Tag: Hacienda Rosario

No Buildable Land Left in ‘Sevilla Este’ After Fund Shopping Spree

16 January 2018 – Sevilla ABC

The supply of land in Sevilla Este has almost run out. And that milestone represents more than just a symbolic fact. It is a clear sign that a new cycle of real estate expansion is underway, characterised by significant interest from property developers in neighbourhoods and towns on the outskirts of Sevilla. It also provides evidence of the shortage of buildable land that exists in the municipality of the provincial capital, which has caused the few plots of buildable land that have come onto the market to spark a great deal of interest amongst investors.

Whilst the property sector started its rebirth in certain parts of the city centre in 2015, interest in other areas of the city has been increasing significantly over the last two years to meet the new demand that is being generated by the growth of the economy. The result of this trend is that in just three months, almost all of the residential plots in the Sevilla Este area have been sold.

“With just a few exceptions, everything that was on the market has now been purchased”, along with plots that still need to be developed for public and social services, explains Juan Aguilera, Manager at Gaesco, speaking to ABC.

And this investor boom in that area of the city is due to the fact that “Sevilla is running out of buildable land for new developments, since vital infrastructures such as the SE-35 ring-road have not been built, which is the main artery that ought to be boosting all of the new areas of metropolitan expansion”, says Aguilera (…).

Q21’s investment

The most recent large land operation in Sevilla Este was carried out by Q21 Real Estate, the property developer that emerged from the merger between the US investment fund Baupost and the Spanish company Grupo Pinar (one of the most recognised firms in the former property sector). That company has acquired a plot measuring 5,400 m2 at the end of Avenida Emilio Lemos, opposite the Aleste Plaza shopping centre, where it will build around 164 homes. The company is currently processing the permits it requires to start the building work and, once it has received the green light, will complete the construction of the properties within a period of 26 months. The plot that Q21 has acquired belonged to another company in the sector that filed for bankruptcy.

That purchase operation took place at the same time as two other large investments in Sevilla Este, also made by companies that are partly owned by large investment funds. One of them was led by Vía Célere, in which Värde Partners owns a majority stake; it acquired a plot for the construction of 1,700 homes that had belonged to BBVA. And in parallel, the fund Activum purchased plots for the construction of more than 1,000 homes (…).

In Aguilera’s opinion, the interest from these investment funds in Sevilla Este has arisen because several factors have converged. “There is significant built-up demand in Sevilla from families who chose to rent during the crisis and who are now interested in buying a home, plus the years of recovery are now creating new families who can also afford to buy one of these new homes”. This demand, combined with the shortage of buildable land in Sevilla, is what has caused the interest in Sevilla Este to soar, which is exactly what already happened with Hacienda Rosario (which used to belong to Gabriel Rojas and which was acquired by Aedas Homes).

Interest in Entrenúcleos

In these circumstances, Aguilera considers that future real estate investments will not be made directly in Sevilla, but rather in the some of the population nuclei of the metropolitan area, especially in Dos Hermanos (which has made the effort to develop an area like Entrenúcleos).

Aguilera thinks that, unfortunately, time has proved him right. “If we had done our homework, we would now be enjoying a great period for the reactivation of large residential projects: demand and the economy are growing, financing is available at very reasonable prices…but none of the areas that require the SE-35, like Higuerón Norte, Buen Aire, San Nicolás Oeste and Villanueva del Pìtamo, have the infrastructure they need to capitalise on this new construction boom” (…).

Original story: Sevilla ABC (by Luis Montoto)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Sevilla’s Population Will Exceed 700,000 Again Thanks To Aedas Homes

8 November 2017 – Sevilla ABC

The new neighbourhood of Hacienda del Rosario, in the east of Sevilla, will raise the census of the city above 700,000 inhabitants once again, thanks to the investment being made by Aedas Homes, which has rescued more than 33,000 m2 of developable land next to the Parsi industrial estate that had been blocked since the start of the crisis. As El Confidencial revealed in February, the Town Hall managed to free up this land, which had been left for dead since the property developer Gabrial Rojas gave up on its construction, and granted all of the permits necessary for Aedas to carry out the construction of a complex comprising 1,047 homes, divided into seven urbanisations. This project had been one of the city council’s priorities since Juan Ignacio Zoido took office and in the end, thanks to the investment from this business group in which the US fund Castlelake holds a stake, it will go ahead, to fulfil the urban development plan designed by the Town Hall, which is seeking to continue to grow the city to the east, the most populated area of the Andalucían capital.

The construction of the first phase is already quite advanced and, according to reports from Aedas, the properties are being sold a quite a fast rate. So much so that they have now started to sell the second phase. The intention is that the new neighbourhood will be completed in its entirety over the next three years.

The Jardines Hacienda Rosario residential complex covers the area from the Parsi industrial estate to the Decathlon in Alcalá de Guadaíra (…). One of its key features is its common areas. In fact, the proposal of Aedas Homes is to build a park measuring 33,000 m2 in private free spaces, as well as a social club, a children’s play area, sports courts, padel courts, a swimming pool for children and another one for adults.

In total, seven buildings are going to be constructed in successive phases with these characteristics, which means that, by the end of the process, there will be 4,000 additional residents in the area (…).

Construction of the first phase of Jardines Hacienda Rosario has been awarded to the construction firm San José and Banco Santander is the entity that is financing the development for the construction of these multi-family homes, measuring between 96 m2 and 125 m5 each. The total investment amounts to €100 million.

The price of the homes will range between €115,000 and €130,000 (…). Moreover, the Town Hall also plans to build 802 social housing properties on the site, which will make La Hacienda del Rosario one of the city’s largest neighbourhoods, with almost 2,000 properties, occupying a total surface area of 460,000 m (…).

All of this should be considered in the context that next to Hacienda del Rosario, other developments are also being built at the moment, such as Hacienda San Antonio and Residencial La Plata (…).

According to the most recent official data from INE, the city of Sevilla currently has 690,566 inhabitants, although the Town Hall elevates that figure to 698,690 (…). If Sevilla were to have more than 700,000 inhabitants once again, the revenues it receives from the State would increase substantially (…).

Original story: Sevilla ABC (by Alberto García Reyes)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Private Housing Developments Reactivate Sevilla’s Crisis-Hit Neighbourhoods

26 October 2017 – Sevilla ABC

The new residential expansion zones planned for Sevilla and its metropolitan area will move from paper to reality over the next five years. The economic recovery and express reactivation of the property sector will allow neighbourhoods to be established once again, after the crisis reduced many of them to isolated developments without any services or public infrastructure.

Perhaps the clearest example of this new panorama is Entrenúcleos, in Dos Hermanas, where plans are afoot to construct 2,500 homes. The project has been entrusted to Insur and BBVA, which has already started to market the first phase, involving almost 300 properties. That development will be built in parallel to that of the social housing blocks promised by the real estate firm Altamira – a subsidiary of Banco Santander – and the Ferrocarril group.

The growth of this Nazarene enclave was originally reflected in the PGOU approved in 2002, with a view to creating a neighbourhood with more than 20,000 inhabitants, almost a small city between the urban centres of Dos Hermanos and Montequinto.

The latter nucleus has also undergone significant residential expansion  in recent times thanks to the company Bekinsa, which has constructed several developments in the area around Avenida de Europa, the last remaining space left to build on, next to the Metro stop, where a couple of urbanisations have already been sold, for delivery this year, and where off-plan apartments are being sold, for delivery in 2019.

More buildings are going to be built next to these homes on plots, located next to the shopping centre, which have been acquired by Quintos, S.A., with capacity for 800 two-, three- and four-bedroom homes.

In the Andalucian capital, the cranes are already appearing in the neighbourhoods on the outskirts, where there are still large blocks of land left to populate. As set out in the Urban Development Plan, the city will continue to grow eastwards, with a new recently announced development. It will be constructed by the Madrilenian company Vía Célere, which has acquired the former plots of the real estate company Osuna after they ended up in the hands of BBVA. The investment has exceeded €26 million and will allow for the construction of 1,700 homes on the land closest to the water park, on the Airport Industrial Estate (…)

New neighbourhoods

The property developer Metrovacesa is also working on a residential plan of a similar scale on land in Palmas Altas, taking advantage of the interest that the new shopping centre will generate there and the recent agreement that it has reached with the Town Hall to push ahead with the initiative (…).

The final area of residential expansion in Sevilla is Hacienda Rosario, located next to Torreblanca, where 1,977 homes are due to be constructed around a large park, which will form the lungs of the new neighbourhood. Of those, around 800 will be social housing properties and the remainder will be private homes (…).

Another aspect that has caught people’s attention is the decided commitment from the American investment funds to the real estate sector in Sevilla. Several, such as Värde Partners (through Vía Célere) and Aedas Homes, which is leading the project in Hacienda Rosario, will be looking to the Andalucian capital to push ahead with their plans over the next five years.

Original story: Sevilla ABC (by Elena Martos)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Patron Capital Acquires Los Alcores Shopping Centre

30 April 2017 – ABC

A constant and silent trickle of investments has seen a significant number of the shopping centres in Andalucía change hands. The latest operation was closed in March, when the investment fund Patron Capital – which is headquartered in London and which has a portfolio worth more than €5,000 million – acquired Los Alcores, the most well-known establishment in Alcalá de Guadaíra (with a leasable area of 124,000 m2). Its tenants include H&M, Lefties, Bershka, Stradivarius and Cinesur.

The shopping centre, located at the foot of the A-92 motorway, has belonged to Incus Capital since 2013, just like El Mirador (in Cuenca) and Alzamora (in Alcoy). Now, these three properties have been acquired by Patron Capital, which has joined forces with the firm Eurofund to invest more than €13 million modernising the properties.

According to the experts, the operation makes sense, “Los Alcores is located in an area that will be served by the metro in the near future and which has large residential projects underway nearby, such as Hacienda Rosario being constructed by Aedas Homes; it is highly visible from the motorway and its tenants include many household names”, said Rosa Madrid, Director of CBRE in Andalucía, the firm that advised the operation.

A report by this consultancy highlights that the shopping centre business has “been recovering for several years and recorded a successful year in 2016”. Behind this rise is “the increase in consumption and, therefore, the good indicators in terms of visitor numbers and sales, which improved by 3.1% and 1.6%, respectively (taking the portfolio of shopping centres managed by CBRE in Spain as a sample)”.

From there, the significant interest from the major commercial brands in growing again, “which has allowed shopping centre occupancy rates to increase at a good pace”. In the CBRE portfolio, “the average occupancy rate rose from 89.6% to 93.9% between 2014 and 2016, figures that illustrate the improvement in the sector”.

If we look at what has happened over the last twelve months, it is clear that this sector “is on a roll”. At the end of 2016, the Via Outlet group – in which the London-based giant Hammerson owns a stake – purchased The Style Outlet in the town of San José de la Rinconada (better known as “The Airport Factory”). Until now, that establishment has belonged to a fund promoted by the Spanish real estate company Neinver (controlled by the Losantos family). Its major rival, the Outlet de Dos Hermanas, had already been acquired by Green Oak, just a few months earlier.

Major sales

These operations joined a long list, which also includes Grupo Lar, which sold the Airesur de Castilleja de la Cuesta shopping centre to CBRE Global Investors. And an Andalucían company has also made money in this wave, specifically, the case of Bogaris, which sold six retail parks in Andalucía and Extremadura to Redevco Iberian Ventures in the middle of last year for €95 million (including Kinepolis Pulianas, las Marismas del Polvorín and the Motril retail park).

And the activity does not end there: Axiare Patrimonio purchased the Viaparck shopping centre in Almería for €20 million; Alpha Pyrenees Trust bought the Connecta shopping centre in Córdoba….and just a few weeks ago, New Winds Group (the owner of the Windsor building in Madrid) purchased Málaga Plaza shopping centre. Just another sign of the good health of a business that is taking off again.

Original story: ABC (by Luis Montoto)

Translation: Carmel Drake