less costly for the bad bank – whose financial risk is guaranteed 100% by the State – to accept an agreement with Martín, because then it would have been able to recover at least 25% of its debt, but that now becomes impossible due to its bankruptcy.

Yesterday, various vulture funds offered to purchase Martinsa Fadesa’s debt for a discount of up to 96%, given the high probability that all of the creditors will lose the bulk of the funds they lent, according to market sources.

Sources at Sareb responded that, “unfortunately, the best option is the one that has gone ahead; there was no viable alternative in terms of (the real estate company’s) continuity”. At the bad bank, whose primary shareholder is the state-owned FROB, with a 45% stake, they think that it too early to talk about and quantify losses. They still think that they will be able to recover the amount loaned to Martinsa Fadesa from the liquidation of its assets in the full course of time.

Sareb is Martinsa’s main creditor with its aforementioned debt of €1,400 million, followed by CaixaBank (€908 million) and Banco Popular (€580 million). In total, the real estate company’s debt amounts to €7,000 million and the creditors consider that only €800 million of the real estate company’s assets have any value; they are going to dispute them to avoid Sareb taking a clean sweep.

The background to this disaster began in 2007 when, according to expert reports from the Bank of Spain, Caja Madrid became “one of the entities that assumed the most risk in the merger of Martinsa and Fadeas” when it assumed exposure in the real estate company amounting to €1,032 million “of which only 28% was secured”. The experts maintain that the then Chairman of Caja Madrid, Miguel Blesa, was incited by the offer of “possible favourable treatment” from the real estate company created by Fernando Martín. The person responsible for granting the loan at Caja Madrid, Carlos Vela, was hired by Martín as the new CEO but, one year later, he was recruited back to the savings bank again by Blesa, days before the real estate company logged its first suspension of payments. Subsequently, Caja Madrid’s exposure to Martinsa was taken on by the new BFA-Bankia group, together with other amounts from Bancaja and the other savings banks that were integrated as part of the merger. And in 2012, the European Union conditioned its bailout of the Spanish banking sector on the creation of Sareb, amongst other measures. The then new Chairman of Bankia, José Ignacio Goirigolzarri, transferred the toxic assets to Sareb at a discount of more than 50%, which represented the State’s first loss of more than €500 million in the case of Martinsa, although the entity did not disclose the actual amount. Other nationalised savings banks did the same thing, whereby converting Sareb into Martinsa Fadesa’s largest creditor.

Sareb was confident that, having purchased the debt at a discount, it would be able to recover and even make a profit on its exposure, if Martinsa Fadesa managed to improve its situation, however that proved impossible. Last year, Fernando Martín offered the bad bank a refinancing agreement, which involved a haircut of 66% in return for becoming a shareholder. Sareb ruled that option out as it questioned Martín’s management and the fact that the Chairman had earned a fixed salary of €1.5million per year despite the company’s woes.

Sources close to the property developer say that this salary “is negligible compared with the €2,400 million that he himself lost following the acquisition of Fadesa” and they deny that representatives from Sareb and from other banks had requested his departure during the final weeks in return for accepting the haircut. “They have not made that request in any of the meetings, on the contrary, they have asked him to continue at the helm”.

The creditor banks indicate that, like with all liquidation cases, there will now be an investigation to determine whether Martín is criminally liable; they criticise the fact that he has embarked on expensive adventures in recent months, such as filing the lawsuit against the former owner of Fadesa, Manuel Jove. “The legal costs of the defeat against Jove may exceed €60 million”. “False”,  reply Martinsa, “they will be less than €20 million”,.

Either way, the figures are vast, and mean that the real estate company becomes a symbol of the rise and fall of the property boom that was supported by the savings banks.

It now remains to be seen who will administer the complex liquidation process. The favourite, KPMG, may be conflicted out because it has worked with Sareb in the past.

Original story: Expansión

Translation: Carmel Drake

The Banks Reject Martinsa’s Plan And Plunge It Into Liquidation

27 February 2015 – Expansión

The real estate company owned by Fernando Martín has liabilities amounting to €6,600 million.

