Tag: foreclosure

Sabadell Engages Lazard To Evaluate Future Of HI Partners

29 August 2017 – Expansión

Banco Sabadell is studying the best solution for its hotel manager HI Partners. To this end, the financial entity has engaged the investment bank Lazard to analyse the private sale of its subsidiary or to search for a shareholder to acquire a majority stake in the company, according to market sources.

In this way, Sabadell is opening a window of opportunity to those who may be interested in taking full or majority control of its hotel management company, whilst it continues, in parallel with the IPO of the same entity.

These two options will allow Sabadell to make cash on the one hand and undo its positions, taking advantage of the current investor appetite in the real estate sector and, specifically, the interest in hotel assets, and secondly, to find a partner to take a majority stake and whereby deconsolidate the business from its balance sheet.

The operation, known in the market as a dual-track deal, allows the company to launch a sale and the search for interested parties in parallel to and at the same time as it undertakes the stock market debut process.

In this way, Lazard’s commission is independent of the contract that HI Partners signed to evaluate the feasibility of listing the company on the stock market.

Opportunities

Sources at the bank consulted by Expansión have indicated that this represents a “very preliminary sounding out” of the various deconsolidation and value-generating options. (…).

In this sense, the CEO of Sabadell, Jaime Guardiola, said during the presentation of the bank’s most recent results that the vocation of the financial entity is not to remain as managers over the long term: “we want to exit and we have a very good opportunity ahead of us”, he explained.

HI Partners is led by Alejandro Hernández-Puértolas (pictured above centre), CEO of the company, who, together with Sergio Carrascosa (pictured above left) and Santiago Fisas (pictured above right), two other former executives of Reig Capital, comprise the management team.

The group was created in 2015 following the transfer of around twenty hotels by Banco Sabadell. The financial entity had foreclosed those assets during the crisis following the non-payment of debts. Moreover, HI Partners is responsible for managing the bank’s hotel debt.

IPO

To control these assets, the hotel investment and management arm of Banco Sabadell created two companies: one to hold the best hotels in the chain, HI Partners Holdco Value, and another containing smaller hotels in secondary locations, HI Partners Holdco Gestión Activa, with the intention of improving their management to then sell them on.

For the time being, Sabadell is not ruling out any of the options and is continuing to analyse the debut of its hotel management and investment subsidiary on the stock market.

Before the summer, the bank engaged the investment banks Citi, JPMorgan and Credit Suisse to sound out the market and analyse the feasibility of listing its hotel management subsidiary on the stock market (…).

In the event that the bank decides to debut the company on the stock market, the operation will focus on the company that controls the most strategic assets: 14 high-end hotels located in the main tourist areas and which, as at 30 June, had a combined appraisal value of €689 million, with more than 3,700 rooms in the portfolio.

Original story: Expansión (by R. Arroyo and J. Orihuel)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Airbnb Pulls 1,000 Listings From Barcelona In The Wake Of Fraud Claims

10 July 2017 – El País

On Tuesday, Airbnb, the short-term home rental site, announced that it has taken down 1,000 listings in Barcelona’s downtown district of Ciutat Vella over the last week. The move comes just days after news emerged about cases of fraud involving homes listed on the popular vacation rental website.

It is also a follow-up to a pledge made by company officials in February, when they said they would introduce a one-host, one-home policy in a part of the city that is under increasing pressure from high levels of tourism. The gesture, meant to reduce the supply of short-term rentals in the area, was also viewed as an olive branch for Barcelona city authorities, who have been critical of Airbnb’s practices.

Back then, Mayor Ada Colau dismissed the gesture as “a joke” and said that what the city wants is for Airbnb to pull all the illegal listings from its site. Local authorities note that tourist apartments require a special license to operate as such, known as HUT under its Catalan acronym.

Now, Airbnb has released an open letter to Barcelona City Hall entitled: “Here’s why City Hall is wrong to turn its back on local families who share their homes.”

“Airbnb wants to be regulated in Barcelona, and we have zero tolerance for bad actors,” states the message. “We want to work with City Hall to clamp down on business operators who break the rules, while protecting local families who share their homes to boost their income and support their families.”

The letter is signed by Sergio Vinay, of the company’s public policy department, which is in charge of negotiating with local and regional authorities.

“In Barcelona, this guiding principle hits a roadblock. Unlike other major cities across the world, Barcelona has no rules for local families who occasionally share their homes,” the letter goes on to say. These rules are currently being worked out at the regional level.

