Tag: Encasa Cibeles

Sareb Appoints Azora To Manage Its First Socimi, Témpore Properties

21 September 2017 – El Confidencial

Sareb has chosen one of the largest experts in the management of rental housing in Spain to commandeer its first Socimi. The expert in question is Azora, an independent firm with almost 15 years experience and more than €3,000 million of assets under management. Azora’s key milestones include the creation and management of Hispania, one of the largest Socimis in Spain.

After organising a competitive process between several candidates, the entity chaired by Jaime Echegoyen (pictured above), has chosen the management firm founded by Concha Osácar and Fernando Gumuzio to take the reins at Témpore Properties, the name that Sareb has given to its first Socimi. The appointment is still pending the final approvals.

Sareb’s new vehicle will own around 1,500 rental properties, worth almost €200 million. The entity wants to place the assets, which have been valuedby CBRE, on the market before the end of the year.

Having engaged Renta 4 as the registered advisor and Clifford Chance as legal counsel, the next major challenge for Sareb will be to convince the greatest possible number of investors about the virtues of the Socimi, given that, although its market debut will be made on the MAB – the Alternative Investment Market – Echegoyen’s aim is to sell the highest percentage of share capital possible.

In this way, Azora will play an important role, given that over the course of its history, it has managed more than €1,700 million from institutional investors through its five funds, as well as having a cover letter from Hispania, whose illustrious shareholders include none other than George Soros.

Nevertheless, in recent times, the management firm has been focusing on the divestment of the bulk of these vehicles, given that they are now reaching maturity.

In fact, this week, the firm closed the sale of Resa, the largest student hall of residence company in Continental Europe, which formed part of Lazora, a vehicle with which the manager started when it focused exclusively on rental homes.

Moreover, since the spring, the firm has been actively working on the liquidation of the fund Azora Europa 1 as well as of the Socimi Hispania, which is on the verge on selling its entire office portfolio to the insurance firm Swiss Life.

Azora is also behind the sale of 3,000 homes in the Community of Madrid to Goldman Sachs, which now comprise the company Encasa Cibeles, and of the purchase of four Consell Comarcal de Barcelonés developments from several Catalan town halls, assets that it has just debuted on the MAB through its Socimi Colón Viviendas.

Original story: El Confidencial (by Ruth Ugalde)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Lack of Control And Maintenance In Subsidized Dwellings Sold to a Vulture Fund

26/08/2014 – El Diario

The sale of 3.000 subsidized houses by the Community of Madrid to Goldman Sachs evoked serious tension among the estate’s inhabitants. Specifically, they complain that since Encasa Cibeles was named by the fund to manage the units, everyone has started to notice increase in squattering, abrasiveness and damage inside the development. 

In October 2013, the tenats found out that Madrid´s Housing Insitute (or IVIMA by its acronym in Spanish) had sold their homes to a vulture fund. Since then, many left their apartments to look for a private landlord instead of a public one. The dwellings got almost immediately taken by over 100 families. Meanwhile, the remaining tentants are trying to regain the previous rental conditions they agreed upon with the IVIMA.

The housing crisis occured in the Ensanche de Vallecas neighborhood, situated between the Eduardo Chillida and the Gran Vía del Sureste streets in Madrid. The real estate development was launched as a subisidized unit. The Madrid´s Institute offered most homes in the framework of the rent-to-buy contracts to young people who, on the news of the owner switch, terminated them.

Currently, around 150 homes are occupied by illegal inhabitants. ‘I have applied for a subsidized apartment several times, without any success. In my opinion, giving my family a place to live in is no crime. We are poor’, explains one of them.

Majority of the rental agreements are valid until July 2015. Those, whose contracts have already expired heard at Encasa Cibeles that ‘it is not an NGO’. In reponse to complaints issued by the affected families, the IVIMA said ‘once the housing developments sold to private hands, the public service regulations are no longer in force’.

Meanwhile, Encasa Cibeles announces it will fight with squattering by installing anti-burglar doors and sending security service to the developments.

In reality, ‘cases of receiving an eviction notice are much more common than seeing the families living illegally leave’, a tenant says. Removing squatters takes much more time. They wish the IVIMA came back and set rents at below the 600 Euros imposed by the company of Goldman Sachs.

Together with the rise in illegal occupancy, neighbours started to notice more acts of vandalism. ‘Broken panes, locks, and stolen garage videocameras are just examples of the damage’, says one of the tenants who is going to move out in September.

Original article: El Diario (by Laura Olías)

Translation: AURA REE