Tag: Chamberí

Dazia Capital Acquires Building in Chamberí for New Luxury Development

8 November 2019 – The Spanish investment firm Dazia Capital has finalised the acquisition of the building located at Calle de Santa Engracia 3, in Madrid where it intends to build nine luxury flats.

Located in one of the capital’s most sought-after neighbourhoods, Chamberí, Dazia Capital will transform the 19th-century building into a luxury residential development. The firm’s €14-million investment will result in nine luxury flats with common areas including a spa, indoor pool, gym and wine cellar. The flats will have up to five bedrooms, some with private pools and large terraces.

Original Story: Expansión – Rocío Ruiz

Adaptation/Translation: Richard D. K. Turner

Madrid’s New Town Hall Approves a 400-Home Residential Complex in Cuatro Caminos

20 June 2019 – Somos Chamberí

During its first week in office, the newly elected Town Hall of Madrid has approved plans for the construction of more than 400 homes above the old train depots in Cuatro Caminos.

The previous municipal government had prepared all of the necessary paperwork but its legislature ended before the plans could be presented for approval.

Now, the Community of Madrid must give the green light to the project, known as Residencial Metropolitan, which will include six buildings, including a 31-storey tower that will change the skyline of Chamberí forever.

Original story: Somos Chamberí (by Diego Casado)

Translation/Summary: Carmel Drake

Global Geopolitics Fuels Demand for Luxury Homes in Madrid

12 May 2019 – El Confidencial

Wealthy investors and families from China, Russia, Venezuela and Mexico are particularly active in the luxury home segment in Madrid, in particular in the districts of Salamanca, Chamberí, Retiro and Moncloa-Aravaca.

According to the College of Property Registrars, foreigners accounted for 6.7% of all residential purchases over €500,000 in the Community of Madrid in 2017, a figure that rose to 8.4% in 2018.

There are several pull-factors motivating these buyers including tax exemptions, golden visas (thanks to Law 14/2013), (relative) legal certainty, low rates of crime and affordable prices, compared to Miami and other European capitals. The language, climate and excellent transport infrastructure also play their role, as do the world-class universities and business schools in the Spanish capital.

A number of push-factors are also evident, which is where the geopolitical developments come into play. The political and economic crisis in Venezuela, the election of Andrés Manuel López Obrador as the President of Mexico in December, the political uncertainty in Cataluña and even the on-going Brexit saga, are all important reasons for wealthy buyers to turn their backs on their home countries in favour of Madrid when it comes to buying a property.

To date, since they were introduced in 2014, 2,948 golden visas have been granted for the purchase of luxury homes, with half going to Chinese citizens (1,476) and a fifth going to Russians (621).

Moreover, according to official statistics from Spain’s National Institute for Statistics, the number of Mexican residents in Spain has risen from just over 20,000 in 2014 to more than 25,200 by the end of 2018, of whom one third live in Madrid.

Meanwhile, the number of Venezuelan residents has increased from just over 32,000 five years ago to 57,120 in 2018. Nevertheless, in both cases, the real number of arrivals is higher since many move to Spain through family links making them entitled to Spanish passports.

Original story: El Confidencial (by Marcos García)

Translation/Summary: Carmel Drake

Arcano Buys EFE’s Former HQ in Chamberí to Build Luxury Homes

1 April 2019 – El Confidencial

Arcano has just acquired the property at number 32 Calle Espronceda in Madrid, which previously housed the EFE Agency for several decades.

The firm’s new real estate fund has just purchased the building, which spans 8,000 m2, for more than €40 million from the fund Eurostone, where it plans to promote 50 luxury homes. The property is distributed over seven floors and has more than 200 parking spaces. Moreover, it has already been granted all of the licences necessary for the redevelopment work.

The operation has been advised by Colliers, Doble Dígito and TC Gabinete Inmobiliario and partially financed by CaixaBank.

Original story: El Confidencial (by Ruth Ugalde)

Translation/Summary: Carmel Drake

Anticipa: House Prices in Madrid & Barcelona Return to their Peaks of the Real Estate Boom

11 November 2018 – El Confidencial

The (real estate) recovery is really heating up. House prices in Madrid are on the verge of returning to their peaks of 2007. What seemed impossible, is now becoming a reality. That is according to a report from Anticipa Real Estate, which forecasts two-digit increases in house prices in the Spanish capital this year and next. Specifically, it predicts that homes will become more expensive by 10.2% in 2018 and by 11.5% in 2019, rises that are twice as high as the percentages that experts consider to be sustainable.

