Tag: Gran Roque Capital

Gran Roque Seeks Buyer for its 105-Home Residential Project Next to Operación Calderón

23 April 2019 – El Confidencial

Change is afoot in the real estate sector in Madrid. Several property developers have started to put whole developments up for sale ahead of an increasingly likely change in the cycle.

The phenomenon began on the Costa del Sol, where the experts say there is excess supply and where prices could be peaking; and it is now spreading to Madrid, where developers with plans, building permits and pre-sales in place are keen to divest promotions.

Such is the case of the Venezuelans Miguel Ángel and Áxel Capriles, owners of Gran Roque Capital, who have started to sound out the market regarding the sale of one of their residential projects in the capital: Acacias 51, next to the famous Operación Calderón.

The development comprises 105 homes, which have been on the market for a few weeks (initial phase), with asking prices of around €5,700/m2. Gran Roque purchased the site, which already had the necessary urban planning permission, in 2017, for €25 million, equivalent to around €2,900/m2. Now it wants to sell it for between €28 million and €29 million, with the plans and building permits, which would represent an increase of 16%.

The property developer denies the alleged motive but has chosen not to launch a high-profile competitive process or engage a large consultancy firm to coordinate the sale.

The development comprises four 5-storey buildings and one 4-storey building, containing two, three and four-bedroom homes. 20% of the first phase (55 units) has already been reserved.

Original story: El Confidencial (by E. Sanz)

Translation/Summary: Carmel Drake

The Venezuelan Capriles Family Creates a Socimi: Kowo Real Estate

26 October 2018 – Idealista

Increasingly more families are deciding to channel their investments in property through Socimis. Whilst in August, it was the Koplowitzs who decided to create their own investment vehicle using that structure, now, it is the Venezuelan Capriles family that is throwing itself into the real estate market with its first Socimi, Kowo Real Estate, according to explanations provided by sources in the sector speaking to Idealista News.

In recent years, the Capriles family has become one of the most active in terms of investment in luxury housing through the company Gran Roque Capital. On its shoulders stand the recovery of three developments in Madrid, in the Chueca area (two on Calle Fernando VI and the other on Calle Barquillo). At the end of last year, the company started to market homes on Calle Pablo de Aranda in the El Viso area with the aim of reaching €11,000/m2.

Now, the company is pushing ahead with one of the vehicles of the moment in the real estate sector. The businessman Miguel Ángel Capriles has launched Kowo Real Estate Socimi, with the aim of buying and developing real estate assets of an urban nature for their subsequent rental.

But this is not the first time that the company has considered launching a Socimi. At the beginning of this year, the family announced that it was finalising the constitution of a Socimi to position itself as a leader in the tourist accommodation segment The initial investment in that project amounted to €40 million, according to the business plan provided by Edric Capriles.

The Bluemoon apartments are owned by that Socimi, according to reports from La Celosía. They are located in the El Carmen neighbourhood of Valencia, a stone’s throw from the cathedral and its first commitment in Spain. The company invested €5 million in that aparthotel, comprising homes for tourist use of a residential nature. In addition to Valencia, Málaga and Sevilla are also in the spotlight of the Venezuelan investors.

The real estate business of the Capriles family in Spain comprises luxury housing development and renovation projects. Its corporate network in Spain contains more than twenty companies dedicated to real estate development (Craski Inversiones, Madriski Inversiones…), the sale and purchase of real estate assets on their own behalf (Gran Roque Capital and Invecap Inversiones Inmobiliaria) and the rental of real estate assets (MACL Castellana 56).

Between them, all of those entities own total assets worth €125 million. Invecap Inversiones Inmobiliarias is the most important entity, with total assets of €53.3 million and from which almost all of the other entities depend. The latter, moreover, is the sole shareholder of the recently created Socimi.

Original story: Idealista (by Custodio Pareja)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Lería-Luksic, the Chilean Magnates Arriving in Spain’s Wealthiest Municipality

11 August 2018

“Wealthy Chileans.” That was the answer much of the real estate sector gave when El Confidencial was investigating the identity the people who just became the third largest landowners in the Pozuelo Oeste Distribution Area (ARPO), in Pozuelo de Alarcón, the wealthiest municipality in Spain.

The buyers are the executives Óscar Lería Chateau and Paola Luksic Fontbona, the couple who have just acquired 40,000 square meters of land, 8% of the total area, from La Caixa for 30 million euros. The couple plan on developing 396 homes on the land, according to sources in the sector. The transaction was executed through Paola Luksic’s family office Wildsur and Óscar Lería’s Osim, the Chilean newspaper ‘La Tercera’ confirmed.

