Carmena Approves Los Berrocales, the Largest Housing Development in the South of Madrid

24 January 2019 – El Confidencial

The Government Board chaired by Manuela Carmena will give an important boost to the urban development area of Los Berrocales on Thursday. It is the largest in the city and the first to receive the green light of the sites that comprise the project known as the Developments of the Southeast (Los Desarrollos del Sureste). The Town Hall of Madrid and the Compensation Board for the area have finally agreed the initial text for the urban planning agreement for the management of the buildable land, which will see the construction of 22,000 homes on the largest land bank in the south of the city. 50% of the homes, around 11,000, will be dedicated to social housing.

The General Plan for the city of Madrid obliges the parties involved to sign an urban planning agreement for the management of this area. The Administration and the urban planning entity are signing the commitments assumed by both for the development of the area. According to comments made to this newspaper, the agreement reflects the obligation of the Compensation Board to urbanise the land (which spans 8,305,812 m2 in total) over the course of six phases, during which the planned buildings will be constructed and the services implemented. The project will run until 2034. Moreover, the agreed texts establish the criteria to ensure the equitable distribution of profits and charges between all of the owners (…).

The total buildability amounts to 3.3 million m2, of which 2,247,121 m2 will be dedicated to residential use. 50% of that will be for private housing, 31% for price-controlled housing and 19% for social housing (that latter two percentages correspond to 11,000 homes). The rest will be dedicated to industrial, tertiary, office and commercial use.

In terms of facilities, more than 2 million m2 will be converted into green space, 1.9 million m2 will be used for public facilities and services, 1.7 million m2 for infrastructure and 228,830 m2 will be used for social integration homes.

The agreement reached with the Compensation Board represents a victory for the municipal Government and specifically, for the Sustainable Urban Development department, led by José Manuel Calvo, five months before the end of the current legislature (…).

Following the green light from the Governing Board, the text of the agreement must be submitted for public consultation – a comment period – and afterwards, it will go to the municipal plenary. From that moment, the urban planning entity will be able to start work on the execution of the project.

Original story: El Confidencial (by Paloma Esteban)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Logistics Socimi Tarjar Buys Commercial Plot in Madrid for €1.17M

16 May 2018 – Eje Prime

Tarjar Xairo will add a fifth asset to its portfolio next year. The logistics Socimi has just purchased a plot of buildable land in Madrid for €1.17 million, according to a statement filed by the company with the Alternative Investment Market (MAB).

The investment company is going to build a commercial premise on the site, which is located in the Cerro de las Columnas area of the Madrilenian town of Pozuelo de Alarcón. The building work for the construction of the asset will begin at the end of 2018 or the beginning of 2019. Tarjar will lease out the space once the project has been completed.

For the acquisition of the plot, the Socimi has signed a mortgage loan with CaixaBank amounting to €2.5 million. The company has used two of its existing industrial warehouses as collateral, located in Coslada (Madrid) at numbers 31 and 33 Calle Fuentemar. Tarjar is the landlord of the Catalan pharmaceutical giant Grifols in the first of those properties.

The loan will be repaid over 144 monthly instalments between now and 2032 and will have a fixed annual interest rate of 1.5% plus 12-month Euribor. The plot in Pozuelo will be added to the existing real estate portfolio, which already contains four industrial warehouses. Besides the two properties in Coslada, Tarjar owns a third logistics space in Madrid, at number 75 Calle Hierro. Moreover, beyond the Spanish capital, the Socimi owns a fourth asset on the Ribarroja del Turia industrial estate, in the province of Valencia.

In total, the four properties span a constructed surface area of around 25,000 m2 and a leasable surface area, primarily for industrial and office use, of 22,000 m2.

50% of Tarjar is currently under the control of María del Carmen Escribano Sánchez-Beato, who owns 86,692 shares in the Socimi. After her, the other two main shareholders are Juan Hernández Villa, who owns 12.7% of the Socimi, and Francisco Javier Echenique Gordillo, who owns 7.6%. Hernández Villa also manages the Socimi’s rentals through his company Arquibuba.

First anniversary on the MAB 

Tarjar Xairo started to operate as a listed company over a year ago now. The logistics Socimi rang the bell of the Alternative Investment Market (MAB) on 20 February 2017 with a company valuation of €9.2 million. The company, which thereby became the 30th Socimi to debut on the stock market, set an initial share price of €53.12.

Now, with twenty more Socimis trading on the MAB (50 in total), Tarjar is betting on buildable land for commercial use, which it hopes will allow it to continue growing. In 2017, the Socimi registered a profit of €118,710, with revenues of €377,509, according to the company’s public records (…).

Original story: Eje Prime (by J. Izquierdo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Trinitario Casanova Invests €15M in a Logistics Platform in Barcelona

21 February 2017 – Expansión

Through the Baraka Group, the Murcian businessman has purchased a plot of land measuring more than 30,000 m2 from Consum, where it is going to build a logistics warehouse.

The construction group Baraka, controlled by the well-known businessman Trinitario Casanova, has completed the purchase of a plot of land dedicated to logistics-industrial use, located in the municipality of Sant Esteve Sesrovires, in Barcelona.

The land, owned until now by the Consum group, spans 30,665 m3; and Baraka is going to build a 19,213 m2 complex on the site, split into modules of around 6,000 m2, with the aim of leasing them to three operators, said the company. Currently, Baraka is negotiating with two companies interested in the project, say sources at the group, speaking to Expansión.

Sources at the company highlight the location of the future platform in the “strategic enclave of the Can Estella industrial estate, located next to the A-2 and AP-7 motorways, which connect the Mediterranean Arc with Barcelona, the main traffic route from Europe through the Mediterranean and Pyrenees, with Madrid”.

In total, Baraka is going to invest €15 million in this project.

In parallel to this industrial project, Baraka is working on the marketing of the commercial area of Edificio España, the property that it acquired last June from the Chinese Wanda Group, only to immediately sell it onto RIU Hotels.

In addition to the Edificio España operation, Casanova acquired a building on c/Preciados 13, also in Madrid, as well as the adjacent building, which houses the Carlos V Hotel. In the case of c/Preciados 13, Baraka has teamed up with the real estate group Hines, which is acting as the financial partner, whilst the Spanish firm is taking care of the building work and the search for a new tenant.

Original story: Expansión (by Rocío Ruiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Junta de Andalucía Sells 45,000 m2 of Land in Jaén for €3.8M

8 January 2018 – La Vanguardia

The four offers that were submitted relating to the sale of the properties owned by the Junta de Andalucía, which the Ministry of Development and Housing convened in 2017 through the Agency for Housing and Rehabilitation in Andalucía (AVRA), have allowed it to award plots with a total surface area of 45,780 m2 for a value of €3.89 million in the province of Jaén.

The Minister for Development and Housing, Felipe López, stressed that most of the public land that has been sold in the province has been assigned for industrial use. “This is allowing us to contribute to boosting the economy and to creating jobs in the towns in which the plots are located, through the companies that are opening facilities on those plots”, he said on Monday in a statement.

He underlined the importance of this initiative, promoted by the Junta, with the aim of placing public assets at the disposal of the business community to boost the development of new projects and business initiatives that foster economic activity and employment.

The industrial plots sold in the province of Jaén during 2017 are mainly located in the towns of Alcalá la Real, whose Los Llanos del Mazuelo industrial estate recorded a significant increase in activity last year, and Martos, on the Cañada de la Fuente industrial estate.

Plots were also disposed of in the ZI-2 production area of Torredonjimeno, on the industrial estate on the Carretera de Los Arquillos, in Villacarrillo; in Los Rubiales (Linares) and on the Los Retiros industrial estate, in Huelma.

Moreover, other premises, parking spaces and storerooms were awarded in several towns in the province of Jaén, including in Andújar, Cazorla and Jaén, which generated revenues amounting to €385,061.

Most of the plots of land sold were owned by the Agency for Housing and Rehabilitation in Andalucía, which, according to López took the decision to make land sales one of its strategic lines at the beginning of this legislature, after that activity had slowed down in previous years, during the toughest period of the crisis.

By contrast, some of the awarded plots belonged to the Junta de Andalucía, which engaged AVRA to manage its assets.

The Board said that the decision to recover this activity was taken in light of the fact that the markets are starting to show signs of recovery in terms of real estate activity and “with the aim of obtaining revenues to allow us to resume other activities pertinent to the Agency, such as the promotion of social housing for families with housing needs and scarce or no possibilities of accessing a home in the private rental market” (…).

The land sale activity resumed by AVRA at the beginning of this legislature has permitted the award of almost 300,000 m2 of land allocated to different uses for a total amount of €50.7 million over the last 3 years (…).

Original story: La Vanguardia

Translation: Carmel Drake

Junta De Andalucía Puts 6 Plots Of Land Up For Sale In Rincón de la Victoria

12 November 2017 – 20 Minutos

The plots of land are located in the Malagan municipality of Rincón de la Victoria and the Junta has put them on the market for a total price of €15.8 million. This represents the fourth and final sale of the year in the province.

The representative for Development and Housing in Málaga, Francisco Fernández España, reiterated that this initiative from the regional Government seeks “to boost the promotion of housing in the province, especially social housing properties, and place public land assets at the disposal of the local production fabric”.

According to España, the objective is to “boost” economic activity and “generate employment” in Málaga, whereby allowing “business and industrial development by making these plots of land available”.

Moreover, the representative highlighted that the revenues generated from the sale of these assets will be used to allocate resources to the “housing policies, especially orientated at helping the most vulnerable families and those who can least afford to buy a home”.

At the same time, he continued, the revenues will be used to “facilitate companies’ ability to undertake their production activity and grow and expand with new plots”. In this way, he said that this land sale will also contribute to the reactivation of the construction sector and to the generation of employment in a sector that was hit very hard by the crisis”.

According to a statement issued by the Junta, the last land offer of the year seeks to “transfer land that has already been classified as developable by the Agency for Housing and Rehabilitation in Andalucía (AVRA) and therefore, that is ready to be built on”. (…).

Of the six plots, the largest one has capacity for 88 homes and the smallest one, for 50 homes. In addition to these plots, the offer includes two retail premises in the centre of Málaga and five parking spaces in the Malagan municipalities of Villanueva del Rosario and Ronda.

Plots in Andalucía

This new offer comes after AVRA has sold plots with capacity for the construction of 1,473 homes, mostly social housing properties, during the current legislature. Those plots have a combined surface area of 287,282 m2, split between residential and industrial use across the whole of Andalucía, according to the Junta.

The recovery of land management by AVRA has allowed it to sell plots with a combined sales price of €50.2 million in total since 2015, according to the Andalucían Government.

Of those plots, the land dedicated to residential use amounts to 107,928 m2, with capacity for the construction of 1,473 homes, of which 891 will be social housing units and the remaining 582 will be private homes.

Meanwhile, industrial land amounted to 179,353 m2 and the vast majority of that is located in the province of Jaén, in particular in the municipalities of Alcalá la Real, Martos and Linares.

Original story: 20 Minutos

Translation: Carmel Drake

Trinitario Casanova Sells Large Plot In North Madrid To Gestilar-Morgan

13 November 2017 – El Confidencial

It has taken Trinitario Casanova more than a year to make his move since he became a landowner in Valdebebas, one of the main areas of development in the north of Madrid. But in the end, he has acted and he has done so with one of the new stars in the market, the joint venture created by Gestilar and Morgan Stanley. The parties are currently finalising an agreement, which, if nothing goes wrong, will be signed this week and which will result in the sale of all Casanova’s residential plots.

It was in the spring of 2016 when the owner of the Baraka Group purchased Parque Empresarial El Olivar, a company owned by the Cort Lagos family. With it, he acquired 114,000 m2 of land, spread over eight residential plots, plus one for industrial and commercial use that by itself measured 46,000 m2.

Since then, Casanova has been focused on removing the company from the bankruptcy situation that it fell into four years ago and which had reached the liquidation phase when Baraka appeared. This objective was achieved on 27 September, when the Mercantile Court number 5 of Madrid resolved “to declare the reactivation of the dissolved company Parque Empresarial del Olivar”, according to the ruling to which El Confidencial has had access.

With this sentence in his hand, Trinitario has been able to sit down and negotiate, with ease, to sell the three residential plots that he still owns in Valdebebas, given that the other five were auctioned off before Baraka managed to purchase Parque Empresarial and were pre-awarded to Grupo Amenábar and Premier. The party chosen by the businessman as the new owner of his land is the joint venture that Gestilar and Morgan Stanley have created.

The property developer owned by the García-Valcárcel family has been analysing these plots in Valdebebas for a while, and other giants, such as Castlelake, the fund behind Aedas Homes, had also expressed their interest in the past. The negotiations accelerated following Parque Empresarial’s exit from bankruptcy and last week, they managed to reach the point of agreement, according to the sources consulted.

As El Confidencial revealed, Gestilar and Morgan Stanley have constituted a joint venture, which they plan to endow with €100 million, whose vocation is to acquire plots of land over the next four or five years. They plan to build around 1,000 new homes thereon, a figure that equals the entire portfolio that Gestilar currently has under development.

An important portion of this plan may be achieved only with the success of the operation in Valdebebas, one of the most sought-after areas in Madrid, and therefore in all of Spain, but also one of the areas most affected by legal uncertainty. For years now, the courts have been ruling against the way in which this development has been carried out, which has forced licence granting processes to be suspended on several occasions.

Trinitario Casanova, who took on the debt of Parque Empresarial when he acquired the entity, will continue to be present in the development, as he will retain control of the 46,000 m2 industrial and commercial plot, where he wants to boost the activity of his construction company Trabis, an aim that is always behind the real estate movements of the Baraka Group.

Original story: El Confidencial (by Ruth Ugalde)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Junta De Andalucía Puts 777 More Industrial & Residential Plots Up For Sale

7 November 2017 – La Vanguardia

The Ministry of Development and Housing, through its Agency for Housing and Rehabilitation in Andalucía (AVRA), has launched a new supply of residential and industrial land for sale, spanning 900,500 m2 and distributed over 777 plots across all of the provinces in the autonomous region.

According to a statement from the department led by Felipe López, this latest supply comes after the current legislature has already sold plots with capacity for 1,473 homes, mostly social housing properties, and a total of 287,282 m2 of land for residential and industrial use.

In its last land offer of the year, the Ministry of Development and Housing highlights that it is seeking to sell land that already received planning permission from AVRA – and therefore, which is ready to build on – during the years before the crisis, like on the previous occasions since it resumed this activity at the beginning of the current legislature. With this, the Junta wants to boost the construction of homes, especially social housing properties, and to encourage investment in the business fabric using the industrial land on offer (…).

According to the Ministry, the recovery of the management of AVRA’s land has allowed it to sell plots since 2015 whose combined sales price amounts to €50.2 million. The Agency has used the funds raised to boost new initiatives aimed at facilitating access to housing for those families with the fewest resources (…).

The bidding opens on 27 November

The new supply of land that the Junta is putting up for sale comprises land spanning 900,500 m2, distributed across 777 plots, with a combined total price of €117.6 million. 430 of the plots are for industrial and tertiary use, spanning 529,123 m2, whose combined price amounts to €40.6 million.

The residential land supply comprises 114 plots, spanning 97,134 m2, for 1,482 social housing properties, with a total price of €23.5 million; and another 220 plots, measuring 270,127 m2 for 1,559 private homes, with a price of €53.4 million. The Director General of Real Estate also owns another 134 plots for private residential use, with the capacity for 53 homes, whose management has been entrusted to the AVRA. These plots have an asking price of €3.8 million. The residential development plots are distributed across all eight of Andalucía’s provinces.

In addition, the sale includes 269 garages (€3.2 million), 112 premises (€15.2 million) and 10 storerooms (total price of €45,532) (…). Specifically, the date scheduled for the opening of bids is 27 November.

Original story: La Vanguardia

Translation: Carmel Drake

Aguirre Newman: Logistics Demand Soars By 23% In Madrid & Barcelona

17 October 2017 – Eje Prime

Demand for logistics space in Madrid and Barcelona is on the rise. During the first three quarters of 2017, 929,698 m2 of logistics space was leased, which represented an increase of 22.6% compared to the volume leased during the same period in 2016, according to data released by the Logistics Market Monitor for Madrid and Barcelona 2017, compiled by the real estate consultancy firm Aguirre Newman.

The volume of investment reached €600 million (during the 9 months to September 2017), which accounts for 76% of the total recorded during the whole of last year. That figure, in turn, represented a historical maximum in terms of investment volumes in Spain.

“The high level of investment activity in logistics assets that began four years ago continued during the third quarter of 2017. It was boosted by factors such as the consolidation of economic growth, the gradual improvement in consumption by households, rising rental prices in the main markets and an improvement in financing conditions”, say sources at the consultancy firm.

By market, demand for logistics space in Madrid during the third quarter of 2017 amounted to 226,757 m2, which took the total cumulative volume of space leased so far in 2017 to 614,070 m2, up by 52% compared to the same period last year.

The most significant operation, in terms of the volume of space leased during the third quarter, was closed in Illescas (Toledo), where a turnkey operation was signed involving a space measuring 103,000m2. It was followed by another operation in Meco involving a logistics space measuring 59,914 m2.

In terms of rental prices, the maximum reached has been €4.85/m2/month, as a result of an operation closed in the Corredor del Henares, specifically, in San Fernando.

“Activity in the market for land with logistics and industrial use has grown considerably with respect to previous quarters, given that seven operations have been signed, involving a combined surface area of 379,096 m2 (…)”, say sources at the consultancy firm.

In Barcelona, 91,406 m2 of logistics space was leased during the third quarter, which represented a slight decrease (of 9%) compared to the same period in 2016. Meanwhile, the total cumulative space leased during the first nine months of the year amounted to 315,628 m2.

Prime rental prices in the Catalan capital continue to range between €5.75/m2/month and €6.75/m2/month. Nevertheless, Aguirre Newman’s report highlights that one operation was closed in the Zona Franca Consortium for a rental price that exceeds the prime rent.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Mercadona Acquires Logistics Plot In Valencia For €24M

9 December 2016 – Expansión

The supermarket chain Mercadona is preparing to build a new logistics centre in Parc Sagunt, the largest industrial estate in the Community of Valencia, which is almost empty at the moment.

The firm has acquired a plot measuring 358,270 m2 for €24 million, on which it will construct a logistics block. The centre will not be used to supply the chain’s stores directly, like its existing centres, but will instead centralise the storage and distribution of products to the other logistics centres. It will be the first point of receipt for products that due to their nature require this kind of logistic management, for example, perishable goods, goods from the same supplier and goods imported through ports.

Sources at Mercadona explain that, for the time being, the definitive design for the centre and the total investment have not been defined.

The chain currently operates thirteen logistics centres and three satellite warehouses. In total, it has a surface area of 854,000 m2. In 2007, the company launched a strategy involving intelligent logistics centres, which kicked off with the construction of a centre in Ciempozuelos (Madrid) and was subsequently extended to include centres in Ribarroja (Valencia), Villadangos (León), Guadix (Granada) and Abrera (Barcelona). The final phases still need to be incorporated into this last block. Around €300 million has been invested to date.

In recent years, Mercadona has invested €700 million in its logistics platforms. It will open its next centre in Vitoria, whose first phase will be operational next year, following a €50 million investment.

Relief for Parc Sagunt

This operation was approved on Wednesday by the Board of Directors of Parc Sagunt, the property developer of the land that is jointly owned by the Generalitat Valenciana and the state owned company Sepi (50% each), which have invested €132 million. Mercadona’s arrival at the industrial estate represents a breath of fresh air for the space that had become something of a problem for the Administration. Even though the majority of the site has been completed since 2008, only three companies currently operate there and most of the land is still up for sale.

The plot that Mercadona has acquired is well known, given that in 2007, it was awarded to the Ros Casares group to open its major steel works Brava Steel, but that was never built. Now it has been sold for 41% less.

There are currently 26 other plots of land for sale and experts expect that, thanks to the arrival of Mercadona, demand for those plots will now increase, after years of paralysis.

Original story: Expansión (by J.B. and A.C.A)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Sareb Puts More Than 150 Plots Of Land Up For Sale

7 October 2015 – El Boletin

Sareb has launched a land campaign for investors and property developers, which includes more than 150 plots, according to a statement issued yesterday by the so-called ‘bad bank’. The plots have a total buildable area of over 1,500,000 m2 for the development of homes, offices, shops, hotels and industrial warehouses.

Around one third of the land is located on the coast and is aimed at secondary residence developments. The campaign is being conducted online, through the microsite http://suelossareb.es, which contains information about all of the assets for sale. It also includes plots for tertiary use in the provinces of Guadalajara, Madrid, Málaga, Murcia and Valencia, intended for the development of approximately 250,000 m2 of offices and industrial warehouses. Sareb is outsourcing the marketing of these plots to its managers and servicers (Altamira, Haya, Servihabitat, Solvia).

“Sareb has identified that there is demand for developable land in several parts of Spain where it has assets, and so we think that now is the right time to launch this campaign”, explains Alfredo Guitart, General Manager at Sareb.

Almost 30% of the land included in this campaign is located in the Community of Madrid, with a buildable area of approximately 367,000 m2. Highlights include plots in Alcalá de Henares, Arroyomolinos, Madrid city, Torrelodones, Valdemoro, Leganés and San Fernando de Henares.

Sareb has also put 20 plots of land up for sale in Andalucia (with a buildable area of around 231,000 m2). These assets are mainly located in the province of Málaga, but there are also plots in Granada, Córdoba and Cadiz. All of these sites are intended for residential use, with the exception of two sites in Marbella and Vélez-Málaga, which have been allocated for hotel and retail use, respectively.

There are 39 plots in the Community of Valencia, with a combined buildability of approximately 215,000 m2, mainly residential. Two thirds of this supply is located in the towns of Moncofa (Castellón), and Gandía and Sagunto (Valencia). The latter is home to a plot of industrial land for warehouses, with a surface area of almost 16,000 m2. Meanwhile, in Cataluña, there are 17 plots with a buildability of 70,000 m2. The majority of those are located in the city of Barcelona, but the supply also includes other sites in, for example, Terrassa, Sabadell and Llinars del Vallés (Barcelona) and Ametlla de Mar and Ruidoms (Tarragona).

Finally, there are sizeable plots in Palma de Mallorca (Balearic Islands) and Zaragoza (Aragón). The first plot has been allocated for social, industrial and commercial use and is located in Estadi Balear, with a buildability of more than 10,000 m2. In the case of Zaragoza, nine plots have been selected with a combined buildability of more than 62,000 m2, both in the old town and in new developments.

Original story: El Boletin

Translation: Carmel Drake