Tag: business district

Axiare Acquires Office Building In Madrid For €13M

29 January 2016 – Misoficinas.es

Axiare Patrimonio has completed the purchase of a new office building in Madrid. As a result, its portfolio of assets under management in Madrid and Barcelona now contains 17 buildings with a total surface area of 558,000 m2. The company has invested €13 million on the purchase of the property, which has a leasable surface area of 5,640 m2.

This new asset is located in the M30/A2 business park in Madrid, which the company regards as a strategic location; it already owns five other office buildings there. Axiare Patrimonio expects to see a strong recovery in the area, which is where the new headquarters of Banco Popular is currently being constructed. Meanwhile, 190,000 m2 of Axiare’s office portfolio is located in very established areas, and 38% of those assets are situated in the CBDs and main business districts of Madrid and Barcelona.

The newly acquired property, located on Calle Josefa Valcárcel, number 24, houses the Spanish headquarters of a US multinational technology company; the building has a 90% occupancy rate. It is a stand-alone building, comprising seven floors, each with an average surface area of 700 m2 – the ground floor has a surface area of almost 1,500 m2 – and 90 parking spaces.

Barbori Real Estate has participated in the transaction as the coordinator of the sale. Meanwhile, Axiare Patrimonio has received technical advice from the consultancy firm Homu Project and legal counsel from the law firm Gómez-Acebo & Pombo.

“We have a very active investment policy, in line with our business strategy. We are strengthening our commitment to the office segment, in a district that we consider is strategic for the generation of greater value for our shareholders”, said Luis López de Herrera-Oria, the CEO of Axiare Patrimonio. According to Axiare Patrimonio’s business plan, its investment objectives include: building a portfolio of assets, with a special emphasis on the office segment in the CBDs and main business districts of Madrid and Barcelona; and maximising their value through active management, with the aim of positioning them as the best assets in their respective areas of influence.

Original story: Misoficinas.es

Translation: Carmel Drake

Investment In Offices Soars By 85% In H1 2015 To €1,300M

21 July 2015 – Expansión

Real estate investment in office buildings soared by 85% during the first half of the year to reach €1,300 million and whereby record “one of the best results in the last twenty years”, according to data from Aguirre Newman.

Madrid accounted for three quarters (75%) of the total investment, which was mostly concentrated in the business district of the capital.

Aguirre Newman attributes this remarkable increase in real estate investment (which does not include Merlin’s purchase of Testa), to the “consolidation of the growth of the economy”, the “return” of financing and the prospects of recovery in office rental prices in Spain, which are currently offering higher returns that investing in the stock market.

The firm considers that this “strong investment activity” will continue during the second half of the year, given the operations that are currently in the pipeline, such as the sale of Torre Espacio, one of the four skyscrapers in the Cuatro Torres business district, which the Villar Mir Group is looking to sell, but continue to occupy as the tenant (…).

Socimis and institutional investors led the real estate purchases during the first half of the year – they accounted for almost two thirds (65%) of the total acquisitions made.

On the sales side, financial institutions, insurance companies and institutional investors were the main sellers of property.

The interest shown by investors in office buildings has stemmed from the recovery that the sector is experiencing. During the first half of the year, the rent paid for those kinds of buildings increased by 23.7% in Madrid and 49% in Barcelona.

During H1 2015, in the capital, lease contracts were signed for offices with a total surface area of 262,790 m2 and in Barcelona, the figure was 177,499 m2.

Therefore, the average price of rents continued to rise, to reach €25.35/m2/month in Madrid, where prime rents are now €31/m2/month; meanwhile the average rent in Barcelona is €15.96/m2/month.

Aguirre Newman is confident that the increases in demand for office space and in office rental prices will continue for the next few months.

Original story: Expansión

Translation: Carmel Drake

The March Family & GreenOak Compete To Buy Ahorro Corp’s HQ

13 April 2015 – Expansión

The financial group has given investors two weeks to submit their final bids. The leading candidates are the March (family), GreenOak, Colonial and Infinorsa.

Ahorro Corporación has prompted a new battle for real estate in the business district of Madrid. And it is proving to be the winner. The financial group is now on the home stretch in the sale of its headquarters, located on Paseo de la Castellana, 89; and the offers received to date have far exceeded the company’s initial expectations. The bids received are approaching €140 million, almost 50% higher than the price offered two years ago (€90 million – €100 million).

Ahorro Corporación and its advisor Aguirre Newman, have now made a shortlist of three candidates to buy the property. According to sources consulted, the investors with the strongest bids are Corporación Financiera Alba, controlled by the March (family), the fund GreenOak, the investor group Infinorsa – which owns Torre Europa – and the real estate company Colonial.

The improved macroeconomic environment (in Spain) and the war waged by these investors to acquire the main properties in Azca, have led to the rise in property prices. The over-supply of funding has also led to greater competition.

The price offered (€140 million) is at the high end of the consideration sought by Ahorro Corporación. Nevertheless, market sources say that the price may decrease slightly – to around €130 million – once the binding offers, which must be submitted in a couple of weeks, have been finalised. Ahorro Corporación has extended the initial deadline due to a request for new information from the interested parties.

100% occupancy rate

The financial group purchased the property from Banco Zaragozano in 2003 for €93.5 million. The building has a surface area of 20,000 square metres, spread over 14 floors and 530 parking spaces. As well as Ahorro Corporación itself, the building’s tenants include Sareb, the French opticians Alain Afflelou and Deloitte. The ground floor of the building is leased to restaurant chains including Lateral, Maki, Wagaboo and New York Burger. The building was constructed in 1977 and refurbished in 2008.

This is not the first battle between real estate investors in recent months. In January, BBVA sold the Torre Ederra, on Paseo de la Castellana, 77 – also in the Azca financial district – for €87 million. On that occasion, the real estate company GMP beat Infinorsa in the final round.

The sale of its headquarters is just another one of a number of divestments undertaken by Ahorro during its redefinition process, which KPMG is advising.

Over the last year, the financial entity has carried out transactions such as the sale of its fund manager, ACGestión to Abanca; the transfer of its infrastructure funds to GEDCapital; and the sale of its securisation manager, Ahorro y Titulización (AyT) to Haya Real Estate, owned by Cerberus.

The group is continuing to focus on its strategic businesses, namely fixed income and equity brokerage and advisory services.

Ahorro is focused on the international diversification of its business in the face of the disappearance or absorption of its former shareholders and clients – the savings banks – by other financial groups.

This group will have to face the remodelling of its shareholder base in the short-medium term, given that some of its shareholders, such as Bankia, will be forced to exit. Other shareholders that holds stakes in the group include: Cecabank, CaixaBank, Kutxabank, Liberbank, BMN, Ibercaja, Unicaja, Abanca, BBVA, Sabadell, Ontinyent and Pollença.

Original story: Expansión

Translation: Carmel Drake

CaixaBank Will Be S&P’s New Neighbour On The Castellana

9 March 2015 – Expansión

Lease Agreement / The bank is going to rent 2,800 square metres of office space in Banesto’s former headquarters. It will share the premises with the credit ratings agency, S&P, amongst others.

After a record year for investment in offices (Socimis and large international funds spent more than €1,000 million on acquisitions in 2014), the buildings in Madrid are also beginning to observe an increase in their occupancy rates, especially those located on the city’s main thoroughfare.

That is the case of the office building located on Paseo de la Castellana, 7. The former headquarters of Banesto will soon house another well known tenant. CaixaBank had agreed to rent out 2,800 square metres in the building. The bank will pay around €70,000 per month for the space, according to real estate sources.

In the last quarter of 2014, rents in the prime office areas of Madrid amounted to around €25.50 per square metre per month, the highest figure in the last three years, according to JLL.

Tenants

CaixaBank will join companies such as the ratings agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P), the Swiss bank Julius Baer, the law firm White & Case and the firms Munich Real Estate and FTI Consulting, which already have offices in the property. Until the arrival of the entity, chaired by Isidro Fainé, the most recent addition (to the property) was the Japanese business group Mitsui, which leases 1,500 square metres over two floors.

Castellana, 7 is owned by the Aragonese group Samca, which also owns the (property) developer Ebrosa. The building offers 12,869 square metres of office space in total and for years it housed the headquarters of Banesto. In 1997, the owner of Samca, the businessman Ángel Luengo, paid the entity 8,000 million pesetas (around €48 million), after failing to reach a preliminary agreement with Telefónica.

In 2011, the building was refurbished by the team at Aguirre Newman Arquitectura. Following the deal with CaixaBank, the building will have less than 5,000 square metres unoccupied.

Transactions

The rental of 2,800 square metres of office space on the Paseo de la Castellana by CaixaBank comes just two weeks after the first major office lease agreement of 2015 was signed in Madrid.

The professional services firm KPMG has reached an agreement with Mutua Madrileña to move its corporate headquarters in Madrid to the Torre de Cristal skyscraper, in the Cuatro Torres business district. KPMG has leased 20,000 square metres in the tower.

In 2014, office space occupying a surface area of 365,000 square metres (of the total 15.1 million sqm) was leased in Madrid. The most significant transactions included the move by Havas to the building on Eloy Gonzalo, 10, which had been acquired by the real estate group GMP a month before. The multi-media group will occupy the office space, which covers around 12,000 square metres. In Barcelona, the law firm Cuatrecasas signed an agreement to lease 19,900 square metres at the end of the year.

Original story: Expansión (by R. Ruiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Investment In Housing Returns To Barcelona After 7 Years

18 February 2015 – El País

The housing market is the last sector to emerge from the crisis. Nevertheless, investment returned to the residential segment last year, after seven years of sluggishness towards undertaking significant projects in the Catalan capital. In addition to the purchase of portfolios by vulture funds, nine major acquisitions were also recorded in Barcelona, corresponding to 55,095 square metres, according to the real estate consultant CB Richard Ellis. These developments, most of which are aimed at high-end clients, showed a move away from the traditional prime (residential) area – Sarria-Sant Gervasi – towards the neighbourhoods of Eixample, Ciutat Vella and Diagonal Mar.

The Vice President of CB Richard Ellis, Enrique Martínez-Laguna, described 2014 as a “historical” year because the volumes of investment amounted to €10,463 million across the whole of Spain, even higher than the levels recorded in 2007, the year in which most capital was invested. The Director of the consultancy firm in Barcelona, Anna Esteban, highlighted that property prices have fallen since then, and so more transactions were recorded in 2014 than in 2007. The consultancy firm expects investors’ appetite to continue this year, to the extent that “we will begin to see cranes (appearing on the horizon)”, says Martínez-Laguna.

The Catalan capital destroyed 90,000 square metres of office space in 2014

But the map of the city has not only changed in terms of the construction of housing. In total, 90,000 square metres of office space were destroyed in the city centre in 2014 alone. Buildings were converted or will shortly be converted into hotels and homes.

Changing landscape

For example, the Paseo de Gracia, has now become a residential and retail area. And something similar may take place on the Diagonal following its renovation. “There are also two buildings, at number 10 Francesc Macia and number 111 Paseo de Gracia, whose premises could be converted into the entrance of what may become a new open-air shopping centre” says Martínez-Laguna. At the same time, some of the buildings in the 22@ district are generating very similar rents to those being paid for other properties in the traditional business district.

The current rental price in the best areas of Barcelona amounts to c.€17.75 per square metre, down from the peak of €28/m2 recorded in 2007. Moreover, the consultancy firm considers that these rents have now bottomed out and will grow by 30% over the next two to three years.

Original story: El País (by Lluís Pellicer)

Translation: Carmel Drake