ARPO is the largest urban development area in the municipality of Madrid, which has been in force for more than a decade, amounting to more than six million square meters. The construction of a total of 5,500 homes is planned for the area, of which 2,900 will have some type of protection. Sources consulted by El Confidencial noted that Luksic is likely to have signed an agreement with a local partner to build the homes houses, “possibly one of the landowners in the area,” as he had done before in other projects in which he was involved.

At the beginning of June, this newspaper reported on three operations in that area. Santander, Iberdrola and Servihabitat had sold or were about to sell their holdings in Pozuelo. Twin Peaks Capital was the first to snap up property, purchasing land controlled by the bank run by Ana Patricia Botín. Oaktree took over land from the power company and has allied itself with Banco Sabadell for the development. Only the identity of the buyers’ of La Caixa’s land had still to be revealed. Though he is known to value his privacy, Oscar Lería himself then made the transaction public, in which he partnered with the A&G Group.

Lería is married to Paola Luksic, daughter of Iris Balbina Fontbona (daughter of the Catalan Luis Fontbona Buxallen, who emigrated to Chile at the beginning of the last century) and stepsister of the Chilean magnate Andrónico Luksic, who control much of the business inherited from the Croatian billionaire Andrónico Luksic Abaroa (1926-2005). The Luksic family is one of the richest in the Andean country and, through Aeris Invest, one of its investment vehicles, recently demanded from Santander payment of the 113.02 million it had invested in 145.14 million shares of Popular in May 2017, one month before its resolution. Furthermore, the Chilean family’s fund threatened the Single Resolution Board (SRB for its acronym in English) with additional lawsuits should it not publish the valuation report 2 on Popular, since it considers that the 3 is irrelevant and “does not correspond to the real situation of the entity at the time of the resolution.”

The most expensive municipality in Spain

As Lería explained to the Chilean newspaper, the group set its eyes on the richest municipality in Spain three years ago, although they have been present in the country for years, especially on the Costa del Sol. After the end of the crisis, when investors were still avoiding the country, other large Latin American investors began landing in Madrid in search of opportunities. At that time, the Lukisc family again looked carefully at the Spanish market, where they plan to invest about 480 million euros.

“The family has been investing intermittently in Spain, but I decided to go and stay for the next 40 years. To create something that will last,” Óscar Lería declared to La Tercera, a newspaper that noted that the family had arrived in Andalusia in 2012 to “resuscitate a project” that had “died.” This project was the Lagoon Alcazaba, the first development with a crystalline lagoon in Europe. With 60 million euros, they also invested in half a dozen retail stores on Madrid’s Serrano street.

ARPO, the major urban development area in Madrid, is under the developers’ spotlight. Vía Célere bought in a year ago; iKasa has had land there for years, and Metrovacesa, which owns more than 46,000 square meters with a market value of 25 million euros, as shown in its IPO prospectus, are some of the principal property owners in the region. They are joined by Pryconsa, with long-term holdings in the area, and the newcomers Twin Peaks and Oaktree.

Four months ago, the city council of the district of Madrid finally approved the Partial Plan for the development. The procedure triggered the first real estate transactions and had caused the developers to begin taking positions before the final approval of the reparcelling and urbanisation plan takes place, the last procedure needed before the first homes can begin to be built. Also, fifteen days ago the project for a rainwater collector for Pozuelo, which will have to supply water to the new homes, was also definitively approved.

With an approximate cost of about 40 million euros, the Pozuelo de Alarcón city hall will contribute 20% of the amount, and the rest will be invested by the private landowners. ARPO, for example, corresponds to 52%, Eje Pinar 11% and Huerta Grande 7% – there are 16 urban sectors in Pozuelo. “This approval opens the way to launch public tenders for the works, with execution possibly beginning at the start of 2019. Also, it will also permit the execution of the urbanisation works in the rest of the sectors and make Pozuelo’s 2002 PGOU a reality”, the Board of Compensation for the region noted. “The collector is now a reality thanks, to a large extent, to ARPO’s new management team – the manager is the architect José Luis Oñate, while Pryconsa holds the presidency of Arpo and Ikasa has the vice-presidency – and the city hall’s technical-political team, which has demonstrated a true desire to move things ahead.”

