Tag: Europa Press

Bankia, Sabadell & CaixaBank Have Sold €17,000M Of Problem Assets

27 April 2016 – Expansión

Spain’s banks still need to get rid of €350,000 million of problem assets from their balance sheets, despite having already divested €65,000 million over the last five years. The leaders in the disposal of non-core assets so far have been CaixaBank, Sabadell and Bankia, although experts indicate that divestment of toxic loans and foreclosed assets may taken another ten more years.

That was the view of the Heads of Advisory for Financial Divestments at KPMG, Deloitte, N+1 and PwC. “After ten years in this market, I think that we still have another ten years worth of divestments ahead. This market is here to stay”, said Joel Grau yesterday, Partner and Co-founder of N+1’s Corporate Portfolio Advisors, at an event organised by Europa Press and Servihabitat.

In recent times, the rate of asset sales has amounted to between €16,000 million and €22,000 million per year and experts at KPMG predict that this year will be the second best in the history of the sector in Spain: “We expect to see an increase of 7% in terms of portfolio sales with respect to 2015, to reach €19,500 million, with the weight of mortgage portfolios and foreclosed assets accounting for 49% of the total”, said Amparo Solía, the Partner responsible for Corporate in the Finance and Real Estate Sector at KPMG, the consultancy firm that participates in half of all operations.

Of that figure of almost €20,000 million, there are currently almost €15,000 million in the market, according to Jaime Bergaz, the Partner responsible for Deals – Financial Sector at PwC. Of that amount, around half relates to portfolios with a real estate component: debt to property developers, mortgages and foreclosed assets.

Once again this year, the entities that are proving to be most active in the divestment market are Sabadell, CaixaBank and Bankia. According to KPMG, those three financial groups have sold off problem assets amounting to €17,000 million in the last three years, which represents 30% of all of the assets sold by Spain’s banks.

Bankia is the leader in the ranking, with €9,000 million sold in the last three years, according to the different consultancy firms, followed by Sabadell, with €4,500 million and CaixaBank, with €4,000 million. (…).

Sareb, BMN, Santander and BBVA have almost sold portfolios worth more than €2,000 million in the last three years.

In addition, Sabadell currently has two portfolios up for sale worth €1,300 million and is studying the possibility of bringing a third onto the market worth €1,700 million. Meanwhile, CaixaBank has an operation underway involving a portfolio of doubtful debts to property developers, worth €800 million; and Bankia is considering launching the sale of a package of doubtful mortgages. Moreover, Cajamar is also proving very active; Abanca has a portfolio of NPLs up for sale; and Popular is expected to be involved in some major deals during the second half of the year.

Solía, from KPMG and Grau, from N+1, predict a higher volume of portfolio sales in 2017, due to the new provisioning circular and the banks’ need to increase their returns.

Ahead of this improvement, funds are already managing 80% of the banks’ problem assets, through platforms that they have been buying up in recent years. Investors paid €4,000 million for the servicers and have absorbed 3,200 jobs from the financial institutions.

The acquired platforms include Altamira, in which Apollo owns an 85% stake; Aliseda, in which Värde and Kennedy Wilson hold a 51% stake; Servihabitat, of which 51% is controlled by TPG; Haya Real Estate, which Cerberus acquired from Bankia; and Aktua, which Centerbridge bought from Banesto and is now selling to Lindorff. (…).

Original story: Expansión (by J. Zuloaga)

Translation: Carmel Drake

The Sale Of Homes Soars By 11.1% In 2015 On The Second-Hand Market

10 February 2016 – El Economista (Europa Press)

Second-hand home transactions increase by 37.2% in the year, reaching their highest level since 2007.

Home sales increased by 11.1% in 2015 with respect to the previous year, up to a total of 354,132 transactions, its highest level since 2011, the National Statistics Institute (INE) reported last Wednesday.

The second-hand market has been the driving force behind this annual growth, the second one produced after the home sales increase by 2% in 2014.

In the period of crisis, the worst year for housing transactions were 2009 and 2008, in which these transactions plummeted by 25.1% and 28.8%, respectively. In 2012 and 2011, double-digit declines were still taking place (-11.5% and -18.1%), while in 2013 the decline slowed to 1.9% due to the end of tax benefits for housing purchase.

Home sales hit the accelerator in 2015 in a context of low prices, although experts believe that the correction reached its lowest level last year and will moderately rise.

The recovery in home sales in 2015 was due to the growth experienced in second-hand home transactions, which rocketed by 37.2%, reaching 276,300 transactions, the highest figure since 2007. By contrast, transactions on new homes fell 33.7% last year, reaching just 77,865, the lowest volume of the series.

89.8% of homes transferred by merchanting last year were non-subsidized and 10.2% were subsidized. In total, the sale of non-subsidized homes increased by 11.1% in 2015, while subsidized home transactions increased by 10.8% reaching 36,077 transactions, after several years of decline.

Andalucía, ahead of housing sales

In 2015, the highest number of home sales per 100,000 inhabitants took place in Valencia (1,322) and the Balearic Islands (1,177).

Andalusia was the region performing the highest number of transactions during last year reaching 70,739, followed by Catalonia (54,571), Region of Valencia (51,788) and Madrid (50,373).

The regions that performed a lower number of sales were La Rioja (2,561), Castilla y León (4,298 transactions) and Navarra (4,313).

In relative values, home sales rose in all regions in 2015, except for Navarra, where they decreased by 1.7%. The regions where these transactions increased the most were the Basque Country (+ 17.2%) and Aragón (+ 16.6%).

Total properties transferred in 2015 increase by 4.6%

Adding the urban and rural properties (homes and other urban nature properties), the properties transferred in 2015 reached 1,634,670, an increase of 4.6% over the previous year, thus returning to positive figures after having fallen by 4.5% in 2014.

Properties transferred by merchanting increased by 8.1% with respect to 2014, while donations increased by 2%, exchange transactions fell by 9.2%, and those transmitted by inheritance advanced by 6.6%.

According to the INE, the number of rural property sales increased by 6.5% in 2015, reaching a total of 126,470 transactions, thus adding its fifth consecutive year of increase, while urban property sales increased by 8.4%, reaching 627,128 transactions.

In the last month of 2015, home sales increased by 6.8% with reference to December 2014, reaching 27,625 transactions and lowering by nearly seven points the 13.7% year-on-year increase registered in November. With the rise in December, home sales accumulates 16 consecutive months of year-on-year increases.

In month-on-month rates (December 2015 compared to November of the same year), home sales fell by 3.9%, compared with increases of 1.6% and 2.4% recorded in December 2013 and 2014, respectively.

Original story: El Economista (Europa Press)

Translation: Aura Ree