Tag: grace period

Treasury Requires Tourist Rental Platforms to Submit Quarterly Informative Returns

1 March 2018 – Expansión

The Government wants to put a stop to the fraud that is happening in the emerging market for tourist apartments. To this end, it is going to intensify the inspection of companies dedicated to the transfer of use of flats, such as Airbnb, HomeAway, HouseTrip, MyTwinPlace, Only-apartments, IntercambioCasas and Rentalia. For that, it is going to require them all to provide much more information and it will conduct a quarterly control of all of their activities. Through this, it wants to improve the “prevention of tax fraud for people and entities, in particular, the so-called collaborative platforms that mediate the transfer of use of homes for tourist purposes”, according to the draft ministerial order designed to put a stop to these kinds of irregularities, to which Expansión has had access. The text approves the so-called “model 179 informative declaration”, together with the conditions and procedures for presenting the required information before the Treasury.

The measure forms part of the strictest control that the Treasury wants to exercise over intermediaries in a rising sector, such as the tourist rental market, which has experienced a genuine boom in recent years and which now has 513,820 beds, 30% more than the sum of Spain’s hotels, hostels and B&Bs (393,838), according to data from Exceltur.

Until now, some of the main initiatives have been directed at users themselves, such as the warning issued last year by the Tax Authorities to more than 21,500 people that had leased their homes through these platforms, advising them that they must declare the money received in their tax returns.

The Treasury wants to close the door on the lack of transparency surrounding certain tourist rentals, behind which are sometimes even hotel chains, which lease homes through the platforms, and are in turn disguised as private users.

As a result, the ministerial order that the Department of Tax Management at the Tax Authority has prepared, emphasises certain concepts that may seem obvious, such as the importance of identifying the owner of the home or of the right “by virtue of which use of the dwelling is transferred”, if that is different from the rightful owner of the home. Moreover, all of the features of a property must be identified. Together with the general registry information, the specific details of each one of the operations that are carried out must be reported: the number of days during which a client leases the home and the price paid to the owner in exchange for its use.

This new order from the Treasury comes in addition to local legislation from many Town Halls such as those of Barcelona, Madrid and the Balearic Islands, which have proposed “ceilings” to stop the overheating of rental prices that has resulted from the boom of Airbnb and similar platforms. In fact, according to calculations from Urban Data Analytics for this newspaper, the upwards trend from the collaborative economy has caused rental prices to rise by an additional 6% in the Eixample district of Barcelona and by an additional 4% in the Centro district of Madrid in one year. That happens because the properties in question generate double the returns of a long-term rental property “A 40 m2 one-bedroom home in the Puerta del Sol area of Madrid generates €1,513 per month on Airbnb and a traditional rent of €700”, says the company by way of example.

Grace period

(…) This ministerial order (…) will apply to all transfers of homes for tourist purposes that take place on or after 1 January 2018.

The frequency of these returns to the Treasury will be quarterly (they must be submitted during the calendar month following the end of each quarter). But this year, in order to facilitate the process, those corresponding to the first two quarters of 2018 may be submitted up until 31 December 2018. Those corresponding to the third and fourth quarter will have to be submitted before 31 October 2018 and 31 January 2019, respectively (…).

Original story: Expansión (by Juanma Lamet)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Socimi Vitruvio Signs €19M Loan With Abanca

5 December 2017 – Eje Prime

The Socimi Vitruvio has paid off an outstanding debt with a new loan. The company has subscribed a financing contract amounting to €19 million with Abanca. According to explanations provided by the group, the funds will be used to repay the debt resulting from the merger by absorption of Consulnor.

The debt assumed following the merger with the real estate company Consulnor amounting to €12.7 million will be paid off thanks to this new loan. The Socimi will also proceed to cancel the line of credit granted by Banco Santander amounting to €4.6 million.

The new loan with Abanca has a two-year grace period (until 30 November 2019) and a monthly repayment schedule of 14 consecutive instalments. The interest rate that Vitruvio will pay will be fixed at 1% during the first year, before rising to 1% plus 1-year Euribor from November 2018 onwards. The loan is due to mature in December 2031.

At the end of 2016, Vitruvio and Consulnor Patrimonio Inmobiliario (CPI) signed a merger agreement whereby CPI, a real estate investment vehicle created by Consulnor (the manager in which Banca March holds a 48% stake), transferred its assets to the Socimi in exchange for shares.

After closing the operations involving CPI and Madrid Rio, Vitruvio plans to undertake new investments amounting to more than €30 million this year.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Blackstone Owns c.5% Of Spain’s Logistics Assets

28 June 2016 – Expansión

Blackstone created Logicor in 2012 and since then, has grown the company by acquiring portfolios of logistics assets, to reach its current surface area coverage of 13 million sqm.

In Spain, Logicor has been purchasing assets for three years and now owns properties covering a total surface area of 1.1 million sqm, primarily in Madrid and Barcelona, making it the largest owner of logistics land in the country, with a market share of between 5% and 7%. It is followed in the ranking by Merlin Properties and Prologis, in an otherwise very fragmented sector.

Logicor’s Director General for Southern Europe, Manel Vericat, said that the company is still looking for logistics warehouses in Madrid and Barcelona, as well as in other cities, such as Valencia and Pamplona: “We are searching for products that have may potential thanks to the management of our team; and we are able to participate in operations that have higher risk because we have experience in this segment and are capable of managing these situations.

The Spanish subsidiary is led by Alejando Rumayor, who previously worked for Aguirre Newman, Iberdrola Inmobiliaria, ING Reim and CBRE, where he worked last before joining Logicor. The team in Barcelona is led by Xavier Novell, who joined the firm from Aguirre Newman, where he led the logistics and industrial department for the last decade.

In recent years, Logicor has made some major investments in Spain, such as the purchase of a portfolio of logistics assets from CBRE Global Investments, which covered a surface area of 78,000 sqm.

It also acquired a batch of logistics warehouses covering 106,000 sqm, from the French insurance company Axa.

Similarly, it purchased a batch of logistics assets from Gran Europa with a combined surface area of 319,000 sqm. And another one from SEP investments, measuring 138,000 sqm. Finally, one of its most important acquisitions at the global level involved a batch of warehouses from General Electric, of which around 348,000 sqm were located in Spain.

Rents

Vericat confirmed that, since last year, rents in the logistics sector have recovered in Barcelona. In Madrid, “we have not detected any increases yet, but certain rent incentives have disappeared, such as grace periods.

Original story: Expansión (by Marisa Anglés)

Translation: Carmel Drake