Quabit Finalises Acquisition of Enough Land to Develop Another 1,000 Homes

10 July 2019 – Richard D. K. Turner

Quabit, a listed developer controlled by the Rayet group, announced that it had acquired 105,000 square meters of buildable land, in a total investment of €21.7 million. The seven plots of land are located in the provinces of Madrid, Guadalajara, and Valencia, and are sufficient to build 550 new homes.

Next to these lands, the firm also acquired another 42,000 square meters of land, enough for 380 homes. Finally, Quabit bought a 5,760-m2 building, which it intends to renovate for another 57 flats.

Original Story: Expansion – Rocío Ruiz

Domo Activos Approves a Capital Increase of €20M

18 March 2019 – Idealista

Domo Activos has approved a capital increase amounting to €20 million, according to a statement issued by the company in the Official Gazette of the Mercantile Registry (BORME).

The company will undertake the increase, which must be executed within a maximum period of one year, through the issue of up to 10 million shares at a price of €2.10.

The capital increase follows another approved by the company in September 2018 amounting to €5 million for the purchase of new land. The company owns buildable land in Madrid, Málaga, Sevilla, Valencia, Córdoba and Zaragoza.

The business model of Domo Activos involves the acquisition of land for the development of rental properties. After three years, those properties are then sold.

Original story: Idealista 

Translation/Summary: Carmel Drake

ASG is on a Mission to Purchase Undeveloped Plots in Sevilla

5 March 2019 – Diario de Sevilla

Buildable land is extremely scarce in Sevilla and as such, the investment funds looking to build new homes in the Andalucían capital have limited options when it comes to sourcing plots. They are being forced to buy sites on the outskirts of the city whose development is blocked by any number of urban development obstacles or by a lack of basic infrastructure.

One of the most active funds in this regard is ASG Homes, the residential division of ASG in Spain, which wants to build 1,000 homes in Sevilla Este. It already has more than 500 units under construction, but in order to execute the rest of its plan, it needs planning permission to be unblocked on one of the many plots located in Higuerón Norte, San Nicolás, Buen Aire, most of Santa Bárbara, Torreblanca Este and Oeste, Palmas Altas and Pítamo Sur. Together, they have the capacity for the development of 25,000 new homes.

The CEO of ASG Homes, Víctor Pérez-Arias says that whilst his fund prefers to acquire developable plots, in the case of Sevilla, it is willing to purchase plots that still need to pass through an urbanisation process, given the lack of available alternatives.

He added that his fund is involved in several operations of this kind in Alicante, Madrid and the Costa del Sol, and that it is also interested in the rental home sector given the high demand in Sevilla and across Spain in general.

Original story: Diario de Sevilla (by Ana S. Ameneiro)

Summary/Translation: Carmel Drake

Sareb Searches for an Ally to Develop Land Worth €2.5bn

3 January 2019 – Eje Prime

The bad bank is looking for a partner to increase its profitability through the development of its land. Sareb owns plots throughout Spain worth €5 billion, but almost half (€2.4 billion), lack building permits. For this reason, the company is combing the market to reach agreements with companies that specialise in converting plots into buildable sites.

The company is thus planning to turn the tide in its strategy for the management of its portfolio when the contracts that it has signed with several Spanish real estate servicers come to end, which they will do soon, according to El Economista.

At the end of the first half of 2018, Sareb’s buildable land had a value of €2.15 billion. The rest of the portfolio owned by the publicly owned company comprises rural plots, worth €450 million.

Sareb, with €36 billion on its balance sheet, is also working on the creation of a fund with a residential property developer in which it will own a large stake. By way of consideration (payment for that stake), the bad bank will grant land worth €800 million for the development of new homes. Aelca is currently the favourite in the running to be awarded that contract.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Blackstone & Santander Offer around 16.5 million m2 of Land to c. 30 Developers in Murcia

10 November 2018 – La Verdad

Land is moving in the Region of Murcia. But it is not because of an earthquake. In this case, it is due to a shake-up of the real estate business, launched by the US fund manager Blackstone and Banco Santander, which have put land up for sale, spanning around 16.5 million m2 and located in different municipalities throughout the Region.