“In the absence of such a collaboration, Airbnb has already taken steps to tackle issues facing Barcelona,” says Vinay in the letter. “In the last week alone, Airbnb has removed more than 1,000 listings that could affect long-term housing availability, as part of our ‘One Host, One Home’ policy. For context, that’s almost double the number of tourist dwellings that have ceased to operate following City Hall action.”

Vinay also takes issue with City Hall urban planning official Janet Sanz, who has been critical of Airbnb: “Janet Sanz is wrong to say that City Hall ‘is not fighting home sharing’ or local families who share their homes. It is – and by choosing to promote a campaign of fear and confusion over workable solutions, it’s local families who stand to lose most.”

The San Francisco-based firm claims that the average Airbnb host in Barcelona is a homeowner who makes an extra income of €5,500 a year on average for “sharing their home” around 70 nights a year. “More than two-thirds of hosts say they share their primary residence and almost a quarter say that sharing their home has helped them avoid eviction or foreclosure.”

Last month, it emerged that a Barcelona woman had rented out her apartment to a long-term tenant, who then illegally listed it on Airbnb and began subletting it. Unable to reach her tenant, the woman was forced to rent out her own place through Airbnb, at which time she changed the lock and reported the case to the authorities.

Original story: El País (by Clara Blanchar)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Setback For Sareb: Suspension Of “In Tempo” Foreclosure

24 October 2016 – El Mundo

The soap opera involving In Tempo, the tallest residential building in Spain, continues. And the latest episode represents a real setback for Sareb, the main creditor of Olga Urbana, the company that went bankrupt after constructing the famous skyscraper in Benidorm.

Commercial Court number 1 in Alicante, which is handling Olga Urbana’s bankruptcy, has suspended the foreclosure of the property, which, in theory, was going to be awarded to Sareb, after it submitted the only and highest bid, amounting to €58.5 million. The judge has ruled in favour of the appeals submitted by Olga Urbana’s smaller creditors against the aspirations of the bad bank, which had been hoping to take over the building after it spent the summer contending that it had submitted the only official bid.

Nevertheless, according to the ruling dated 13 October, the magistrate considers that In Tempo cannot be awarded until the bankruptcy incidents that are affecting the process have been resolved. As soon as firm rulings have been issued regarding these incidents, the foreclosure will be approved, but not before. This represents a serious setback for Sareb: it had planned to foreclose the 190m tall building and then resell it,  whereby recovering some or all of its debt, which amounts to €108 million in total.

The bad bank will now have to wait until the bankruptcy incidents have been legally resolved. The claims have been filed by Olga Urbana’s small creditors, who consider that the liquidation plan would be harmful for them, given that, in their opinion, they would not recover any of their debt; these companies maintain that Sareb should not hold preferential creditor status, which gives it the right to recover its debt first.

According to these creditors (which include the construction company Kono, the arquitect Robert Pérez Guerras and the former administrator of Olga Urbana, Isidre Boronat), Sareb was an administrator of Olga Urbana and therefore, is responsible for the creditor bankruptcy of the company, which went bust at the end of 2014 with liabilities amounting to €137 million.

The creditors argue that the bad bank should be the last party to recover its money (…). In this way, the small creditors would recover their money before Sareb.

Given that this question has not been decided yet, the judge handling the bankruptcy has opted to wait for clarification as to whether Sareb is a preferential creditor or not, because a premature foreclosure could affect the interests of the other creditors. Meanwhile, Sareb maintains that the foreclosure of the building, which has been valued at €90 million, forms part of the liquidation plan, and would not be harmful to the other creditors.

Original story: El Mundo (by F. D. G.)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Sareb Will Take Ownership Of The ‘In Tempo’ Skyscraper In Benidorm

25 August 2016 – El Economista

The In Tempo skyscraper in Benidorm is the tallest residential tower in Spain and the second tallest in Europe, however, it is proving difficult to find an investor willing to pay the asking price. The property is weighed down by debt amounting to €100 million, which is in the hands of Sareb, but is reportedly worth around €90 million.

According to the newspaper El Confidencial, none of the offers for the skyscraper, which has been on the market since the end of last year, have exceeded €60 million. For this reason, Sareb has not waived its right to submit a higher offer to take over the asset, in an operation that would form part of the liquidation process of its current owner and developer, the company Olga Urbana.

According to online media, the bad bank has confirmed this information, however, “they assure that they have not yet received the asset foreclosure notice from the judge”.