In 2008, the real estate company Martinsa filed for the largest bankruptcy in Spain’s history.

On Thursday, the creditor banks put a final end to the adventure that Fernando Martín first began back in 2006. Then, the property developer from Valladolid, who appeared in the Forbes list of the richest men in the world, was evaluating the purchase of the Galician company Fadesa, a real estate giant with assets valued at more than €13,000 million located in 13 countries.

The financial institutions plunged Martinsa Fadesa into liquidation, by definitively rejecting the proposed agreement that Martín submitted to Commercial Court number 1 in A Coruña on 30 December, as they considered it to be “unacceptable”, according to comments from various creditor banks. The company has liabilities of €6,600 million, of which €5,500 million relate to financial debt.

In 2008, Martinsa Fadesa filed for Spain’s largest ever creditor bankruptcy, with a debt that amounted to €7,800 million at the time. Although the company reached an agreement to exit from that judicial process, it admitted last year that it was incapable of meeting the obligations of the (revised) agreement for the second year in a row, and it warned of an equity imbalance of €4,473 million. All of that led directly to its liquidation. Following the reform of the bankruptcy laws, Martín presented successive proposals, baptised with the name Aurora Plan, to the creditor banks, to renegotiate the debt. The bank rejected them time and again.

The latest plan, which was presented to the court unilaterally, proposed a 70% reduction to the debt balance and the liquidation of some of the liabilities through deeds in lieu. As a sweetener, Martín included the share of the capital that he thought he would obtain from a potentially favourable sentence in the lawsuit that he had brought against the former owner of Fadesa, Manuel Jove. He filed a claim for €1,576 million against him, on the basis that the sale had gone ahead despite certain irregularities. Martín’s plan involved slimming down the property developer to leave it with a structure of €883 million in assets and €489 million in liabilities.

Financial sources agree that they never accepted any of these conditions: they thought that the discount was excessive, that the assets held overseas were overvalued by 417% and that Martín was going to retain ownership of the best plots of land and properties in the portfolio. In the end, the Supreme Court ruled in favour of Jove and ordered Martín to pay the legal costs, which had risen at least €60 million, an amount the company simply cannot afford to pay.

The negotiations with the banks were led by a group of four banks, comprising Sareb – the bad bank – CaixaBank, Banco Popular and Abanca, which held almost 60% of the financial debt. The entities – altogether the company owes money to around twenty – decided to take control of the real estate company, just like they did with Metrovacesa and Colonial, respectively. Industry sources explained that most of the entities had already made provisions against their loans to Martinsa Fadesa, which filed for bankruptcy in 2008. However Sareb has not, since it acquired the toxic loans from nationalised banks at substantial discounts.

The real estate company, which employs around 70 people, does not have any developments underway. Therefore, in the end, the banks preferred to let the company fail, and for the judge to set in motion the process of orderly liquidation, whereby subjecting the company’s assets to a strict valuation.

Original story: Expansión (by Lluís Pellicer)

Translation: Carmel Drake

RE Managers Ranking: Solvia & Anida Vie With Vulture Funds

25 February 2015 – El Confidencial

Banco Sabadell and its real estate arm Solvia have infiltrated the top ranking of (Spain’s) real estate managers, which mainly includes vulture funds. These funds now have (assets under management amounting to) €278,000 million.

The international funds have consolidated their position as the new players in the real estate sector after Sareb’s latest auction. In fact, together, the so-called vulture funds control a portfolio of assets amounting to more than €278,000 million, including land; properties; and mortgage and developer debt. There are some important exceptions (in the ranking), such as Solvia (Banco Sabadell) and Anida (BBVA), but the top positions are held by institutional investors such as TPG (Servihabitat), Cerberus (Haya Real Estate) and Apollo (Altamira), who monopolise the sector.

Following the bid for Sareb’s assets, the largest manager or servicer is Servihabitat, owned by Caixabank (51%) and the US fund TPG (49%). In total, the company manages €58,698 million, having taken on €19,725 million from Sareb. The entity was already ranked first or second-place, depending on whether the loans in its portfolio were included in the calculations, rather than just the properties.