Yesterday, around thirty property developers and executives from the sector in Murcia expressed their interest in finding about more about the offer by attending a professional meeting that the firm Aliseda, the former real estate arm of Banco Popular – absorbed by Santander – organised in Murcia, in addition to others that requested information in this regard as they were unable to attend the meeting.

Of the different lots offered, there are plots in Murcia, Cartagena, Águilas, San Pedro del Pinatar, Yecla and Torre Pacheco, amongst other locations. Sources at Aliseda highlight that more than 11 million m2 of the total portfolio comprises buildable land or land under management, which is ready to be built on. And although most of the plots are urban residential, there is also some industrial and hotel land. Similarly, the portfolio includes some buildings and unfinished urban developments due to the effects of the crisis.

The President of the Association of Property Developers from the Region of Murcia (Apirm), José Hernández, acknowledged to La Verdad that “there is interest in the market, and so companies are going to value all of the assets, although evidently, those with greater certainty are arousing the most interest, depending on the profitability involved and taking into account key factors such as location”. He also added that “long-term investments must be taken into account”.

This divestment by Blackstone and Santander (which hold stakes of 51% and 49%, respectively) follows the operation involving Project Origin, also launched last month, comprising the sale of 2.1 million m2 of land all over Spain with an estimated value of more than €500 million, of which the Murcian region accounts for the largest part, almost 290,000 m2, with a value of €43 million. Specifically, that comprises 18 assets, on which 2,651 homes could be built. The peculiarity of this initiative is that the sale process has been organised through an electronic dataroom to which thousands of investors may have access.

In terms of the meeting yesterday, Aliseda’s regional director for Levante, Vicente Brotóns, together with the regional commercial delegate for the land area of the real estate group, Joaquín Ivars, were responsible for showing the entire portfolio to the Murcian business leaders.

Now, it remains to be seen which real offers are going to be confirmed, as well as to check whether they will be formalised immediately, taking into account that the US fund manager, having teamed up with the Spanish bank and created the largest real estate empire in the country, with assets worth more than €20 billion, seems determined to divest its land as soon as possible. “It is clear that they are ruling out developing the land themselves, they are going to limit themselves to managing the plots to sell them”, concluded Hernández.

Original story: La Verdad (by Zenón Guillén)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Habitat Starts Marketing 124 Homes in Valencia

31 October 2018 – Eje Prime

Habitat Inmobiliaria is continuing to squeeze its land in Valencia. The Spanish property developer, owned by the fund Bain Capital, has started marketing 124 homes in the provincial capital, through which it will expand its presence in a community that the company considers to be strategic for its growth plan.

The company led by José Carlos Saz has launched two projects onto the market: Habitat Malilla Parque, with 56 homes, and Habitat Las Moreras, comprising 68 flats. These developments follow three others that are already being marketed by the real estate company.

So far this year, the property developer has invested around €70 million in the purchase of land and is working on operations on which it is planning to spend another €50 million over the coming months. The company’s objective for 2018 is to invest more than €120 million to expand its portfolio of buildable land in Spain.

Habitat currently has a €500 million land investment plan underway, spanning the next three years. The property developer intends to hand over more than 2,000 home each year from 2021. In 2018 alone, the real estate company has acquired 16 plots all over Spain (Madrid, Sevilla, Valencia, Cantabria and the Canary Islands), and has whereby incorporated 200,000 m2 into its land bank for new developments.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Habitat will Invest €500M in Land Purchases by 2021

23 October 2018 – Expansión

Habitat, the property developer controlled by the investment fund Bain Capital, is planning to invest €500 million in land purchases between now and 2021.