The 52-floor building, which is 189m tall and contains 300 apartments is a symbol of the real estate bubble. Once the judge has authorised the award of the asset to Sareb, the bad bank could begin a new sales process involving negotiations with the two funds that have already expressed interest in the property.

Although construction work is still underway and the degree of completion ranges between 83% and 97%, apartments in the skyscraper are being sold for between €190,990.80 and €1.6 million, according to the online portal Idealista.

Original story: El Economista

Translation: Carmel Drake

Bank of Spain: Default Rate Falls To 9.44% In June

19 August 2016 – Expansión

Yesterday, the Bank of Spain published provisional data for 30 June 2016, which shows that the default rate decreased for the fifth consecutive month, to 9.44%, its lowest level since June 2012. The figure includes the change in methodology for classifying Financial Credit Establishments (EFC), which are no longer included within the category of credit institutions. In this way, the default rate has now been below the 10% threshold for the fourth consecutive month.

The decrease in the default rate has come despite the fact that total credit in the sector rose by 1.2%, the first increase since November 2015. Specifically, total credit increased by €15,682 million to €1.298 billion. “The decrease in the default rate coincides with the strong growth in new loans to SMEs and households”, said José Luis Martínez, spokesperson for the Spanish Banking Association (AEB).

Doubtful debt

The doubtful debt balance sank to €122,508 million, down by €3,689 million compared with the previous month, its lowest level since June 2011. Financial entities have decreased their combined doubtful debt balance by more than €70,000 million since the peak in 2013, when it exceeded €200,000 million.

Therefore, the clean up of the financial sector is now a reality. Nevertheless, some entities have performed the process more quickly than others. In the last year, Sabadell and Bankia stand out as the entities that have got rid of the most doubtful assets, having reduced their doubtful balances by almost a quarter each. Specifically, the Catalan entity has reduced its doubtful debts by 23.9% and Bankia by 23.2%. Three other Spanish entities reduced their doubtful balances by at least a fifth between June 2015 and June 2016, namely: Liberbank (22.4%), Abanca (22%) and CaixaBank (20%).

Several factors have contributed to the reduction in the doubtful debt balance. As well as the macroeconomic improvement seen in recent years, the entities have accelerated their portfolio sales to large funds.

Another way in which the banks have shrunk their large doubtful balances has been through foreclosures, especially of unpaid loans to property developers overdue by more than one year.

Original story: Expansión (by D.B.)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Anticipa Has Accepted 2,400 ‘Daciones En Pago’ In 1 Year

18 April 2016 – El Periódico

Anticipa Real Estate, the real estate manager that the fund Blackstone acquired from CatalunyaCaixa, began by purchasing a portfolio of non-performing mortgage loans from the former savings banks for €3,600 million. The portfolio included 40,000 mortgages worth €6,400 million. In addition, it bought portfolios of property developer loans from Sareb and CaixaBank. Since April 2015, when that operation was closed, Anticipa has worked to recover those loans and the underlying collateral – the repossession of the asset -. During this period, it has signed agreements with 3,000 borrowers, of which 2,400 have resulted in ‘daciones en pago’ – “the handing over of homes in exchange for the cancelation of debt” – and 600 have resulted in the renegotiation of the loan, in such a way that the borrowers can make their mortgage repayments, according to Anticipa’s own summary of its first year of management.

The servicer – which is also responsible for managing the real estate assets of CatalunyaCaixa, now BBVA – bought the portfolio on 15 April 2015 and between then and 30 March 2016, it has closed around 400 operations per month. “We have signed 20 operations per day”, say sources at the entity. “And we have prioritised friendly relationships to enable both parties to reach an agreement”. The entity highlights that this process has been carried out whilst maintaining a good understanding with the platforms of people affected by mortgages (PAH), although they acknowledge that there are certain discrepancies with the PAH in Barcelona, which regards Blackstone as a “vulture” fund, even though it is a long-term real estate investor, which is firmly committed to the rental management business in Spain.

Anticipa highlights that it applies the code of good practice under Spanish legislation, whereby those families who have nowhere to go after a ‘dación en pago’ are offered social housing. In fact, 25% of the borrowers of the 40,000 mortgages pay their monthly instalments on time. Anticipa sends out an invoice each month and collects the corresponding funds. Of the remaining 75%, some (25%) of the borrowers pay intermittently and the rest (50%) do not pay at all. The company prioritises enabling those borrowers who pay intermittently to become regular payers, through the refinancing of their loans. “We apply a partial discount, we amend the term, the interest rate and the loan principal, to reduce the instalment and whereby facilitate the payment”, explains the entity.