Since the start of the year, Servihabitat has controlled 21% of the assets of the so-called servicers, including properties and loans. Following the auction, it now also manages assets of Nova Caixa Galicia, Liberbank and Banco de Valencia. This hegemony has been thanks to Sareb’s most recent auction, which was held less than two months ago, which awarded portfolios amounting to €41,200 million. The assets (awarded in that auction) have been managed by the winning companies since 1 January 2015.

The main upset (in the rankings) has been Banco Sabadell and its real estate arm Solvia, which has infiltrated the ranking of the top property managers in Spain. The bank was one of the few that did not sell its real estate portfolio to the vulture funds, like most of its competitors did, and as a result, it has become the fourth largest entity in the (servicing) sector, a surprise gate-crasher to the party, with assets of €39,765 million. Of this amount, €17,187 million came from the most recent auction, in the form of assets that came from Bankia. 43% of the assets that Solvia now manages came from Sareb. It has a 13% share of that market.

Off the podium

In this sense, another important development is that of Apollo. Previously it was the sixth largest player. Now, following the auction and its purchase of Altamira from Banco Santander for €700 million at the end of 2013, it has risen to third place. This bronze medal position reflects the fact that Altamira-Apollo now manages €46,566 million. It has acquired more than half of its property and loan (€26,056 million) from Sareb. The entity has a 17% share of Sareb’s market.

These increases have been achieved at the expense of another operator, Anida, which has dropped down the rankings to fifth place. Anida is the real estate arm of BBVA and has more than €25,000 million assets under management. It is one of only a handful of companies of this type, which, like Solvia, has not allowed foreign funds to participate in its capital. Neither Anida nor Aliseda, which was sold by Banco Popular to Värde Partners and Kennedy Wilson for €815 million, participated in the most recent auction and so they lost size in a business where critical mass is fundamental.

Haya Real Estate, owned by Cerberus, is still the entity that depends most heavily on the Sareb. It controls assets that mainly come from Bankia and so 65% of its portfolio depends on the Sareb contract, much more than Altamira (55%) and Solvia (43%).

By contrast, from all of the large players, Servihabitat is the one that is least dependent on the bad bank, despite having won some of the lots it has auctioned, since it already had a significant asset base. It depends on Sareb for 33% of its portfolio only, which means, on paper, that it should have a higher operating management margin than its closest competitors.

Original story: El Confidencial (by Marcos Lamelas)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Reyal Urbis Offers Its Banks 20% Of The Debt It Owes Them

13 February 2015 – Expansión

The listed real estate company Reyal Urbis will submit its payment proposal today to allow it to overcome the bankruptcy process in which it has been immersed for two years now.

The real estate company controlled by Rafael Santamaría will offer its creditors, which include entities such as Santander, Banco Popular and RBS, as well as Sareb and ICO, a haircut of 80% of the debt and the payment of the remainder through the transfer of assets.

The real estate company filed for bankruptcy in February 2013, after a string of up to four refinancing processes. According to the bankruptcy report, the company has a debt of €3,978 million, an equity deficit of €2,878 million and assets amounting to just €1,474 million. After selling off various iconic assets, such as the ABC Serrano and Castellana 200 shopping centres, both in Madrid, and the Diagonal Port Hotel in Barcelona, Reyal and its creditors have been working together to distribute the rest of its assets, in the form of lots, which will be awarded through a draw.

The tax authorities

The proposal for an 80% haircut will not apply to all of the creditors, since the real estate company will propose a different offer to the Tax Authorities.

Reyal Urbis will offer to pay the Public Administration the full amount it owes in cash (€400 million) over the long term, say sources close to the process.

Creditors have until 13 March to accept or reject Reyal Urbis’ proposal. If it does not obtain the agreement of the entities, the real estate company will end up with a small lot of assets and a manageable debt.

Original story: Expansión (by Rocío Ruiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake

CNMC Authorises Santander’s Purchase Of Bankia’s 19% Stake In Metrovacesa

13 February 2015 – Expansión

With this purchase, Santander will assume ownership of 55.8% of the share capital, whereby taking control of the real estate company.