The company, which has unveiled its business plan for the next few years, expects to hand over 2,000 homes per year from 2021 onwards. Currently, Habitat owns 800,000 m2 of land for the construction of 9,000 homes.

“Bain has provided sufficient capital to finance the purchase of land with own funds. There is no debt except for property developer loans”, explained Juan María Nin (pictured above), President of the real estate company.

To date, the firm has invested €70 million in the purchase of land and it is planning to invest an additional €50 million over the coming months with the aim of continuing its growth.

Brad Palmer, Managing Director and Head of Bain in Europe, said that following the entry of the fund, the company is “healthy and ready to grow”.

Palmer indicated that, for the time being, the fund is not thinking about an IPO, but rather is focusing on the purchase of land, constituting a good professional team and offering a high-quality product for its clients.

Similarly, he indicated that, in a market as fragmented as Spain, consolidation between real estate companies is possible, although it is too early to say what role Habitat will play in that process.

The CEO of Habitat, José Carlos Saz, indicated that although most of the portfolio is buildable land, the property developer is also opening the door to buying land under management.

Saz also said that the property developer plans to close the year with revenues of almost €100 million and a positive gross operating profit (EBITDA).

Original story: Expansión (by Rebeca Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Castilla & León Reclassifies 28,315 hectares of Buildable Land Back to Rural Use

6 October 2018 – El Confidencial

Torquemada in Palencia has 989 inhabitants and sufficient buildable land on which to construct 162,000 homes. Coca in Segovia has 1,863 inhabitants and sufficient buildable land on which to construct 114,000 homes. Valladolid capital has 299,715 inhabitants and sufficient land on which to construct 217,293 new homes. They are just three simple examples of the urban planning absurdity seen in recent decades that is still present in almost every municipality in Spain.

Since the 1980s, and especially since the beginning of this century, town halls, in particular those in rural areas, have reclassified thousands of hectares of rural land to buildable land, on mass, in the hope that, during the boom times there would be a bureaucracy saving for the property developers, which would encourage them to invest, in both homes and industry. But the bubble burst (…) and thousands of buildable hectares were left over, converted today in a kind of weird joke.

Now, the Junta de Castilla y León wants to recover all of that land to return it to what it always was, agricultural and forestry land without any pretensions of being home to long rows of terraced houses or enormous industrial estates. The regional government has established three phases for the change of its land uses on mass.

It undertook the first phase in 2016, converting 10,000 hectares, and on 18 October this year, it will undertake the second phase, affecting 28,315 hectares, equivalent to half of the island of Ibiza or more than half of La Rioja. In total, 87 municipalities including several provincial capitals with capacity for one million potential homes that will now never see the light. The final mass change is planned for 2022. Goodbye then to the reckless optimism of the past; hello to a different future, one characterised by depopulation, which threatens to erase thousands of towns from the map (…).

“This is not Marbella, it was never realistic to think that large companies or property developers were going to come here to build homes. We have an industrial estate with five companies and we have lost 100 inhabitants in the last five years. A town cannot work miracles”, explains Jorge Domingo González, mayor of Torquemada, the rural municipality most affected by this second wave, which will modify 208 areas in Castilla y León (only 45 of them are industrial plots of land) on the basis of the urban planning law approved in 2014. “All of that land was reclassified not to build homes but to facilitate investment (…)”, explains the mayor of Torquemada.

Even so, many mayors did take advantage of the change to approve large residential developments, always under the suspicion, and sometimes rightly so, that they were going to be built with the sole objective of speculation and receiving an illegal bonus. That is where hundreds of ghost urbanisations in the middle of nowhere stemmed from; many are half-built, some even lack roads, but all have now been converted into a burden for municipalities, which do not have enough money to demolish them (…).

The town halls will not see any great benefits from this measure, but the owners of the land will do, since they will save a decent amount by no longer having to pay IBI (property tax) on urban land but having to do so on rural land, which is much cheaper. “In this way, we avoid uncertainties that have no sense in being maintained”, said Marinero…..