House prices have already been growing at rates of 10% during the last two quarters, according to the Repeated Sales House Price Index, prepared in accordance with the Case & Shiller methodology from the United States applied to Spain, which analyses repeat sales of the same homes. In other words, they are rising at double-digit percentages reminiscent of those recorded at the height of the real estate boom a decade ago.

Despite that, both property developers and banks are insisting that the market is very different to the one seen more than ten years ago and they categorically rule out that we are facing a similar situation to then. On the one hand, access to financing remains very restricted for solvent clients, whilst the recovery in prices is very uneven across the country. Whilst in the cities (and in certain neighbourhoods), prices are skyrocketing, in others, prices are still decreasing.

Although on average, by the end of 2019, house prices in Spain will be 15% below the peaks recorded in 2007, according to the report from Anticipa Real Estate, there are some hot spot areas where those prices have already been exceeded. In Cataluña, another of the hot spots in the Spanish market, increases of around 9% are expected next year and that despite the delicate political situation in Cataluña, which has had a direct negative impact on the real estate market – in Barcelona -, which, until a year ago, was performing extremely well in terms of transactions and prices.

Madrid stands out from the rest of Spain, with an evolution in terms of residential prices that has caused the first alarm bells to start sounding. In certain neighbourhoods, such as Chamartín, Chamberí and Salamanca, second-hand homes now cost the same as they did ten or twelve years ago, whilst in others such as Arganzuela, Centro, Moncloa and Tetúan, prices are close to exceeding those levels. In others, where prices are still well below their peaks of the bubble, the market is rising at rates of 20%, rapidly reducing the gap with respect to 2008.

They are peripheral areas of the city towards which price rises are moving like an oil slick. And that is because prices, both to the purchase and rental markets in the centre of the city have reached such prohibitive levels that much of the demand is moving en masse to more affordable areas, resulting in significant upward pressure on prices.

According to the latest data from Tinsa, in Vicálvaro, Ciudad Lineal and Villaverde, house prices have risen by more than 20% in the last year, compared with rises of 8.5% in Chamartín and 13% in the district of Salamanca. Meanwhile, the municipalities of Barcelona, such as L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, Castelldefels, Esplugues de Llobregat and Sabadell, are experiencing a similar phenonemon with increases of more than 15% (…).

Original story: El Confidencial (by E. Sanz)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Stoneweg Invests €200M in Financing of Real Estate Projects

31 August 2018 – El Economista

Last year, the Spanish-Swiss platform Stoneweg, led in Spain by Joaquín Castellví, launched its alternative financing division, to which it has already allocated €200 million to support the development of around 40 real estate projects.

The company headquartered in Geneva (Switzerland) has also raised another €100 million to finance new developments, in which it participates up to a maximum of 60 per cent of the debt.

With the creation of this new line of business, the firm was one of the first to enter the alternative financing market in Spain, a market in which the number of players is growing gradually.

The role that Stoneweg takes in the financing of projects is prior to that of the banks, given that the firm enters in the initial phase of developments, before there is a high level of pre-sales or when a project involves a plot of land that is not yet buildable. For that reason, its financing is more expensive than that offered by the banks, but it provides investors with the opportunity to enter more projects and whereby take full advantage of the upwards cycle currently underway.

Once the developments progress and achieve the parameters requested by the banks, the developers typically cancel the bridge financing in order to resort to traditional means.

In the case of Stoneweg, 50 per cent of the projects in which it has participated to date have been residential, whilst the other half have involved hotels and offices. One of the most significant alliances was closed at the end of last year with Ayco, which subscribed a financing line with an initial drawdown amount of €13 million.

Property developer role

This line of business comes in addition to the firm’s role as a direct investor in the real estate market, where the company has disbursed almost €700 million in recent years. In this way, the firm has starred in one of the largest ever operations in the office market in Barcelona, with the development and subsequent sale of the Luxa Complex in the 22@ district.

The company is continuing to look for opportunities in that segment, both in the Catalan capital and in Madrid, although, currently, housing accounts for the majority of its portfolio, given that it has around 2,000 units under development at different stages.

Through its residential firm Stoneweg Living, the platform has now handed over 150 units and in June, it finished its first development in Madrid, Alfonso X, located in the neighbourhood of Chamberí. Moreover, it recently started work on its first high-end development in the Maresme area of Barcelona, in which it is going to invest around €19 million.

