Tag: buyers

Metrovacesa Puts Merlin On The Shopping Centre Map

29 November 2016 – Expansión

Ismael Clemente presented an ambitious proposal to his shareholders on 15 September 2016. The Socimi, which debuted on the stock market in July 2014, without any assets on its balance sheet, submitted the decision to absorb the traditional real estate company Metrovacesa, to the scrutiny of its investors, led by Santander and BBVA (…).

And having obtained the general support of the shareholders, Clemente is now working on managing the largest real estate company in Spain and one of the largest in Europe, with assets worth €9,400 million and annual gross revenues of €450 million. “The immediate focus is to successfully complete the post-merger program with Metrovacesa, which was registered on 26 October 2016 and whose shares have now been admitted for trading. Technically and legally, the operation has been completed, but now the business side begins, with the launch of three workstreams to manage the integration of the systems, human resources and operations”, said Clemente.

The Executive…defines Metrovacesa’s portfolio as “fantastic”. “And that’s not a coincidence, it is a historical company. It has been punished by relative inactivity in recent years, but it has a incredible intrinsic quality”.

Critical mass

Clemente highlights Metrovacesa’s shopping centre portfolio as the key to understanding the transaction. “For us, the over-riding purpose of the operation is, above all, the shopping centres, which clearly put us on the map. Before, we were in the middle of nowhere and now we have sufficient critical mass to allow us to negotiate better with our commercial operators. We have also grown in the office segment, and although that was not a primary objective, the purchase of Metrovacesa places us in a completely different class in terms of space (in m2), in spectacular locations, which really strengthens the position of leadership that we already held”.

Through the integration of Metrovacesa, Merlin has incorporated 14 shopping centres into its portfolio, worth more than €1,000 million, placing it second in the market behind only Unibail-Rodamco; as well as 37 office buildings covering 574,781 m2, worth €1,835 million.

In terms of challenges for next year, Clemente has earmarked making improvements to the occupancy rates of the offices it has inherited from Metrovacesa and acting “decisively” with respect to its shopping centres to secure occupants and sales.

In addition, Merlin will also look to either create a specialist Socimi or sell its portfolio of hotels as a whole. “We will analyse the book value and decide whether a direct divestment of the portfolio as a whole is possible. If not, we will probably decide to create a subsidiary, look for partners and constitute a company, with a majority, minority or equal stake shareholder structure”.

Following the integration with Metrovacesa, Merlin has 24 hotels with a gross value of €654 million. By number of rooms, the union between the two companies has given rise to a hotel leasing giant with almost 4,500 rooms, behind only Hispania.

In addition, he points to a surprise benefit from the operation with Metrovacesa: the strengthening of Testa Residencial, the subsidiary created with residential assets proceeding from the purchase of Testa: “A by-product has emerged, which has a life of its own. At first, we were exploring the market for potential buyers but, now, we are talking with our shareholder banks and other firms because we believe that this vehicle has the potential to be the star of the residential rental market in Spain”.

Original story: Expansión (by R.Arroyo and R. Ruiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Tecnocasa: Second-Hand House Prices Rose By 8% In H1

7 September 2016 – El Mundo

The average price of second-hand housing in Spain rose by 7.99% YoY during the first half of 2016, to €1,666/sqm, according to the XIII Report about the residential market, prepared by Tecnocasa and the University of Pompeu Fabra (UPF) using sale/purchase and mortgage data from the real estate company.

Despite the significant increase, this average price is still well below the maximum values that the market reached at the end of 2006 and the beginning of 2007, when the average cost per square metre of second-hand homes amounted to more than €3,500. (…).

The city of Barcelona, which saw a price rise of 9.45%, led the increases during the first half of 2016, followed by Málaga (9.21%) and Madrid (9.03%). In this way, the cost per square metre rose to €2,443/sqm in Barcelona, to €1,044/sqm in Málaga and to €1,835 in Madrid.

In this regard, Tecnocasa notes that “we are seeing a two-speed recovery”, given that prices in cities such as Guadalajara, Sevilla, Zaragoza and Valencia increased by less than 2% (during the same period).

At a press conference held to present the report, the Director of the Department for Analysis and Reports at the Tecnocasa Group, Lázaro Cubero, explained that rental prices are also increasing, in the same proportion, and the average mortgage is also rising (€91,808), which represents an increase of 9.8%, although still represent less than half the lending figures in 2007 (€185,462). In this sense, it is worth remembering that the average monthly repayment amounts to €367.