Santander has received authorisation from the National Markets and Competition Commission (Comisión Nacional de los Mercados y la Competencia or CNMC) to purchase Bankia’s 19% stake in Metrovacesa and whereby assume control of the property company, by taking ownership of 55.8% of its share capital.

The ‘super regulator’ has authorised the first phase of the operation, which is not deemed to generate any competition concerns, according to the records of the body.

At the beginning of December, Santander agreed to buy the 19% stake that Bankia, the nationalised bank, holds in Metrovacesa for €100 million.

Thus, by virtue of the transaction, the bank chaired by Ana Patricia Botín takes control of the real estate company and Bankia fulfils a new milestone in its plan to divest its industrial holdings, and also records a profit of €13 million as a result.

After Santander, the other shareholders in Metrovacesa are BBVA, with an 18.3% stake, Banco Sabadell (13%) and Banco Popular (12.6%).

The Sanahuja family

The company has been controlled by the aforementioned financial institutions since February 2009, when they foreclosed the debt held by the Sanahuja family, the then controlling shareholder of the company.

For Metrovacesa, which was delisted from the stock exchange in May 2013, the takeover by Santander represents a new phase in its share ownership.

The real estate company, which was once controlled by BBVA, was acquired from that entity in 2004 through a takeover bid (oferta pública de adquisición or OPA) by Bami, the company owned by Joaquín Rivero. Subsequently, the company was the subject of a ‘takeover war’ between the businessman and the Sanahuja family, but eventually the banks took control.

Metrovacesa is dedicated to the rental of real estate assets. Its portfolio includes buildings covering more than 1.1 million square metres, comprising offices, shopping centres and hotels, which are mainly located in Madrid and Barcelona. Amongst others, it is the owner of the iconic Torre Madrid in Plaza de España in Madrid, which will soon house a hotel to be operated by the Barceló chain.

Original story: Expansión

Translation: Carmel Drake

Spanish Banks’ Q4 Results Show Demand For Loans Picking Up

2 February 2015 – WSJ

Two Spanish lenders, Caixabank SA and Banco Popular Español SA, reported fourth-quarter results on Friday that showed an uptick in demand for loans as the country chugs toward economic recovery.

Caixabank and Banco Popular said new loans were up in the fourth quarter compared with a year earlier, led by demand from businesses in particular, while mortgage lending was less vibrant. That trend was in line with results reported on Thursday by Banco de Sabadell SA.

Still, an increase in loan issuance wasn’t enough to offset the wave of individuals and businesses that are focused on paying down their existing debts, rather than taking on new debt. The amount Caixabank lent to customers in 2014 fell nearly 5% compared with the previous year and 0.5% at Banco Popular during the same period.

Caixabank Chief Executive Gonzalo Gortázar said new loan production in 2015, particularly to businesses, is likely to be strong enough to outpace the rate at which borrowers are paying off debts. Caixabank is likely to see its total loan portfolio grow around 7% in 2015, Mr. Gortázar said at a news conference, buoyed by the acquisition of Barclays PLC’s retail banking division in Spain, which closed on Jan. 2.

“Credit is returning to the economy,” Mr. Gortázar said. “New loan production is accelerating each quarter.”

Overall in the Spanish banking system, he said, total loan volumes should stop declining and stabilize around zero or 1%.

Sabadell executives said Thursday they anticipated a turnaround this year at their bank as well, with growth in the total loan book of around 1%-2% thanks to an increase in loans to small and medium-size businesses.

The “deleveraging” process in Spain has weakened lenders’ returns in recent quarters and makes analysts anxious about future growth. But bank executives acknowledge that it is healthy for individuals and businesses in Spain to slough off layers of debt accumulated during a frenzied building boom, which went bust starting in 2008 and sunk the country into several years of recession.

Caixabank reported net profit of €154 million ($174.3 million) in the fourth quarter of 2014. The bank said it had restated its 2013 accounts because of a contribution to Spain’s deposit guarantee fund, leading to a €142 million loss in the fourth quarter of 2013.