The same sources assured El Confidencial that in a few months, construction for the collector would be tendered and the approval of the project of urbanisation and reparcelling of the Arpo is foreseen for the end of the year. “The plan is to combine construction on the collector with the urbanization, for which the approval of the Hydrographic Confederation of the Tagus will be needed and, subsequently, to be able to combine the urbanization works with the construction of the houses, for which the City Council of Madrid’s authorisation will be needed.”

Of all these urban procedures will depend, to a large extent, on the price that developers will be willing to pay for the land and, consequently, the final price of future homes will depend on a location with high demand and a very limited supply of new construction.

According to sources, the residual land value is at present around the 1.000 euros per square meter, well below the 1,600-1,800 euros currently paid in Valdebebas. “There are still urban procedures ahead, the land is not yet ready for construction, hence the price differential,” the same sources explained. At those prices, future homes could go on sale starting at 2,250 euros per square meter.

“Taking into account the price that is being paid for the land, the venture would already be profitable for the developers. That does not mean that, if the urbanization proceeds without complications, the prices might not be higher, considering the high level of demand in Pozuelo by people with elevated purchasing power who have been displaced to Majadahonda, Las Rozas and Boadilla del Monte in the absence of new builds,” says a real estate expert at El Confidencial.

The Madrid municipality was not oblivious to the crisis. From its high of 2007, when the square meter reached 3,807 euros, the price of new housing fell by 38% to 2,360 euros, just below the 40% nationwide, according to data from the appraiser Tinsa. However, in two and a half years, prices have increased by around 20%, largely due to the enormous shortage of product in the area and the elevated demand.

According to data from Foro Consultores, the average price of multi-family homes in Pozuelo de Alarcón hovers, on average, at 3,500 euros per square meter, with the average per house going for 610,000 euros, without garage or storage. Single-family homes average roughly 900,000 euros and 3,000 euros per square meter. However, as pointed out by this company, what characterises this municipality is that, depending on the location, you can find affordable housing in apartment buildings, while prices in better areas easily surpass one million euros, both for flats and single-family homes.

Venezuelans, Argentines, Chileans…

Since 2014, when the real estate market hit bottom in Spain, numerous Latin American investors have put money into Spanish property. The biggest Venezuelan investors have been the most active, especially in the neighbourhood of Salamanca, where, for four years they have rehabilitated many buildings to place on the luxury market.

The entrepreneurs Miguel Ángel Capriles and Axel Daniel Capriles, relatives of the Venezuelan opposition leader Henrique Capriles, bought, through Gran Roque Capital, more than a dozen properties in the most exclusive neighbourhoods of Madrid, totalling more than a hundred luxury homes. Barquillo Doce, Serrano Anguita, Pablo Aranda, Lagasca 38, Fernando VI and their latest project, Españoleto 19. However, the Capriles has also extended their investments to “more modest” projects. For example, they bought land in the vicinity of the Vicente Calderón stadium from Prosegur, while they are the financial partners of Grupo Ibosa in the purchase of ready-to-build land north of Madrid. The Venezuelan family Pizzorni, through Italinmuebles, is also behind several luxury projects in the capital such as Alfonso X and Montalbán 11.

On the other hand, the Argentines Jorge Pepa – brother of Juan Pepa, former head of Lone Star in Spain and architect of Neinor’s IPO – and Francis Btesh, manage through their company 1810 Capital, investments by the Argentine-Israelis Zev and Sergio Gustavo Marynberg. The firm’s purchases include properties at Santa Isabel 21, Tirso de Molina and Barceló. All of them are being converted into luxury homes.

Among the Mexicans, the best known and most active investor has undoubtedly been Carlos Slim (FCC, Realia …), while the less known Mexican investor Moisés El-Mann Arazi has also carried out operations in Spain, and is behind the purchase 253 branches leased to Banco Sabadell from Moor Park Capital Partners for €290 million.

After the fiasco at Banco Popular, the Luksic family will bet on the Spanish property market, where it plans to invest a total of 480 million euros

The Chilean family Luksic, the main shareholders in the mining company Antofagasta, Banco de Chile and the Compañía de Cervecerías Unidas (CCU), took a 3% stake in Banco Popular last year, valued at more than 2.9 billion euros. Óscar Lería and Paola Luksic’s plans for Spain, after their family’s failed investment in the financial institution, are limited to the Spanish property market, where they expect to invest a total of 480 million euros, Lería revealed to La Tercera. In the short term, they will invest 200 million euros, focusing on Seville and the Balearic Islands, especially Ibiza.

In fact, the couple signed an agreement with Mediterranean Capital Management, a firm based in Barcelona, to search for land. The two groups are going to begin developing a project in Mallorca in the next few months, near the Marivent Royal Palace, resulting in about twenty luxury flats costing between 1.3 and 1.5 million euros, according to the Chilean newspaper.