Original story: El Economista (by Alba Brualla)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Almagro Capital, the Socimi Specialising in Homes for the Elderly, Prepares its MAB Debut

27 July 2018 – Idealista

Increasingly, more and more Socimis specialising in alternative assets are wanting to take their portfolios to the stock market. The latest is Almagro Capital, one of the largest Socimis to specialise in residential assets for the elderly. The company has proposed making its leap onto the Alternative Investment Market (MAB) in 2019 and raising €50 million to grow through purchases.

Almagro’s business model focuses on acquiring homes for the elderly whereby the vendors themselves become the tenants of their homes. These investments respond to an increasingly widespread problem in Spain that directly affects the elderly: 90% of people aged over 65 years live in a home that they own and 30% admit to struggling to make ends meet.

Almagro Capital was founded last year by former directors of Lehman Brothers and Merril Lynch. It will be the first Socimi from Orfila to focus its activity in Madrid. The company started with prime flats in the capital since they are assets with less volatility and which can achieve returns for investors of 10% per annum. Chamberí, Chamartín and Goya are the areas where the Socimi is centred.

The real estate vehicle has started the search for new assets, located in the metropolitan areas of the main Spanish cities, such as Madrid, Valencia, Málaga, Salamanca, Granada, Bilbao and Sevilla, amongst others, although it points out that its focus is placed on the Community of Madrid, and more specifically, on the region inside the M-30.

Almagro Capital is planning to make its debut on the Alternative Investment Market (MAB) in the summer of 2019. Until then, the company will continue to focus on the search for new opportunities in the market and is holding advanced negotiations to buy new assets in Madrid worth between €300,000 and €3 million.

Original story: Idealista

Translation: Carmel Drake

Intu Moves into New HQ in Madrid on Paseo de la Castellana

19 April 2018 – El Economista

The British giant Intu, owner of several shopping centres in Spain, including Xanadú in Madrid and Puerto Venecia in Zaragoza, is continuing to grow in our country with a new headquarters in the capital. The company, which until now had its offices in the Chamberí neighbourhood, has moved to a small palace on Paseo de la Castellana.

With this operation, which has been advised by the real estate consultancy firm Savills Aguirre Newman, the firm is expanding its office space and positioning itself in a strategic enclave in the city. Specifically, Intu is going to move to number 64 Paseo de la Castellana, into the iconic Palacete Moreno Benítez, which spans 1,350 m2, spread over five floors.

The building, constructed in 1904 by the architect Joaquín Saldaña, was inhabited for many years by the aristocracy of the time and is one of the few small palaces that has managed to survive of the 70 that used to dominate this major Madrilenian thoroughfare.

Its current owner, which will become Intu’s landlord in Madrid by virtue of this contract, is the real estate company Caboel, in which the Carbó, Bonet and Elías families hold stakes, all former owners of the Caprabo distribution group.

Caboel acquired the property in 2015 by making the best offer – €13.5 million – in a public auction organised by the State Company for the Management of Real Estate Assets (Segipsa). Until then, the building had been owned by the General State Administration, which acquired it in 1982.

The company has carried out a project to refurbish the building to subsequently obtain returns by leasing it out.

Caboel owns 30,000 m2 of office space in Madrid, Barcelona, Lisbon and Porto, according to information provided on its website. The company’s portfolio comprises 150 assets, diversified across different sectors such as commercial, with retail premises and out-of-town shopping parks, as well as hotels and logistics assets.

Original story: El Economista (by Alba Brualla)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Grosvenor Will Invest €200M to Double its Portfolio in Spain by 2022

25 April 2018 – Eje Prime

The British group Grosvenor is taking advantage of the strong performance of the real estate sector in Spain. The company, which has just presented its financial results for 2017, revealing a record profit of GBP 143.5 million (€163.8 million), has revised its plans for Spain. It is now going to spend more than €200 million on purchases, together with the Malaysian group Amprop, with which it owns a joint venture in the country. The group aims to double its portfolio of assets between now and 2022, according to James Raynor (pictured below), CEO of Grosvenor, speaking to Eje Prime.

“In 2017, we increased our potential in the residential sector, specifically in Madrid, where we undertook six acquisitions for development”, explained Raynor. “Our intention is to transform under-utilised assets into properties that contribute to the growth and dynamisation of the neighbourhoods in which they are located, and we have faith that our first projects in the districts of Salamanca and Chamberí will do just that”, he added.