Case by case analysis

If the borrower is still unable to pay, he is offered a ‘dación en pago’, and the remaining debt is cancelled in most cases. “Each case is analysed on an individual basis”. Anticipa helps the borrower to find a home if he has to leave or offers him a property to rent “at market price” or by means of “social housing”, as appropriate.

The entity does not rule out mortgage foreclosures when there is no other way of reaching an agreement with the borrower…But, “we have not carried out any evictions”, say sources at the entity…and the objective is to negotiate in order to avoid eviction in all cases”, they add.

Anticipa, led by Eduard Mendiluce…employs 360 people, of which almost 150 are dedicated exclusively to negotiating with borrowers. (…).

Original story: El Periódico (by Max Jiménez Botías and Olga Grau)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Speculation Returns To The Market For Land In Madrid & Along The Coast

11 April 2016 – ABC

During the years of the crisis, investors regarded land as one of the least attractive assets. In fact, in the face of scarce demand and the paralysis in the construction sector, land values fell to historic lows. (…).

Sales of urban land, the substratum of real estate developments, are growing again after nine years of consecutive decreases. And they are doing so at a healthy – and on occasion, vertiginous – rate in certain areas of the country where the housing market has already started its recovery, such as the more illustrious areas of major cities, including the north of Madrid and established areas along the coast (Málaga, Palma de Mallorca and the Canary Islands). So much so that a warning is now spreading amongst analysts and agents in the sector: the scarcity of developable land – which does not require land planning approval – in certain areas, and renewed interest from investors is generating a new “overheating” in the price of transactions, something not seen since the burst of the real estate bubble.

The latest “Market Trends” report prepared by Solvia, the real estate arm of Banco Sabadell, warns that the expectation of a strong recovery in value is incubating operations of a speculative nature. “The fact that the supply of well-located land is scarce in areas with demand, that there is widespread liquidity in the market and that there is fierce competition to acquire assets, means that land purchases are being made for speculative purposes, in certain specific cases, for subsequent resale at significantly higher prices”.

In this sense, the study, which does not cite who is behind such transactions, highlights the cases of the Madrilenian neighbourhoods of Valdebebas and Montecarmelo. In the case of the latter, the price of land has risen by between 40% and 60% to €2,400/m2.

Montecarmelo and Valdebebas

Fernando Rodríguez de Acuña, Director General of Operations at the consultancy firm RR de Acuña y Asociados distinguishes between three players in the race for land: the financial entities and large investors, who have put their assets up for sale “in stages” and the small and medium-sized funds, which are more prone to speculative operations given that they seek high short-term yields. The confluence of these players has given rise to a situation in which both the activity and value of these real estate assets have increased significantly, if we exclude the statistical effect of operations carried out by financial entities foreclosing unpaid debt. Thus, the number of transactions carried out by operators in the sector (developers, funds and cooperatives) increased by 37% in 2015 compared with the year before and by 60% in terms of transaction volume. (…).

According to the experts, two operations in particular have caused prices in the land market in the Spanish capital to sky-rocket: firstly, the sale of 14 plots containing more than 93,000 m2 of buildable space, by the Valdebebas Compensation Board to the property developer Pryconsa for more than €55 million and secondly, the acquisition of a plot of land in Montecarmelo by Cogesa, which belongs to the Dragados group, for more than €20 million. (…).

Original story: ABC (by Luis M. Ontoso)

Translation: Carmel Drake

INE: Primary Residence Mortgage Foreclosures Fall By 12.4%

4 December 2015 – ABC

During Q3 2015, 5,959 primary residence mortgages were foreclosed, which represents a decrease of 12.4% compared with the same period in 2014, according to the mortgage foreclosure statistics published on Thursday by the National Institute of Statistics (INE). In inter-quarterly terms (the third quarter compared with the second quarter), mortgage foreclosures involving primary residences decreased by 31.3%.

The primary objective of this statistic is to provide information about the number of mortgage foreclosures initiated and registered in the Property Registers during the quarter in question. INE points out that not all mortgage foreclosure procedures that are launched end with the eviction of tenants. During the third quarter, 19,403 mortgage foreclosures were launched, 17.8% fewer than during the same period in 2014 and 32.9% fewer than during the second quarter. Of those, 18,344 related to urban properties (including homes) and 1,058 related to rural properties.