Pozuelo is Óscar Lería Chateau’s most recent investment. Through the Osler company, he has been making important real estate investments in Spain since 2012, during the middle of the property crisis, working with local investors. He currently has several second-residence projects in Marbella, between Estepona and Puerto Banús.

Original Story: El Confidencial – E. Sanz / Ó. Giménez

Translation: Richard Turner

Blackstone Sells 19 Plots of Land in NW Madrid to Ibosa

12 March 2018 – El Confidencial

A large-scale operation has been closed in the real estate market in Madrid. Grupo Ibosa has purchased the largest batch of “finalist” land – also known as land that is ready to be built on – in the north of Madrid from the US fund Blackstone for €16 million. The plots are located in one of the areas with the highest purchasing power in the whole Spanish capital, next to La Zarzuela race track, in Valdemarín (Aravaca), where properties, the vast majority of which are family homes, cost upwards of €1 million.

According to various sources, the cooperative manager is working with Gran Roque Capital, the real estate management company owned by the Venezuelan businessman Miguel Ángel Capriles, and the fund Urbania Internacional, with whom it has constructed various projects in the area.

The acquired land is divided into 19 plots – with surface areas ranging between 500 m2 and 750 m2 each (…). They used to belong to Jardines del Hipódromo, a company owned by Inmobiliaria Monteverde, which filed for creditors’ bankruptcy at the end of 2011. At the end of 2016, Mercantile Court nº8 in Madrid convened the auction of the plots – the company’s only asset – which ended up in the hands of Blackstone, one of its creditors after it purchased the debt that the company had taken out with Banco Sabadell and La Caixa (…).

Grupo Ibosa has also purchased land in Aravaca from Blackstone, specifically, on Calle Diplomáticos, where it is going to build eight luxury family homes measuring 700 m2 on plots spanning 1,000 m2. And, it has an agreement with another owner for another plot in Valdemarín to build another dozen houses.

In total, three transactions – which amount to around 24,000 m2 in total – involving a very scarce asset in the capital, which has led to real competition between property developers and investment funds and an important upwards pressure in prices. In total, Grupo Ibosa is going to build almost 40 units from whose sale it expects to obtain revenues of more than €55 million. In all three cases, the developments will be carried out under the cooperative regime (…).

A sought-after neighbourhood

Valdemarín is one of the most sought-after neighbourhoods in Madrid for young directors and Spanish executives. A neighbourhood where homes cost upwards of €1 million and where plots of land – like in the neighbouring El Barrial – are really scarce. New build properties are also in short supply, which has led to significant price increases of 20% (10% per annum) in recent years. According to the sources consulted, everything that comes onto the market is sold very quickly.

“Within Aravaca, Valdemarín has become fashionable thanks to its good schools and access to Madrid,” say sources at Engel & Völkers, which places the maximum price that can be paid in the area at €6,300/m2 (…).

Original story: El Confidencial (by E. Sanz)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Gran Roque Capital Buys 3 Residential Plots Near The Calderón

16 October 2017 – El Confidencial

The Venezuelan Capriles family has closed another real estate operation in Madrid. Gran Roque Capital, the company controlled by Miguel Ángel Capriles and his cousin Áxel Daniel Capriles, has purchased three plots of buildable land from Prosegur just 500m from the site of the future Operación Mahou-Calderón. The Capriles family has paid around €25 million for this land, which does not require any kind of urban planning modifications, given that it is assigned for residential use according to the General Urban Planning Plan (PGOUM) for Madrid dated 1997, according to sources in the market.

The acquired land comprises three plots (measuring 592 m2, 593 m2 and 3,542 m2, respectively) spanning a combined surface area of 4,723 m2 and a buildable surface area of almost 8,800 m2. Two of the plots (the smaller ones) are vacant, but the largest one is currently occupied by a building that Gran Roque will have to demolish before it can build the new homes on the site. The land purchase operation has been advised by Knight Frank, which, nevertheless, declined to comment on the transaction.

The new residential project (…) will involve the construction of around 80 homes of different kinds, which will be sold for between €5,500/m2 and €6,000/m2, according to sources at Gran Roque, although, they emphasise that the project is still at a very embryonic phase. According to data from Idealista, the price of second-hand homes in the area stands at around €3,300/m2, however, some properties are currently on the market for between €4,000/m2 and €5,000/m2, whereby exceeding the peaks of 2007 (€3,980/m2 in the district of Arganzuela).

This operation represents an about-turn in Gran Roque’s investment strategy in the Spanish capital, where to date, it has opted for plots in prime locations and for projects involving super luxury homes. Its most recent project is in El Viso, opposite the bunker that constitutes the residence of the President of ACS, Florentino Pérez.

500m from the Calderón

This transaction is particularly important in the market given that the price paid for the land, around €2,900/m2, and the prices at which the future homes will be sold, will undoubtedly serve as a benchmark for the future sale of land in the so-called Operación Mahou-Calderón (…).

Experts in the sector consider that a price of between €1,500/m2 and €2,000/m2 would be appropriate for the area (…).

New build homes close to the Vicente Calderon are in short supply. One of the few projects underway is being led by Neinor Homes, which is constructing a 72-home residential project: Riverside homes, for €3,500/m2, a price significantly lower than the properties that Gran Roque is planning to build. Like most of the new builds currently being constructed in the capital, these homes are being targeted at middle and middle/upper-class buyers. Of the 51 homes that will comprise the future 20-storey tower, which will be 72 m tall, 49 units have already been sold.

Original story: El Confidencial (by E. Sanz)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Rockefeller Family To Sell Luxury Homes In Madrid For €8,200/m2

6 October 2017 – El Confidencial

They won’t obtain the building permit from the Town Hall of Madrid until the end of this month, but they will start taking the first reservations from next week. The latest development of luxury homes to come onto the market in the heart of the Spanish capital is located on Calle General Martínez Campos 19 and it has a very special owner: The Rockefeller Group International. The company was founded by the magnate John Rockefeller, who created a genuine fortune thanks to his business in the oil sector at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, and whose youngest grandson, the magnate, banker and philanthropist David Rockefeller, died just a few months ago at the age of 101.

The building was acquired by the real estate fund Europa Capital last summer, in partnership with Richelieu Developments, for €25 million. This fund, which is headquartered in London, is the vehicle through which The Rockefeller Group – which also controls the Japanese company Mitsubishi Estate – undertakes its investments in Continental Europe.

The property, constructed in 1931 and completed refurbished, has a surface area of 6,5000 m2 spread over seven floors and is located just 500m from Paseo de la Castellana, in Chamberí, and very close to the sought-after neighbourhood of Salamanca. The property will contain 27 luxury homes, with all kinds of amenities – a 24-hour concierge service, an indoor swimming pool, a rooftop swimming pool, a gym and spa area, a car park and storerooms – and will include five penthouse apartments, of which three will be duplexes.

The average price of the homes will stand at €8,200/m2, according to Alexander Vaughan, founder together with Stijn Teeuwen of Lucas Fox, a real estate agency specialising in the sale of luxury homes and which has made a strong commitment to the high-end market in Madrid.

The properties will be three and four bedroom homes as well as two and three bedroom penthouses with terraces. The homes will range in size from 200 m2 to 457 m2, and so the price of the units will vary from €1.6 million to €3.9 million. The three duplex penthouses will also have their own private terrace, off of the living room, and an additional terrace on the rooftop. The homes are expected to be ready by the end of 2019.

As is often the case with investments by foreign companies, Europa Capital, has sought out a local partner to construct the development. In this case, it has teamed up with the Madrilenian property developer Richelieu Developments, which specialises in luxury projects (…).

Luxury homes in Madrid are booming

The luxury residential market in both Madrid and Barcelona is in full swing. In the Spanish capital alone, there are more than twenty projects underway. Not in vain, according to the real estate agency Lucas Fox, an enormous appetite exists for these types of properties, which are still a lot more affordable than similar assets in other European cities, with a clear potential to appreciate and with returns that range between 4% and 5% in both cities. The “independentista effect” has not been felt yet in Barcelona, according to Rod Jamieson, Partner at Lucas Fox Madrid, who also marketed José Abascal 48 (a project that the fund Shaftesbury built) and Fernando VI 19 (a project that has been completed by Gran Roque Capital, owned by the Venezuelan Capriles family).

The agency is seeing huge bullish potential in the luxury market in Madrid, where the firm has increased (its turnover) by 30% in one year and see a 170% rise in its transaction value. Moreover, Lucas Fox has detected increasingly more international investors in the market. In fact, Latin American buyers now account for almost one third (31%) of all of the company’s sales, compared with 11% in 2016, whilst just under half (46%) are domestic buyers. Moreover, 62% of sales are being closed for investment reasons (…).

Original story: El Confidencial (by E. Sanz)

Translation: Carmel Drake