Grosvenor’s most ambitious plans in Spain include its new purchases. The group, which now employs eight people in the country after it opened an office in Madrid, has increased its investment capacity to €200 million through its joint venture together with Amprop, created last year to build luxury homes in Madrid. “We will also evaluate investments outside of the joint venture”, added the director.

The alliance with Amprop set itself the objective of backing value-added investments, where it assumes high risks but also assigns them high profitability. For these types of projects, the two groups have allocated a budget of €70 million, although they have reviewed the numbers thanks to the “opportunities being offered by the Spanish market”, explained the executive.

Grosvenor evaluates its last year in Spain as “a good year”. (…). “Having expanded our team, we have more power to unlock opportunities that would have been impossible without the experience of professionals in the sector. We have also been making progress with projects such as the one we have underway at number 53 Jorge Juan”, explained Raynor.

Over the coming months, the British group is going to continue “to look for investment opportunities in the main neighbourhoods of Madrid”. “We think that this is the perfect time to invest in residential developments in Spain and in repositioning opportunities, although we are also open to the acquisition of mixed-use assets, as well as retail properties and offices”, says Raynor -; “As an investment company, we have a diverse portfolio and extensive experience in all of the real estate sectors, and so we will take advantage of that know-how to find the most appropriate opportunities to suit us (…).

The fund has been led in the Spanish market by Fátima Sáez del Cano since 2007, although its operations in the country date back to 1996. The director leads the fund specialising in the office and commercial sectors, which is also responsible for the management of the funds and assets. Some of the properties under Grosvenor’s management in Spain include the Islazul shopping centre in Madrid and the Anecblau complex in Barcelona (…).

In addition, in recent months, Grosvenor decided to add new blood to its management team by hiring more directors. In September, the group recruited Javier García as the new Technical Director for the Spanish market. The director is responsible for the technical management of operations in Spain, from the control of the design to the monitoring of project costs and deadlines (…).

Original story: Eje Prime (by Custodio Pareja)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Excem Socimi Residencial Launches Homiii, a Brand Specialising in Shared Rental Homes for Millennials

17 April 2018 – La Vanguardia

Excem Socimi Residencial, which, in less than two years of life, has accumulated an asset value of €30 million, with share capital of €12 million, has launched the brand Homiii for the professional rental of shared homes to millennial students and young professionals.

Excem’s Socimi estimates a (stock market) debut value of €1.40 per share, which would represent an appreciation of 40% for current shareholders. Its latest capital increase, in March, amounting to €4.1 million was backed by 40 investors in total.

Homiii (www.homiii.com) purchases properties for residential use, in particular, those that are characterised by their location – in the most central areas of cities -, their quality – they must be renovated, decorated and furnished – and their design – the firm prizes comfort and functionality -.

This professional rental management company has concentrated its efforts in Madrid during the first phase. After just 20 months, it has acquired 40 flats, with a combined surface area of more than 7,000 m2 and 252 rooms under management for the academic year 2018-2019, located in the neighbourhoods of Moncloa, Chamberí, Centro and Salamanca.

The CEO of Homiii and Head of Excem Socimi Residencial, Antonio Mochón, explains that they are “very satisfied” with the results achieved so far. “We have created a business from nothing, and, to date, we have incorporated 40 highly qualified investors who have contributed funding worth more than €12 million”, he said.

Moreover, he highlighted that the firm has dealt with “more than 400 clients and earned a satisfaction rate of 80% for the quality of the homes and the value added”. “Young people feel part of the Homiii community because we offer them a lot more than they are initially looking for. We specialise in adding value to investors and clients, in a market where there is more demand than qualified and professional supply”, he said.

The objective is to exceed 3,000 rooms in some of the main cities in Spain such as Madrid, Barcelona, Sevilla, Valencia, Bilbao, Málaga and Santiago de Compostela. The strategic plan for the business model is to close 2019 with investment of €70 million and to reach €300 million over the coming years through expansion across Spain.

Monchón indicates that one of his challenges has been to achieve security for investors: “a gross yield of 6%, a share price increase of 40%, a default rate of 0% and a commercial occupancy rate of 100%”.

“We understand our business project as a very specialist business model, and for that reason, we are managing to add value to our shareholders and offer professionalised management to our clients. We have achieved great stability in terms of the generation of rents and security for investors”, he explained.

Original story: La Vanguardia

Translation: Carmel Drake