Tag: Córdoba

Brexit Deters Brits from Buying Homes in Andalucía

17 March 2019 – ABC Sevilla

The residential market in Andalucían is booming, despite the slowdown in demand from British buyers. The regional market is split into two clear segments – the market for second-hand homes for holiday use along the Costa del Sol, centred around Marbella and Estepona – and the market for primary residences across the rest of the autonomous region, where Málaga, Córdoba and Sevilla stand out with the most activity.

In the former, despite the decrease in demand from British purchasers due to Brexit, there has been a notable increase in buyers from the north of Europe, especially from Belgium and the Nordic countries.

In the latter, the local population, which primarily comprises families aged between 45 and 55 years old, with savings and stable incomes, is driving demand. For example, house sales in Córdoba grew by 16% in 2018, according to INE.

Original story: ABC Sevilla (by E. Freire)

Translation/Summary: Carmel Drake

Insur & the Moya Yoldi Family Team Up with the Cosentinos in Córdoba

1 March 2019 – El Confidencial

Inmobiliaria del Sur (Insur), the listed real estate firm, which joined forces with the Moya Yoldi family (the owners of the Persán detergent manufacturers) last year to promote three residential developments in Sevilla, Marbella and Madrid, has now teamed up with another high profile family: the Cosentinos – the manufacturer of Silestone.

The three companies are going to co-invest in a residential development in Córdoba comprising 187 homes. Insur will own 50% of the development, whilst ownership of the remaining 50% will be split between the two families.

Coincidentally, the Moya Yoldi and Cosentino families are already partners in the Socimi Trajano, which is chaired by José Moya.

Original story: El Confidencial (by Carlos Pizá)

Summary/Translation: Carmel Drake

Metrovacesa to Invest €40M in the Construction of 180 New Homes in Córdoba

27 November 2018 – Eje Prime

Metrovacesa has already set up its first cranes in Córdoba. The Spanish property developer has started work on the Las Terrazas de Poniente Sur Residential complex, the first in a series of three projects that the company has underway in the city. In total, the real estate firm is going to build more than 180 homes, with an investment of €40 million in the capital of the Andalucian province.

The company is going to build 120 homes in its first development in Córdoba. On that site, located in the Parque Cruz Conde neighbourhood, the company is going to build flats with between one and five bedrooms, in a building comprising a ground floor and six upper floors. In the common areas, the development will have an outdoor swimming pool, a padel court, a garden and a children’s playground.

Metrovacesa’s commitment to the Andalucían city reflects the fact that Córdoba is “one of the Spanish cities with the highest demand for residential properties at the moment”, said the property developer in a statement.

Besides the Las Terrazas de Poniente Sur Residential development, the company is already marketing Villas de Alhakén, a development comprising 21 single-family homes in the El Brillante neighbourhood. Meanwhile, it is finalising matters to obtain the urban planning licence for Mirador de la Albaida, a residential development comprising forty homes, which will have views of the mountains in Córdoba.

Commitment to Andalucía 

The start of the work in Córdoba is strengthening Metrovacesa’s commitment to Andalucía, where 45% of the company’s land portfolio is located. In Eastern Andalucía alone, the property developer has land on which to build 6,000 homes, of which 4,000 units will be promoted along the Costa del Sol.

The objective of the property developer over the medium term is to generate revenues of €1 billion by 2020, and to increase that figure to €1.5 billion over the following years, according to sources speaking to EjePrime.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Habitat Inmobiliaria Revives a 186-Home Development in Camas (Sevilla)

30 July 2018 – La Vanguardia

Habitat Inmobiliaria has acquired almost 12,000 m2 of land in the Sevillan town of Camas to build a new residential development comprising 186 homes that will involve an investment of more than €30 million. According to the company, the plot on which the new development will be located has a total buildable surface area of 23,357 m2 and the project will allow the re-launch of a development that was first started back in 2009. The marketing of this development will begin at the end of this year.

Specifically, the development will contain 186 homes in total and 277 parking spaces. It will have common areas with green spaces, playgrounds and swimming pools and four commercial premises. According to the property developers, the project is located around 20 minutes from the centre of Sevilla by car and just a few minutes from the bus stop that connects with the regional capital.