Cubero stated that prices are still “attractive” – they are 52% lower than they were in 2006 for Spain as a whole – and financing conditions are very favourable, thanks to low interest rates, at a time when vendors are still having to apply discounts to their initial asking prices to achieve a sale.

The CEO of the Tecnocasa Group, Paolo Boarini, indicated that financial institutions are still behaving in a conservative way when it comes to granting mortgages: they are granting 73% of the appraisal value, and “it is very hard for people with temporary contracts to obtain a mortgage; self-employed people also face challenges”.

Meanwhile, for the Professor of Economics at the UPF and the coordinator of the report, José García Montalvo, the increase in the uptake of fixed-rate mortgages is “a significant change in the right direction”. He criticised Spain in this regard, stating that variable rate mortgages do not account for 95% of the total market in any other country, given that this means all of the risk in terms of interest rate fluctuations is transferred to the client. (…).

On the other hand, the Tecnocasa Group brokered 4,327 house sales in Spain during the first half of the year, up by 22% compared with the same period in 2015, as well as 1,445 mortgages, up by 28%, through its network of 465 offices (19.23%) and 2,000 sales agents. (…).

Original story: El Mundo

Translation: Carmel Drake

Saba & Ardian Bid For Spain’s 3rd Largest Car Park Group

17 May 2016 – Expansión

A dozen “Spanish and international” candidates have submitted bids for the purchase of Parkia, the third largest car park group in Spain, owned by the Nordic fund EQT. Market sources say that the candidates include major companies in the sector, such as Saba, Indigo (controlled by the investment fund Ardian), Interparking and Empark, as well as financial groups specialising in infrastructures, such as Infravía.

Some sources also include Globalvía on the list of interested parties, but a spokesperson for the concessionaire said yesterday that they are not going to submit a bid for Parkia. Sabadell is also expected to submit a bit, thanks to its partnership with the funds Altamar and Firmium, through which it plans to invest more than €150 million in car parks in Spain.

The exact amount of the bids has not been revealed, but sources state that the perceived competitiveness and facilities available to investors to leverage the transaction have helped to boost the price. Sources in the know indicate a valuation range for the whole company of between €300 million and €350 million, which would represent between 15x and 17x of the forecast EBITDA for 2016, which is expected to amount to €20 million.

EQT must decide “in the next few days”, say the sources, which bidders will make the cut and proceed to the next phase of the process, which will involve a period of due diligence (audit of the assets), in which the potential buyers will analyse the company in detail so as to prepare their binding offers.

The plan is to select between “three and five” investors from the initial interested parties, who will participate in the definitive bid. The aim is to complete the process by the end of July.

Although the operation is moving ahead, the role of Mutua Madrilña – the co-owner of Parkia with 33.2% of the capital – is still uncertain. In theory, the Spanish insurance company plans to retain its stake in the car park manager, but that will depend on the conditions that EQT ends up agreeing, say sources. Mutua declined to comment on the deal. (…).

Parkia owns 58 car parks, with a total supply of 27,000 parking spaces and an average concession life of 30 years. The company’s revenues amounted to €33 million last year. (…).

Original story: Expansión (by M. Ponce de León, D. Badía and C. Morán)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Hotel Incosol Is Sold To A Spanish Hotel Group For €20M

26 February 2016 – El Mundo

The iconic Hotel Incosol in Marbella was sold on Tuesday (23 February 2016) to a Spanish hotel group and the consideration paid, more than €20 million, is thought to be sufficient for the workers to receive €2 million, according to reports from the lawyers advising the bankruptcy proceedings of the JALE group, which owns the hotel.

According to those sources, the buyers have also purchased the brand, and so it is clear that the intention is to revive the luxury establishment and benefit from the name that it has made for itself in health tourism since the 1970s. According to these sources, the banks – Sareb and Banco Sabadell – have ended up accepting a significant discount on the debt, which amounted to approx. €30 million in total.

The operation has been made possible, according to the sources, by the diligence of the judge of the Cádiz court, Manuel Ruiz de Lara, who authorised the bankruptcy administration to sell the hotel in its entirey (and not piecemeal) and for the money obtained to be paid to the bankruptcy creditors.