There is no record of any owner submitting claims against this change of use, although they have had four years to do so. That in itself is a clear sign that times have changed and that no one in the towns expects to win the lottery. If anything, they now just dream of not disappearing, to avoid being dragged away by the rural exodus.

Original story: El Confidencial (by David Brunat)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Aedas Puts 142 More Homes Up For Sale in its Largest Development in Sevilla

7 September 2018 – Eje Prime

Aedas Homes is starting its second round of sales in Sevilla. The property developer has just released 142 new properties on the market, located in the 1,046-unit residential complex that the company is building in the Andalucían capital.

After finding buyers for 70% of the 142 homes that comprise the first building, Aedas has now placed the properties from the second block on the market. The residential assets have a surface area of 80 m2 each on average and are on the market for, approximately, €122,800.

These 100-odd homes form part of the largest housing development that has ever been built in Spain. The large residential project, which is called Jardines Hacienda Rosario, will house 1,046 apartments distributed over seven blocks and will have more than 33,000 m2 of common areas.

Aedas Homes is continuing its commitment to Andalucía, but it is also present in other parts of the country. Currently, the company has a portfolio of buildable land amounting to more than 1.5 million m2. With that surface area, the company has the capacity to build almost 14,00 homes in the six areas of the country in which it operates: Centro, Andalucía, Costa del Sol, Cataluña, Levante and the Balearic Islands.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Blackstone Launches Large Sale of Buildable Land After Acquiring Aliseda

6 September 2018 – El Confidencial

It was just a matter of time. Aliseda, the servicer of Banco Popular, now controlled by Blackstone (51%) and Santander (49%), is starting the school year by looking for buyers for 270 residential plots and work in progress developments, with a total buildability of more than 2 million m2, distributed throughout Spain.

It is the most important land sale currently underway in Spain and, unlike what is happening in other areas of the market, it will not involve a block sale of assets, but rather possible interested parties may acquire each plot individually, which will allow for the entry of local property developers into a market that has been dominated until now by large property developers and investment funds.

The assets are located in 43 Spanish provinces. They consist of 231 plots in total, mainly buildable plots or plots under development, and 39 projects in progress. Many of the sites are located in Galicia, Levante, Costa del Sol and the Canary Islands; the latter market has been especially active in recent months.

“Unlike other sales processes, the operation that Aliseda is now putting on the market allows investors the possibility of submitting an offer for any of the plots independently, which means that they can structure the perimeter that best suits their needs and investment criteria. In this way, both local property developers, as well as institutional investors will have the opportunity to participate under equal conditions”, says Adolfo Blázquez, Director of Land at Aliseda.

Local developers and national developers looking to grow in volume and build large developments may bid for the plots, as may institutional investors looking to buy large blocks of buildable land – a scarce and very sought-after asset, especially in the hottest markets of Madrid, Barcelona and the islands.

Meanwhile, Samuel Población, National Director of residential and land at CBRE, the exclusive consultancy firm selected to launch the sales process, says that “the shortage of buildable land in the Spanish market has become one of the great barriers for property developers. Thus, the activation of residential land sale processes, such as this operation by Aliseda, places prime raw material on the market, which will gradually start to satisfy the high demand that currently exists”.

The process began on 7 September, with access being granted to information about the assets, and will go on until December with the closure of selected bids.

In March, the US fund and Banco Santander created Proyecto Quasar Investments, the holding company that groups together the real estate portfolio of Banco Popular and the marketing platform Aliseda. Blackstone controls the majority of the capital in the new company and also takes care of its management, led by Eduard Mendiluce, the CEO of the company. Mendiluce is also the most senior executive of Anticipa, the other large real estate firm that the fund owns in Spain and the former head of Catalunya Caixa Inmobiliaria.

Original story: El Confidencial

Translation: Carmel Drake