According to Habitat Inmobiliaria, the purchase of this plot forms part of the land acquisition plan that the group has launched and the project will be added to the more than 1,400 homes that the company currently has under construction. This operation follows other land purchases made by the firm in Collado Villalba and Móstoles in Madrid and the plots in Entrenúcleos in Dos Hermanas and Mairena del Aljarafe, both in Sevilla.

Currently, Habitat Inmobiliaria has a presence in the Andalucian provinces of Málaga, Córdoba and Sevilla and is interested in continuing to invest in the region, where the company has four developments up for sale and where it is planning to start on new residential developments in the coming months.

Original story: La Vanguardia 

Translation: Carmel Drake

Junta Awards Plot for Construction of 88 Social Housing Properties in Córdoba

20 March 2018 – Diario Córdoba

The Junta de Andalucía has awarded one of the two plots of residential land in Córdoba destined for protected housing that were included in the most recent offer for the sale of real estate assets by the Agency for Housing and Rehabilitation in Andalucía (AVRA), which will enable the construction of 88 social housing properties in the O-3 Residential Sector of the provincial capital. The plot, measuring 4,656 m2 and with a buildable surface area of 9,462 m2 over the ground floor and six storeys, has been awarded for €1,687,103, according to reports from the Junta itself in a press release.

The sale of this plot comes in addition to the sales that the Agency has been formalising in Córdoba over the last three years, where it has managed to dispose of 11 units of residential land in the O-3 sector, for a price of €11.3 million, with capacity for the construction of 710 protected homes, some of which are going to be promoted by private companies and others by municipal initiatives.

The total number of protected plots sold in Córdoba since 2015, including the plot that has just been awarded, now amounts to 12 plots for the construction of 798 homes, with a combined surface area of 54,817 m2. These plots have been awarded for €13 million in total.

The regional delegate for the Ministry of Housing and Development, Josefina Vioque, said that “sales of regional plots of land were reactivated at the beginning of the legislature after the Ministry decided to recover this activity as a strategic axis in the management of its public assets”.

Original story: Diario Córdoba 

Translation: Carmel Drake

Kutxabank Prepares the Sale of Residential Land Worth €700M

26 February 2018 – Eje Prime

Kutxabank is awakening from its lethargy in the Spanish real estate sector. The Basque bank, which resulted from the merger of three savings banks from the region (Kutxa, BBK and Caja Vital), wants to get rid of 40% of its portfolio of toxic assets, which would mean launching onto the market a portfolio of land and promotions worth between €500 million and €700 million.

This operation will be the second most important divestment to be undertaken by the financial entity, after it sold its real estate arm, Neinor Homes, to the fund Lone Star, back in 2015 for €930 million.

The objective of the bank is to take advantage of the good times that the residential market in Spain is currently enjoying to place its assets with international funds and new property developers, according to Vozpópuli.

This option that Kutxabank is considering comes at a time when the sector is complaining about the lack of developable land, which means that it is likely that the bank will easily find groups interested in acquiring its land. The plots are largely inherited from the merged Cajasur, a Cordoban entity that BBK integrated in 2010.

If it carries out the transaction, Kutxabank would join Santander and BBVA on the roadmap of Spanish banks with respect to real estate. The sale of a large part of the property held by two of the country’s major financial institutions last year, both to US funds, set a course that other smaller banks are now starting to follow.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Junta de Andalucía Puts 33,000 m2 of Land Up For Sale in Córdoba

4 February 2018 – La Vanguardia

The Junta de Andalucía’s Ministry of Development and Housing has launched its first regional land sale of the year in the province of Córdoba, comprising 15 residential and industrial plots, which span 32,989 m2 in total and with an asking price of €5.8 million.

In this regard and in statements to Europa Press, the delegate for Housing and Development at the Junta in Córdoba, Josefina Vioque, said that “with this initiative, we are continuing our strategy of selling some of the land owned by the Agency for Housing and Rehabilitation in Andalucía (AVRA), which obtained such good results in 2017, with the award of almost 22,000 m2”.