In any case, it is likely that a dispute will arise with the Social Security authorities, which will end up in the courts. Nevertheless, the money for the 158 workers seems to be guaranteed.

In fact, less than a year ago, the Social Security authorities opposed the sale of the hotel to a buyer, after negotiations had taken place with up to 40 different parties interested in acquiring the property. According to sources close to the bankruptcy proceedings, the debt with the Social Security amounted to around €5 million.

The Incosol Hotel was the last large asset left to be liquidated by the Cádiz group JALE, which is immersed in bankruptcy proceedings in which the owner, José Antonio López Esteras, has filed complaints to the previous bankruptcy administrators, as well as to the General Council of Judicial Power regarding the actions of the previous judge, Nuria Orellana.

Original story: El Mundo

Translation: Carmel Drake

Servicers, Banks & Sareb Fuel Madrid With New Homes

15 April 2016 – El Mundo

The four servicers, Altamira Asset Management (which was created by Banco Santander), Servihabitat (La Caixa), Solvia (Banco Sabadell) and Anida (BBVA) currently have a portfolio of 2,277 new homes up for sale (or about to come on the market) in the Community of Madrid alone. This supply is spread across 30 residential projects (10 in the capital), all launched in 2015 and 2016. These high figures make these companies the main sellers of new homes, along with cooperatives, investment funds and a small group of private property developers.

The three large independent servicer platforms (Altamira, Servihabitat and Solvia) have managed to accumulate a juicy showcase of new homes thanks to the fact that they are selling products from the main financial entities, in other words, the major land owners; and from Sareb, which took ownership of the real estate assets previously owned by the banks that received state intervention. In other words, these platforms own the majority of the country’s new homes. All of these projects are characterised by having been studied in detail in accordance with three key parameters: locations in demand, prices that reflect the market and homes and common areas tailored to suit buyers.

In terms of their ways of working, each servicer is different, although their modus operandi involves the complete management of property developments, on behalf of their clients and themselves. Their activities range from the submission of projects to after-sales services, as well as the search for developers and construction companies (if they don’t have in-house teams), requests for permits and the sale of properties. A comprehensive service that they offer by themselves and in partnership with other firms. In return, these companies generate profits through commissions, from both the construction and sales processes.

As such, the servicers (some of which are owned by funds) are rising up as major players in the new build market, where traditional property developers are unable to get started due, in particular, to a lack of financing. (…).

Why are the servicers turning their hand to the sale of new homes?

“This business, which focuses on satisfying the needs of its users, is and will be long-lasting and profitable”, says Fernando López, Commercial Director at Altamira, who is convinced that the residential market is taking off again after seven years of almost no activity. “During that time”, he says “pockets of unsatisfied demand has been growing”. (…).

In total, Altamira has 217 developments under construction across the whole of Spain – many of which are sold out – and it expects to hand over almost 8,000 homes between now and 2018, figures that make it the largest property manager in Spain and one of the largest in Europe.

Juan Carlos Álvarez, Director General of Servihabitat’s Real Estate Business, also extols this product. (…). Only one of the six developments that his company put up for sale in Madrid in 2015 has units still for sale (in Cuatro Vientos, where apartments are going for as little as €212,000). It will put another six projects on the market soon.

According to Francisco Moreno, Director of Business Development at Altamira, the new developments “respond to and better satisfy the real needs of potential buyers in terms of design, quality and price”. He adds, “Now, most homes have three bedrooms, and there is also demand for four bedroom properties”. These types of homes dominate the supply of the servicers and banks in the Community of Madrid, which include high-rise flats and detached houses with asking prices from €120,000.

Solvia

Francisco Pérez, Director of Promotion and Development at Solvia says that “all of his company’s developments offer customisation options to future owners. They also offer large common areas, green spaces and most have a swimming pool”. Meanwhile, Solvia does not predict any aggressive rise in prices, but rather a slight increase of 3.3% in 2016. (…).

Original story: El Mundo (by Jorge Salido Cobo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Pisos.com: Buyers Offer 23% Below The Asking Price

27 January 2016 – Cinco Días

Data is regularly being published about the rise in the number of house sales, how the fall in property prices is being mitigated, the gradual return of credit to the market and the impact of the overall economic recovery as the driver behind the real estate market overcoming the crisis. Nevertheless, the online portal Pisos.com has gone a step further by cross-checking information about the prices that purchasers are willing to pay and the asking prices being set by vendors; and they are checking the differences between them (…).