The Barcelona-based bank said fourth-quarter net interest income was €1.08 billion compared with €1.02 billion a year earlier. That was in line with analysts’ expectations.

Caixabank shares were down 2% in early afternoon trading in Madrid. Credit Suisse Group AG analysts said in a research report that the bank’s results were “mixed,” with weak trading income and higher-than expected impairments, including €195 million of early retirement charges.

Banco Popular, Spain’s sixth largest bank by market value, reported net profit of €99.4 million ($112.5 million) in the fourth quarter of 2014, up from €79.6 million a year earlier. The bank said fourth-quarter net interest income was €570.9 million compared with €581.5 million a year earlier. Banco Popular shares were up 0.7%.

Net interest income, a key driver of revenue for retail banks like Caixabank, is the difference between how much a bank earns on clients’ loans and how much it pays clients for their deposits.

Separately, Bankia SA has postponed its 2014 annual results presentation while Spain’s bank-bailout fund, known as Frob, weighs how potential litigation expenses should be divided between the bailed-out bank and its parent company, a Bankia spokesman said Friday.

Bankia, which Spain spent €22.4 billion in European Union funds to clean up in 2012 following a real-estate bust, was set to report earnings on Feb. 2.

Spain’s bank-bailout fund Frob still owns the majority of Bankia. The bailed-out bank, Spain’s fourth-largest by market value, is plagued by lawsuits triggered by fraud allegations related to its 2011 initial public offering. Investors in the IPO suffered steep losses when Bankia was later nationalized. Executives at Bankia at the time say the share sale was above board.

The Bankia spokesman said it is unclear when the bank’s 2014 results will be rescheduled.

Original story: WSJ (by Jeannette Neumann)

Edited by: Carmel Drake

Regional Government of Andalucía Fines BBVA €1.62m

20 January 2015 – Inmodiario

A €60,000 fine for each one of the 27 protected homes not offered up to the municipal registry offices.

In Andalucía, banks and the Sareb are still being fined for not providing their empty subsidised homes to the municipal registry offices.

The partial suspension of the eviction law a year ago by the Constitutional Court following the presentation of the appeal by the central Government, has not impeded the processing of claims in any way, which are ending with the imposition of million-euro fines, which are all being appealed by the affected entities.

Now, it is BBVA’s turn. Its total fine amounts to €1.62m; €60,000 for each one of the 27 accredited homes that were not offered up to the respective Town Halls to be made available to citizens affected by evictions.

The apartments are located in the provinces of Granada (seven), Cádiz (six), Almería (five), Huelva (five), Málaga (two) and Sevilla (two).

According to the Ministry, these homes have not been offered up to the municipal registry offices, which establish the selection mechanisms for the foreclosure of properties under public protection and set the socio-economic requirements for access to them under the principles of equality, openness and accountability.

The fine levied on BBVA follows those levied on two other financial institutions for the same reason: Banco Popular was fined €5.82m for 87 homes and Sabadell was fined €120,000 for two homes. In addition, the Ministry is still investigating potential fines against five other financial institutions, for a total of €3.48m: Building Center (€1.56m for 26 homes), Unión de Créditos Inmobiliarios (€780,000 for 13 homes), Banco Santander (€660,000 for 11 homes), Servihabitat (€360,000 for 6 homes) and Anida Operaciones Singulares (€120,000 for 2 homes).

Furthermore, the Ministry of Development has fined Sareb (the entity known as the bad bank) €120,000 for obstructing the Government’s measures to ensure the social function of its subsidised homes. And it is investigating another case against Sareb amounting to €11.7m for the breach of article 20m, after it allegedly failed to place 98 homes at the disposal of municipal registry offices.

The law that contains the measures to ensure the social function of housing was not challenged by the central Government in its entirety but some precepts were appealed, such as the power to fine financial institutions for leaving homes empty for more than six months and the authority to temporarily expropriate the use of homes to avoid the eviction of families at risk of exclusion.

Original story: Inmodiario

Translation: Carmel Drake