The number of mortgage foreclosures over urban properties decreased by 18.5% with respect to Q3 2014 and by 33.2% with respect to the previous quarter. Of the urban properties, 11,584 foreclosures related to homes, i.e. 59.7% of the total, and this figure represented a decrease of 15.6% compared to the same period in 2014. In terms of homes, mortgage foreclosures over homes owned by individuals amounted to 7,590 during the third quarter (down by -13.8% YoY), of which 5,959 were the primary residences of those individuals, whilst 1,631 were not the owners’ primary residences. The number in the latter category decreased by 18.4% with respect to the third quarter 2014.

Meanwhile, there were 3,995 mortgage foreclosures over homes owned by legal entities during the third quarter, a decrease of 18.9% with respect to the same period last year. According to INE, mortgage foreclosure procedures were initiated for just 0.03% of the total stock of family homes in Spain (18,378,100) between July and September 2015.

Decreasing trend for new builds and second-hand housing

Of the total number of mortgage foreclosures recorded involving homes during the third quarter, 9,971 related to second-hand homes, which represented a YoY decrease of 13.3%. Foreclosures over new homes amounted to 1,613, i.e. 27.8% fewer than during the same quarter in 2014. The statistics also reveal that, during the third quarter, 20.3% of the home mortgage foreclosures launched related to mortgages constituted in 2007; 17.2% related to mortgages granted in 2006; and 11.3% corresponded to mortgages signed in 2008. Put another way, 59.8% of the mortgage foreclosures initiated during the third quarter related to mortgages constituted between 2005 and 2008.

Between July and September, mortgage foreclosures over land amounted to 615, representing a YoY decrease of 55.9% and a QoQ decline of 49.5%. Meanwhile, mortgage foreclosures relating to commercial premises, garages, offices, storerooms, warehouses and other urban buildings amounted to 6,145, i.e. 16.8% fewer than during the third quarter last year and 31.9% fewer than during the previous quarter. Finally, there were 1,059 mortgage foreclosures involving rural properties during the third quarter, which represented a YoY decrease of 3.7% and a QoQ drop of 27.2%.

Andalucía leads the ranking

By autonomous region, Andalucía led the number of foreclosures involving homes during the third quarter, with 2,984 in total, followed by Valencia (2,339) and Cataluña (2,022). At the opposite end of the spectrum were Navarra and País Vasco, with just 63 foreclosures each. In terms of the number of foreclosed properties, Andalucía also led the ranking, with 5,019, followed by Valencia (3,718) and Cataluña (3,207). At the tail end were Navarra (99) and La Rioja and Cantabria (112).

Original story: ABC

Translation: Carmel Drake

Blackstone To Offer Debt Forgiveness On Spanish Mortgages

1 July 2015 – Bloomberg

Blackstone Group LP is seeking to restructure some of the €6.4 billion Spanish home loans it bought at a discount to help borrowers meet repayments, according to three people with knowledge of the matter.

The world’s largest private equity firm is offering to cut outstanding debt or allow homeowners to hand back the keys and walk away from loans, said two of the people, who asked not to be identified because the matter is private. Blackstone holds the mortgages of 40,000 homeowners in Spain after buying the debt for €3.6 billion from struggling savings bank CatalunyaCaixa.

Blackstone can avoid the time and expense of repossessing homes by helping borrowers find ways to continue paying their mortgages, something that is more difficult for Spanish banks because of provisioning requirements and central bank regulations. Avoiding evictions may also mute political claims that private investors are coming to Spain to take people’s homes away.

“If you are struggling to pay your mortgage, you are undoubtedly better off having Blackstone as your creditor than a traditional Spanish bank,” said Juan Villen, Head of Mortgage Services at property website Idealista.com. “Blackstone can be much more flexible.”

Andrew Dowler, a London-based spokesman for Blackstone, declined to comment when called by Bloomberg News.

Loan Portfolio

The subject of Spaniards losing their homes is a hot-button political issue, with power in the Madrid and Barcelona town halls swinging to parties that pledged to ban evictions during municipal elections in May. The Platform Against Evictions activist group organized demonstrations outside Blackstone’s offices in New York, London, Madrid and Barcelona in March, and posted a video on its website accusing the firm of intending to evict “en masse.”

Anticipa, Blackstone’s mortgage servicing unit, took over the management of the loan portfolio two months ago, with about 75 percent of the debt classified as under-performing or non-performing, according to the people. It will take about seven years to restructure the debt, they said.

Spanish home prices have fallen by more than 42% since the peak in 2007, according to Tinsa, Spain’s largest homes appraiser. That has left about a fifth of borrowers in negative equity, according to Villen. Lenders in the country foreclosed on more than 70,000 properties in 2014, with Andalusia, Catalunya and Valencia hit the hardest, according to the National Statistics Institute, which began compiling data at that start of that year.