In its study, which is based on figures from 2015, the real estate portal notes that the differences between asking prices and offer prices have decreased in line with the improvement in the labour market (as soon as job destruction came to a halt, house sales began their timid recovery) and the relaxation of conditions to access finance.

This alignment of positions has been made possible thanks to the fact that house prices now seem to have bottomed out, at least in the majority of regions, “and buyers’ budgets have increased, thanked to increased savings and the return of credit to the market”, explain sources at Pisos.com.

In this way, during 2015, the average house price in Spain amounted to €138,150, whilst the most sought-after home (by buyers) cost €112,500 on average and had a surface area of 90 m2. The portal understands that the difference between these amounts, i.e. €25,650, represents the difference that currently separates demand and supply, which is equivalent to 23% of the most sought-after price.

Pisos.com has been performing this cross-check of supply and demand since 2009 and in its study, it shows how the relationship has evolved during the crisis and the start of the recovery. In 2009, the difference amounted to 55%, which is explained to a large extent by the sharp decline in the number of house sales; the transactions that did materialise were accounted for with a sizeable discrepancy.

Since then, the positions have moved towards each other to narrow at 20% in 2013. Nevertheless, in 2014, they increased again, to 25% and then last year, that gap moderated slightly to the aforementioned 23%. The evolution varies by region, which is to be expected in the housing market. (…).

Starting prices

Prices in six autonomous regions increased, namely: Andalucía, Aragón, the Balearic Islands, Galicia, Navarra and País Vasco. The highest average asking price is still found in País Vasco, at €232,500. At the other end of the spectrum, citizens in Murcia, Valencia, Castilla-La Mancha and the Canary Islands searched for homes with a average price of €67,500. Navarra is the only autonomous region where the price that buyers are willing to pay exceeded the asking price. The autonomous regions in which asking and offer prices were the closest were: Cantabria (9%), País Vasco (9%) and Cataluña (12%). By contrast, the largest differences were found in Murcia (where the difference still amounts to 39%), Asturias (37%) and La Rioja (36%).

In terms of other variables in the market, such as the number of transactions and the evolution of prices, the General Council of Notaries published its study yesterday, which showed that (house) sales grew by 14.7% YoY in Q3 2015, following their significant growth in the previous quarter (16.8% YoY). Moreover, the notaries highlighted that all of the autonomous regions, with the exception of Navarra, contributed to this result. (…). Meanwhile, prices grew by 2.7% YoY during the same period, just below the rate of growth seen in the previous quarter (3.6%). (…).

Original story: Cinco Días (by Raquel Díaz Guijarro)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Sareb To Invest €45M In RE Asset Appraisals

18 January 2016 – El Economista

Sareb, also known as the “bad bank” has set aside €45 million to spend between now and 2018 on the appraisal and revaluation of all of the real estate assets that it owns, in accordance with the new accounting legislation issued by the Bank of Spain.

The President of Sareb, Jaime Echeogyen (pictured above), has said, in an interview with Idealista News, that the entity had appraised 60% of its registered properties by the end of 2015.

Echegoyen, who will celebrate his one year anniversary at the helm of Sareb in February after he replaced Belén Romana, said that 40% of the remaining properties will be valued by “cloning the results that have already been obtained on the basis of similar properties located in the same area”.

In this way, Sareb will comply with the Bank of Spain’s accounting legislation, which establishes up to three methods for estimating possible corrections to the value of these properties in order to ensure that they reflect market price.

According to the legislation, Sareb must value at least 50% of the assets it has acquired that are still on its balance sheet at year-end 2015 and all of them by 31 December 2016.

Echegoyen is optimistic about the (expected) performance of the real estate market this year and believes that the entity is now starting a “second phase”, in which it will consolidate the sale of its assets as well as recover loans from borrowers.

“We think that 2016 is going to be a very positive year, but we must do things in a calm fashion”, said Echegoyen after highlighting that the entity’s work over the last three years has involved classifying and valuing almost 200,000 assets, of which around half were homes, land, commercial premises, industrial warehouses and hotels.

The objective of Sareb’s President is to find buyers for those developments that were left unfinished and those that have been finished but have been left empty and he asserts that it is still too soon to talk about demolition.