The objective, according to Vioque, is “to generate revenues that allow us to strengthen the promotion of our activities of a social nature in terms of housing, especially the promotion of subsidised housing”.

This new tender for the sale of regional land includes seven plots classified as industrial and tertiary, measuring 10,871 m2, and eight units classified as residential, with capacity for 238 homes.

Of the latter, four are reserved for the construction of 188 social housing properties, on a surface area of 17,374 m2, whilst the other four, spanning 4,743 m2, have capacity for 50 private homes.

According to the delegate, the industrial plots are located in the municipalities of Adamuz, Cabra, El Carpio and Córdoba, whilst the social housing plots are located in the provincial capital and in Rute, and the private housing plots are also located in the capital and in the municipality of Obejo.

The tender, which will be open for the presentation of proposals until 1 March, and which will be resolved after the envelopes are opened, scheduled for 12 March, at AVRA’s central headquarters in Sevilla, also includes nine retail premises and 19 parking spaces in Córdoba, Lucena and Rute.

According to Vioque, “the drive to manage AVRA’s owned properties has become a priority since the start of this legislature, give our aim to put these assets on the market at the service of business initiatives, to promote economic development and the generation of employment in the construction sector, one of the hardest hit during the crisis”.

Josefina Vioque said that “with this initiative, the Junta also seeks to reactivate the construction of VPO homes, to facilitate access to housing for families in most need, since these operations are going to allow us to resume, once again, the promotion of these types of subsidised homes, which are more affordable for people with fewer resources”.

Land sold in 2017

This tender follows others carried out during 2017, which saw the award of a total surface area of 21,946 m2  and the generation of revenues amounting to €6 million (…).

Original story: La Vanguardia

Translation: Carmel Drake

AVRA Sold 21,000 m2 of Land for Social Housing in Córdoba in 2017

31 January 2018 – 20 Minutos

That is according to a statement by the Ministry of Development and Housing, which noted that four operations were closed in total for around €6 million. Most of the land sold by the Ministry in the province of Córdoba was assigned for residential use, for the development of homes for social housing purposes, up to a total of 21,258 m2 with capacity for the construction of almost 400 VPO homes in the capital’s expansion area of Huerta Santa Isabel.

The plots were awarded to the municipal housing company, Vimcorsa, which will undertake the upcoming construction of almost 300 subsidised homes, which will be added to another 78 units that the regional Administration is also planning to build in this enclave.

Moreover, plots with a total surface area of 688 m2 were awarded in the municipality of Obejo, for the construction of six private market homes, for €68,923.

Most of the plots sold were owned by the Agency for Housing and Rehabilitation in Andalucía (AVRA), which took the decision at the start of this legislature to focus again on selling land as one of its strategic lines. It had slowed down that activity in previous years, during the most critical period of the crisis, according to the regional delegate from the Ministry of Housing and Development, Josefina Vioque.

The delegate indicated that “the drive to manage the properties owned by AVRA has become a priority. The objective is to put these assets on the market to serve business initiatives that promote economic development and the generation of employment in the construction sector, one of the hardest hit during the crisis”.

Vioque expressed that “the decision to recover this activity, involving the sale of regional land, was taken in light of the fact that the market was starting to show signs of recovery in terms of real estate activity. The main objective is to generate revenues to allow us to resume other activities, such as the construction of social housing for families with housing needs and scarce or zero possibilities of affording a home in the private market, like the ones we are now promoting in Córdoba”.

The VPO activities that are going to be promoted, in addition to the developments in Córdoba, will be located in Cádiz and Málaga, where the Ministry is already working to draft the technical plans, whilst the process to obtain the necessary financing to undertake these activities is being finalised.

The land sale activity resumed by AVRA since the beginning of this legislature has resulted in the award of almost 300,000 m2 of land, of different types, at the regional level, for a total amount of €50.7 million, over the last three years.

The sum of the industrial land sold during this period, 183,055 m2, once again places that use as the one that generates the best results in terms of awarded surface area. Residential land awarded over the last three years spans almost 110,000 m2. Those plots have the capacity for the construction of 1,476 homes, of which 891 will be subsidised housing and the remaining 585 will be private homes.

Original story: 20 Minutos

Translation: Carmel Drake