Post Keys

Blackstone’s plan to allow homeowners to post the keys and walk away from their debts, a legal process known as “dation in payment”, is seen as a significant step by analysts.

“Unlike in the U.S. and other European countries, Spanish law stipulates a bank can foreclose on a home and still pursue the borrower for the rest of his life if the value of the loan is higher than the price that the bank forecloses at,” Villen said. “The offer of “dation in payment” is a refreshing way of approaching borrowers that are in negative equity.”

The private equity company will only foreclose on “strategic defaulters” who can pay but refuse to, while homeowners at risk of social exclusion, which represent about 3% of Blackstone’s portfolio, will be allowed to remain in their property paying subsidized rents, the people said.

Original story: Bloomberg (by Sharon R. Smyth)

Edited by: Carmel Drake

Foreclosures On Homes Of Primary Residence Up 13,5%

23/12/2014 – Cinco Días

24.240 mortgage foreclosures over the third quarter

Between June and September, the number of homes of main residence foreclosed due to unpaid mortgage has gone up to 6,787 – 13.5% more than over the same period in 2013 but 29.4% less than in the previous quarter.

According to research published today by the National Statistics Institute (INE), looking at initiated foreclosures and new entries in the property registers, these foreclosures have increased by 10.5% up to 23,240, although they fell by 29.5%, when compared to the period from April-June in 2014.

Most of them, 22,135, were urban properties – 9.8% more than last year’s but 29.4% less than the previous quarter’s, while the remaining 1,105 were rural properties – 25.4% more than in 2013, although 30.4% less than between April and June this year.

13,741 or 59.1% of the total of urban properties were residential housing units, which translates into an increase of 11.7%, compared to 2013, but this is 28.3% less than in the previous quarter.

A total of 8,870 or 29.2% of them were owned by private owners (up 14.7%), while 4,961 or 21.3% by businesses (up 6.8% ), and 8.6% by private individuals.

Mortgage foreclosure is a measure which orders a mortgage-holder defaulting on their obligations to sell the real estate property, but judicial proceedings may lead to several outcomes of a foreclosure process and not all initiated foreclosures end with the release or eviction of the homeowners.

The spokesperson of the Spanish Banking Association (AEB) commented on the matter before Efe, pointing out that this is, to a large degree, due to the fact that banks have helped more than half a million families refinance their mortgage loans in order to adjust them to their current ability to pay.

Overall, the INE states that in the case of evicted private property owners, 77.3% were from their main residence address (up 13.5%), while another 1,993 were not (up 18.9%). Taking as a frame of reference the number of family dwellings in Spain during the third quarter (18,355,700), foreclosure proceedings were initiated over 0.0037% of them.

The real estate webpage, Pisos.com, has expressed its concern as in most of those cases the value of the property is lower than that of mortgage (i.e. having negative equity), which prevents it from being sold to pay off the debt, although it also points out that, though upturns are forecasted in the short run, particularly for housing bought before 2008, ‘’prospects are weakening” and figures will start declining in the medium term.

In terms of their condition, 16.4% were new homes and 83.6 % used ones, representing a decrease of 6.2% in the former and an increase of 16 % in the latter.

However, on a quarterly rate, these figures were lower 17.7 % and 30%, respectively.

19.2% of initiated foreclosures on homes corresponded to mortgages signed in 2007, while 17.2% – in 2006, and 12.5% – in 2005.

It was mortgages signed during the 2005-2008 period that mustered the highest number registered in a third quarter, amounting to 60.7%

From within urban properties, 3.6% more were evicted from other types of properties such as stores, garages, storage rooms, offices or warehouses, thus reaching 7,631 as well as 37.9% more from plots of land, more specifically, 1,033.

By autonomous regions, the highest number of mortgage proceedings were registered in Andalucia with 5,771; Catalonia with 4,066; and Comunidad Valenciana with 3,652; in contrast, the lowest were Navarra with 89; Cantabria with 151; and Asturias with 292. Andalucia was on the top of the list of evictions with 3,223, followed by Catalonia – 2,856, and Communidad Valencia – 2,241, while Navarra was the region which registered the fewest – 64, as well as Cantabria – 69, and the Basque Country – 84.

The INE highlights that 0.18% of all mortgages signed between 2003 and 2013 underwent foreclosure proceedings during the third quarter of 2014.

Original article: Cinco Días

Translation: Aura REE