Eric Vökel Boutique Apartments Sells 1,000-m2 Property Next to Sagrada Familia

4 October 2018

The company owns by the Danish architect sold the building to a Catalan family office. The operation was concluded using a long-term sale & lease-back contract.

The market for tourist apartments us continuing to see an elevated level of activity in Barcelona. Eric Vökel Boutique Apartments, a company that specialises in the sector and which was founded by the Danish architect of the same name, just sold a 1,000-square-meter property next to the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, ​​according to sources with knowledge of the transaction.

The new owner of the building is a Catalan family office, which completed its acquisition of the asset with a long-term sale & lease-back contract and with a return just under 4%. The transaction, which was concluded for an undisclosed sum, was advised upon by the consultancy Valliance.

Eric Vökel intended to generate funds to undergird the firm’s planned international expansion while maintaining its presence in the Catalan capital, where it owns two other properties. One of those properties is also located near the Sagrada Familia, while the other is in the middle of Gran Vía.

Founded by the Danish architect Eric Vökel, the company was created in Barcelona after a trip by the Nordic executive to the Catalan capital, where he now lives. Outside of the Catalan capital, the company has boosted its portfolio through the acquisition of tourist apartments in Madrid, Hamburg, Amsterdam and, more recently, Copenhagen.

The residential tourism market is on an upswing in Barcelona. During the last Easter week, apartments of this type saw prices increases of 11.6%, according to a report from the apartment manager Hostmaker. The study estimated that the daily price that visitors paid for staying overnight in a home in the Catalan capital reached 115 euros.

Hostmaker has been one of the most active players in the sector in Barcelona in the last year and a half. The online platform plans to finish 2018 with 600 flats under management in the Catalan capital, quadrupling the size of its portfolio since 2017. The company also began operating in Madrid this year, EjePrime reported. Jaime de la Torre de Ysasi-Ysasmendi, who once worked at both Airbnb and Amazon, is the firm’s new general director as Hostmaker doubles down on its investments in the country.

Original Story: EjePrime – Jabier Izquierdo

Translation: Richard Turner

Hostmaker: Tourist Flats were 11.6% YoY More Expensive in Barcelona this Easter

6 April 2018 – Eje Prime

The Barcelona brand is continuing to sell outside of its borders. The price of tourist rentals in the Catalan capital rose by 11.6% during the recent Easter holidays. This data is evidence of the “recovery” of the city, according to the apartment manager Hostmaker.

The British company, which has been operating in Barcelona since 2015, reveals that visitors paid €115 per day, on average, for every night that they spent in one of the hundreds of tourist apartments located all over the city, up from the €103 that they paid last year during the same (equivalent) dates.

“We are seeing a trend that confirms the recovery of the Barcelona brand”, said Inés Nobre, Director General of Hostmaker in Spain. The data from her company supports this statement, given that the occupancy rate of tourist apartments grew by 25% between 24 March and 2 April 2018 compared to the same (equivalent) period in 2017.

Of the tourists who used the platform to spend Easter in Barcelona, European visitors were the most prevalent, accounting for 57% of total reservations, followed by North Americans, with 23% of the total. People from Asia and South America, with 11% and 9%, respectively, were the other two visitor profiles who took advantage of the holidays to stay in tourist apartments in Barcelona.

Original story: Eje Prime 

Translation: Carmel Drake