Moreover, he has faith in the four agencies (Altamira, Haya, Servihabitat and Solvia), which are responsible for managing the portfolio sale of Sareb’s homes.

Echegoyen thinks that “there is a lot of interest in land” and he says that “in the current environment, it is likely that many savers will invest in a home to rent it out”.

In this sense, he indicates Sareb’s goals in the social sphere, which include: to provide commercial premises to self-employed people and entrepreneurs at “reasonable rents” and to offer land that does not have development potential “for the cultivation of allotments in exchange for a rustic farm income”.

Original story: El Economista

Translation: Carmel Drake

Outlook 2016: The Housing Market

11 January 2016 – El Mundo

(….) Gonzalo Bernardos, Economist and Director of the Real Estate Masters at the University of Barcelona; José García Montalvo, Professor of Economics at the Pompeu Fabra University; Julio Gil, President of the Real Estate Research Foundation (FEI); and José Luis Ruiz Bartolomé, partner at Certus Capital; outline their predictions for the residential market in 2016. In general terms, all of them consider that the improvement that began in 2015 will strengthen in 2016… political uncertainty permitting.

Increasing prices

All of the experts agree that house prices will rise this year. But they differ in terms of their view regarding the size of this increase. Bernardos is the most optimistic and talks about a “splendid year” with an average price rise of 12%. (…).

Ruiz Bartolomé is more conservative. He expects the annual increase to amount to around 3%-5% in 2016 – “the year of consolidation” – and warns that there are “regions that will not begin to recover until 2017”. For García Montalvo, “in Madrid, Barcelona, the coast of Málaga and a few other areas, prices may rise by between 5% and 10%, whilst on aggregate they will continue to be stable with small variations”, he says. “Nevertheless”, he warns, “there are significant political risks that could have a substantial impact in the market”.

More accessible credit

Access to mortgages will continue to relax in 2016, according to most of the analysts, but their view vary regarding the intensity. For Ruiz Bartolomé, demand for credit will be prudent, whilst for Bernardos, it will be more decisive. “Banks are going to pursue clients”, says the latter, who calculates that 30% more mortgages will be signed this year. (…).

Bernardos even says that financial institutions will grant almost 100% of the appraisal value of homes to those individuals who earn more than €4,000/month. In terms of the cost of credit, they praise low interest rates – and expect Euribor to enter negative territory within a year. Gil also expects that credit will continue to flow and hopes that it will be limited to solvent demand. At the same time, he highlights that “we are living in the best financial situation in terms of interest rates to buy a home”. He does not expect these circumstances to extend beyond 2016, once rates in the USA begin to rise in earnest.

More younger buyers?

(…) In terms of the profile of buyers, Bernardos is clear: “Almost everyone who has a job will be able to afford to buy a house, provided they have some savings – around €20,000”. The economist refers to those households with monthly incomes of €1,800 (young couples with salaries of €900 each) and points out that he is talking about homes worth between €100,000 and €150,000 – “the best sellers”. He expects house purchases to increase by 20%, to reach 490,000 operations per year.

Despite the aforementioned “relaxation” in terms of credit, García Montalvo does not expect that young people will be able to return to the market, at least in the short term, due to the high rate of youth unemployment, the predominance of precarious (employment) contracts and low salaries. Gil shares this view. (…).

More powerful sellers

After years at the mercy of demand, sellers are going to gain strength once again. “They will regain their bargaining power, primarily, in the cities. If they set reasonable prices, they will not have to offer discounts”, says Bernardos. “As demand increases, so too does the power of sellers. In 2016, the situation of sellers will improve in general”, agrees Ruiz Bartolomé. (…).

According to Bernardos, property developers will increase their prices. “Property developers (with projects) in good areas will increase prices three times between the project launch and project completion”.

New builds will increase

(…) “Whilst in 2015, permits were processed for 65,000 new homes, in 2016, we expect that figure to increase to 100,000 units. The best sign of the recovery is that in 2015, property developers bought a lot of land in the large cities, as well as in the suburbs”, says Bernardos.

Ruiz Bartolomé thinks that residential developments will grow even further because “dozens of investors and property developers are looking for operations”. He also warns about the shortage of good quality land. (…).

Turning point for the rental market

With the tailwind supporting the market to buy, 2016 will represent a turning point for the rental market, according to the experts. Following its meteoric rise in recent times, the rental system will now stabilise. “The proportion of homes being rented will start to stabilise”, says García Montalvo, who is in no doubt that “the rental market will strengthen as the main way towards emancipation, just like in other countries that are developing in a similar way to Spain”.

“In general, Spaniards still prefer to buy rather than rent if they can afford to”, says Ruiz Bartolomé. Having said that, he clarifies that “there is still rental demand from those who cannot afford to buy and also from young people with a new vision of housing as a necessary cost that must be covered rather than as an investment or status symbol. (…).

Original story: El Mundo (by Jorge Salido Cobo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Deloitte: House Prices Up By 9.5% In Madrid & 15% In BCN

1 October 2015 – Expansión

The signs of recovery in the Spanish real estate sector are strengthening. The first sign was the arrival of international funds interested in investing in real estate assets in Spain; and now the residential market is also beginning to show the first signs of recovery.

House prices in Spain increased in 2014 after six years of decreases. According to a Europe-wide study prepared by Deloitte, average house prices in Spain’s two main cities, Madrid and Barcelona, increased by 9.5% and 15%, respectively, between 2014 and 2013. “Prices in Spain are increasing at an annual rate of 10%. The Spanish market was last in the line, in terms of the recovery in Europe, but now that trend has been reversed” explains Javier García-Mateo, Partner at Deloitte.

These signs of recovery are clearer if we analyse the results for new builds in isolation. The product has been particularly badly hit in recent years due to the over-construction that took place during the boom. “The gap between new builds and second-hand homes has increased with respect to last year and this is a sign of recovery” says García-Mateo. “New build prices are beginning to rise compared with previous years when the difference with respect to second-hand homes was less as vendors had to reduce prices to find buyers”.

Despite this growth, house prices are still below the levels seen before the crisis. In this way, house prices in Spain increased by 4% between 2002 and 2014, compared with 7% in Germany and the USA, 50% in France and 52% in the UK, according to Deloitte. “It is the start of a change in the trend, but we are not going to see a return to the boom figures. We are seeing a recovery because prices decreased so significantly (during the crisis)”.

Ireland

Since 2007, a record year for the sector, house prices in Spain have decreased by 39%, compared with an increase of 18% in Germany. In Europe, the most similar market is Ireland, where house prices have fallen by 41% over the last seven years. “Ireland is one or two years ahead of Spain; as such, it is possible that over the next few years, we will see similar data to that being seen in Dublin this year, where the price per m2 has risen by 34%”, say the Partners at Deloitte. (…).

Construction

The increase in house prices will have an effect on the launch of new developments, which reached minimum levels of 35,000 units in recent years. “We think that the recovery in the construction of homes will take place in 2016, starting from very low levels. Between 2006 and 2007, 7,000,000 homes were constructed in Spain, the same figure as in Germany, which has 90 million inhabitants”, says García-Mateo.

The construction of new developments will be reactivated despite the fact that Spain still has a stock of around 535,000 unsold homes. According to Deloitte, the stock of homes decreased by 3.2% last year and has recorded a cumulative decrease of 18% since 2009, when there were 649,780 unsold homes. “There are still a lot of homes to be sold because the population is not growing”.

In this sense, Spain, together with Italy and Portugal, is the country with the highest volume of stock at the European level.

Most of Spain’s provinces are now showing signs of recovery

The Spanish real estate market is very heterogeneous and that is reflected in the location of the stock of more than 500,000 unsold homes in the country.

According to the study prepared by Deloitte, the recovery of the residential sector is happening at three speeds across the country. The recovery will be seen first in Madrid, the Catalan provinces, Valencia and the majority of Castilla y León; meanwhile Almería, Huelva, Teruel and Castellón will be the last regions to recover.

Only three provinces still have a stock that is more than 10% larger than in 2009: Guipúzcoa, Teruel and La Rioja, which the supply of unsold homes has increased by 38%, 26% and 10%, respectively; meanwhile ten provinces have reduced their stock by less than 10% in the last five years.

At the other end of the spectrum the provinces of Cantabria, Cáceres, Badajoz and Navarra have pretty much reduced their unsold stock levels by 100% over the last five years.

Original story: Expansión (by R. Ruiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake