ASG Homes Negotiates the Sale of 1,000 Rental Homes to Institutional Investors

19 June 2019 – Expansión

ASG Homes, the property development arm of the European manager ASG, is following in the footsteps of many of the major property developers in Spain by putting up for sale 1,000 rental homes.

The announcement comes in response to interest from institutional investors in acquiring and managing portfolios of rental homes, given the booming demand in the rental market.

Specifically, ASG Homes is negotiating the sale of 3 of its developments in San Sebastián, Madrid and Sevilla, which will be worth €200 million once finished, with investment funds, Socimis and family offices.

ASG Homes had planned to hold onto the properties and manage them itself but the strong interest from investors has resulted in a change of tack. In this way, the company is emulating the strategies of several listed property developers, such as Metrovacesa and Aedas Homes.

In total, ASG Homes has a landbank spanning 500,000 m2 with the capacity to build 5,000 homes distributed across Madrid, Alicante, Estepona, Marbella, Salamanca, Barcelona, Sevilla and Valencia. It launched its business in Spain in 2013 and invests not only in the residential sector, but also in the hotel, shopping centre and office segments.

Original story: Expansión (by Rebeca Arroyo)

Translation/Summary: Carmel Drake

Metrovacesa to Invest €40M in the Construction of 180 New Homes in Córdoba

27 November 2018 – Eje Prime

Metrovacesa has already set up its first cranes in Córdoba. The Spanish property developer has started work on the Las Terrazas de Poniente Sur Residential complex, the first in a series of three projects that the company has underway in the city. In total, the real estate firm is going to build more than 180 homes, with an investment of €40 million in the capital of the Andalucian province.

The company is going to build 120 homes in its first development in Córdoba. On that site, located in the Parque Cruz Conde neighbourhood, the company is going to build flats with between one and five bedrooms, in a building comprising a ground floor and six upper floors. In the common areas, the development will have an outdoor swimming pool, a padel court, a garden and a children’s playground.

Metrovacesa’s commitment to the Andalucían city reflects the fact that Córdoba is “one of the Spanish cities with the highest demand for residential properties at the moment”, said the property developer in a statement.

Besides the Las Terrazas de Poniente Sur Residential development, the company is already marketing Villas de Alhakén, a development comprising 21 single-family homes in the El Brillante neighbourhood. Meanwhile, it is finalising matters to obtain the urban planning licence for Mirador de la Albaida, a residential development comprising forty homes, which will have views of the mountains in Córdoba.

Commitment to Andalucía 

The start of the work in Córdoba is strengthening Metrovacesa’s commitment to Andalucía, where 45% of the company’s land portfolio is located. In Eastern Andalucía alone, the property developer has land on which to build 6,000 homes, of which 4,000 units will be promoted along the Costa del Sol.

The objective of the property developer over the medium term is to generate revenues of €1 billion by 2020, and to increase that figure to €1.5 billion over the following years, according to sources speaking to EjePrime.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Excem to Promote 5,000 Luxury Homes in the Costa del Sol & Murcia

21 November 2018 – Eje Prime

Excem is increasing its commitment to the luxury residential sector. The company owned by the Hatchwell family has set itself the objective of promoting 5,000 luxury homes on the Costa del Sol and Murcia, within the context of the development of its LOV Real Estate division. To launch these homes, which will follow in the footsteps of a development on Calle Fuencarral in Madrid, Excem has created the brand Solomon Homes.

Excem’s plans with LOV Real Estate involve starting to promote its entire land bank in 2019. The first projects to be commercialised in the south include four promotions in Condado de Alhama, one of the best resorts on the Costa Cálida. In that complex, LOV has already started work on the construction of Villa Primavera, Villa Amapola and Villa Atardecer, as well as Edificio Poniente. The company plans to hand over those homes next summer.

Further south, on the Costa del Sol, the property developer is finalising the signing of several projects with “the same model of avant-garde and unique architecture” in the area, on the fashionable coastline of the Spanish residential market. The company expects to achieve a return of more than 20% in each of its projects.

The starting point for luxury

Nevertheless, Excem’s starting point with LOV Real Estate will be a 25-home development on Calle Fuencarral in Madrid. The group’s first development will involve an investment of €14 million and will be located at number 142 of the Madrilenian street, right in the heart of the Spanish capital.

The company has already started work and its pre-sales amount to 80% with just four homes left to market. The buyers include investors and architects, explain sources at Excem (…).

The property developer plans to handover those homes, which will have between one and three bedrooms, before the end of 2019. The homes will have surface areas ranging from 55 m2 to 175 m2, and prices starting at €400,000, and going up to €1.5 million (…).

Excem: true to its roadmap 

The last investment vehicle launched by Excem Real Estate, the real estate division of the Excem Group, was Siwork, specialising in co-working and for which the group has partnered with WeWork, as Eje Prime revealed. With Excem Capital Partners Siwork, the group stays true to its roadmap: to be present in the Spanish real estate sector with three Socimis, diversified by type of asset and focused on millennial clients.

The first of the three companies launched by the Israeli family in Spain was Excem Capital Partners Sociedad de Inversión Residencial. Specialising in rental housing aimed at millennials, the company debuted on the Alternative Investment Market (MAB) in July worth €17 million. Currently, the company owns 28 assets in Spain and has several shareholders ranging from private investors to business people and family offices.

Besides Excem Capital Partners Sociedad de Inversión Residencial, the Hatchwell family also operates in the Spanish real estate sector with Situr, a firm specialising in tourist properties such as apartments and hostels. The investment target for this second Socimi is approximately €250 million between now and the rest of 2018. The company has set itself the objective of having 3,500 beds in a dozen buildings, located primarily in Madrid and Barcelona, as well as in other tourist cities around the country.

With the activation of Siwork, the plans for this new company involve carrying out an investment of €200 million to acquire a dozen buildings in Spain’s main cities.

The Hatchwell family’s links with the real estate world date back to the beginning of the 1970s, when Mauricio Hatchwell Toledano founded the group, specialising first in cement and later in technology and real estate. Nowadays, the company is led by his children David, Philip and Kareen Hatchwell Altaras.

Original story: Eje Prime (by J. Izquierdo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Mountpark to Invest €30M in a Macro-Warehouse for XPO in Toledo

23 October 2018 – Eje Prime

A new macro-operation is on the cards for Plataforma Central Iberum. The logistics developer Mountpark is going to invest €30 million in the development of this enclave to the south of Madrid in an asset measuring 44,000 m2 for XPO Logistics. In turn, the logistics operator has already agreed to rent the space to a large fashion chain, according to explanations provided to Eje Prime by the Director General of Mountpark for Spain and Portugal, John Derweduwe.

This warehouse is being promoted under the turnkey model and it is scheduled for completion and opening in June 2019. The latest-generation asset is going to be located 35 km from Madrid, in the municipality of Illescas, in Toledo. The real estate consultancy Estrada&Partners has been responsible for advising this operation.

The future tenant of the warehouse of Mountpark and XPO, is going to be the Swedish fashion retailer H&M, which will use the platform for its e-commerce logistics. The boom in e-commerce is also the reason why other overseas giants have also set up shop in Plataforma Central Iberum, which has converted the park and its surrounding area into the new prime axis of the real estate logistics market in the centre of the country.

Mountpark is entering a platform where Amazon, Airbus, Michelin and Toyota, amongst others, are already present. Located on a plot spanning more than 3.5 million m2, Plataforma Central Iberum is also the largest eco-industrial park in Spain.

The platform that it is building for XPO will not be the only one that Mountpark is promoting in this park. The company owns a second plot measuring 89,000 m2 in Illescas for which it is currently finalising a rental agreement with a high-profile domestic retailer.

“This project is just the start of an ambitious future for Mountpark in Spain” highlighted Derweduwe. The director, formerly the Vice-President and Administrator of Prologis Spain between 2002 and 2006, is “heavily committed to the south of Madrid”, where he plans to constitute a “significant” land bank to be able to respond to “the new logistics needs of the 21st century”, added the executive.

Specialising in the construction of so-called XXL assets (those spanning a surface area of more than 40,000 m2), Mountpark already owns a 99,000 m2 plot in Alcalá de Henares and is working on another land bank spanning several million square metres.

Changing trend in Madrid

Regarding the arrival of giants such as Amazon to Illescas, Derweduwe points to the “saturation” of the Corredor de Henares thoroughfare, which is leading to a “change of trend” in which the province of Toledo is gaining a lot of notoriety due to its proximity to Madrid and because “being located in Castilla-La Mancha also has benefits for tenants”, said the executive.

As well as the central area, Mountpark is also looking “seriously” at Cataluña and Valencia (…).

The parent company of the Iberian subsidiary led by Derweduwe is Mountpark Logistics, a joint venture between Usaa Realco-Europe Holdcom, the Dutch subsidiary of Usaa Real Estate, and Mountpark Finco Sarl (Mountpark). The joint venture promotes large logistics buildings all over Europe, but with the focus primarily on the United Kingdom, Western Europe and Central Europe. Mountpark has a portfolio comprising 16 assets with the potential to offer logistics facilities spanning more than 1.85 million m2 in the continental market.

Original story: Eje Prime (by Jabier Izquierdo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Aedas Homes has a Landbank Covering 4+ years of Visibility

8 October 2018 – Nasdaq

Aedas Homes, a leading property developer in the new real estate cycle in Spain, already has enough land in its portfolio to cover deliveries until 2022, as well as a significant part of 2023, thereby confirming the delivery targets set out in its IPO prospectus. The company’s landbank (close to 90% is classified as ready-to-build) will allow it to develop up to 14,521 homes in Spain’s key residential markets and is considered by analysts to be the best in the country.

So far in 2018, the publicly traded company, with CEO David Martínez at the helm, has completed the construction of 222 homes scheduled for delivery this year, 190 of which have already been sold.  As of August 31, the company had 6,287 active units, 55% more than in December 2017, and of those, 1,623 were already under construction. These figures reflect the strength of the property developer’s operating capacity during its first year.

In 2019, the developer plans to deliver almost five times as many homes, with a delivery target of 1,055 residential units; 1,071 homes are currently under construction and 761 have been sold. In 2020, Aedas Homes will deliver 1,986 homes and reach its cruising speed in terms of launches (3,000). The plan for 2021 is to deliver 2,438 homes and begin 2,471 new projects. 2022 will mark the moment when the developer reaches its cruising speed in terms of deliveries, with plans to put 3,063 homes in the hands of customers and launch another 3,000. In 2023, the number of homes being delivered will reach 3,326.

Martínez highlighted the company’s strict compliance with the goals announced at its IPO, noting that the company returned a profit one year ahead of schedule. Specifically, the property developer earned €3.7 million during the first half of 2018, making it the first of the new large developers in Spain to become profitable, and doing so only eight months after being listed on the Madrid stock market.

“We designed a realistic business plan, meaning that we will reach our targets in the coming years: by 2020, for example, we will have delivered more than 3,200 homes. Right now, we have almost 6,300 active units across 117 developments which gives us the visibility we need in terms of our objectives,” Martínez explained.

About Aedas Homes

The property developer Aedas Homes became a listed company on 20 October 2017 in Madrid, with a market capitalization of over €1.5 billion. Aedas is an industry leader at the national level and aims to play an important role in the new cycle of the Spanish real estate sector, which must be marked by professionalism and an adherence to rigorous standards.

Aedas Homes has a fully permitted residential landbank with more than 1.5 million buildable square metres (the highest quality landbank in Spain, according to analysts). This will permit the development of 14,500 residential units in the key markets, and their surrounding areas (both in terms of real estate and finance) where Aedas operates: the Centre, Cataluña, the East & Mallorca, Andalucía and the Costa del Sol.

Original story: Nasdaq 

Edited by: Carmel Drake

Värde Merges Vía Célere & Aelca to Create one of Spain’s Largest RE Firms

1 October 2018 – El Español

The US fund Värde has created and will control one of the largest residential property developers in the country after merging the two companies in the sector in which it holds a stake, Vía Célere and Aelca, according to a statement issued by the entity.

The resulting company, which will retain the name Vía Célere, will have the capacity to deliver 2,000 homes in 2019 and 5,000 homes in 2021.

Värde will control 75% of the share capital of the new Vía Célere. Nevertheless, the firm will continue to be led by Juan Antonio Gómez-Pintado (pictured above), who also chairs the real estate trade association.

This is the US fund’s second merger operation in the Spanish real estate sector, after it integrated Dos Puntos, the real estate firm that it constituted with assets left over from the San José group, and Vía Célere in April 2017.

With its latest operation, Värde says that it is “reaffirming its commitment to the Spanish market”, which it considers is still highly “fragmented” and “needs greater consolidation by the operators to provide a rate of deliveries that reflects the budgets prepared”.

Värde, together with Lone Star, Castlelake, Blackstone and Cerberus, is one of the overseas funds that arrived in Spain during the peak of the crisis to buy up real estate assets, above all those that the banks had been left with after foreclosing debts.

Possible resizing of the workforce

According to Värde’s data, the property developer that it has created owns assets worth €2.2 billion, located all over the country, although the firm did not provide details about the new entity’s landbank in square metres or the number of homes under construction.

According to information provided by the new Vía Célere, 38% of its assets are located in Madrid, 20% in Málaga, 11% in Barcelona, 9% in Sevilla, 5% in Valencia and the remaining 17% in other provinces.

25% of the share capital of the new Vía Célere, which is controlled by Värde (75%), is distributed between other shareholders, all of them are foreign investors, such as Barclays.

At the operational level, the new real estate giant says that, in theory, it will hold onto the 300 employees that make up the workforce, although it does not rule out “resizing its structure” over the coming months, depending on its needs.

Original story: El Español

Translation: Carmel Drake

Blackstone Puts 2 million m2 of Popular’s Residential Land up for Sale

1 October 2018 – Cinco Días

Now that the banks have offloaded their real estate portfolios onto the opportunistic funds that acquired them, it is time for the next move. Those buyers are going to see at first hand whether property developers are interested in buying plots on which to homes can be built all over Spain. The first player to test the market is Blackstone, which has placed a macro-portfolio of land spanning 2 million m2 from Popular on the market; according to market sources, it has the capacity for the construction of more than 18,000 homes.

The operation is being carried out through Aliseda, a company controlled by Blackstone (51%) and Santander (49%). The value of the plots is almost €500 million, according to sources at Aliseda. That real estate firm already revealed, at the start of September, that a sales process was in the pipeline relating to so-called Project Origin (…).

This land proceeds from the toxic assets of Popular, after Santander sold 51% of the property-linked portfolio to Blackstone last year for €5.1 billion. In that portfolio, there were doubtful loans and foreclosed assets, including both homes and land linked to property developers. Of those assets, 42% corresponded to land and work in progress projects. In that operation, the servicer Aliseda was also transferred. That entity is now responsible for managing those assets, recovering doubtful loans and, when recovery is not possible, foreclosing the properties and putting them on the market, like in  the case of this macro-operation.

The details of the operation

The details of the operation reveal a gigantic portfolio. The land portfolio spans 2.05 million m2 for residential use, specifically for the construction of 18,299 homes, on plots located in 43 provinces, but excluding Madrid and Barcelona. In total, 270 assets have been put up for sale.

Blackstone and Santander, through their servicer Aliseda, are giving companies the option of bidding only for the plots that are of interest to them. The real estate firm has opened an online store in which it says around 1,000 interested investors are participating.

Local property developers are expected to be the players most interested in these plots. In fact, Blackstone has decided to put plots on the market in locations where demand has reactivated a bit later, whereby backing the recovery of the property sector across Spain. The fund has entrusted this transaction to the real estate consultancy CBRE.

The portfolio is divided into four categories, based on the type of land. Specifically, 158 assets (58% of the total) corresponding to 888,364 m2 of land, are finalist plots (which can be built on right away) with capacity for 8,691 homes. It has also put some work in progress projects up for sale, in other words, developments that were left unfinished. In that case, there are 39 assets, spanning 174,034 m2 and corresponding to 1,549 homes.

Aliseda is also marketing 33 assets for which the urbanisation process has been started, with capacity for 4,603 homes and another 42 assets without any licences for 4,772 homes.

In terms of the locations, Andalucía, Levante and Galicia account for the majority of the assets. The 10 provinces with the most homes in the portfolio are Murcia (14%), Málaga (12%), Castellón (7%), Valencia (5%), La Coruña (5%), Alicante (4%), Asturias (4%), Navarra (4%) and Zaragoza (3%).

Property developers interested in bidding for one or more of the plots will have until the end of October to do so and Aliseda expects to close the operations during December.

To put the gigantic size of the portfolio being marketed by Aliseda into context, it is worth comparing it with the land banks owned by some of the large listed property developers. Only Metrovacesa (in which Santander and BBVA hold stakes) owns more land. It currently owns plots for 38,000 homes, with a gross value of €2.686 billion, according to its most recent accounts. In the case of Aedas, it has a landbank for 14,521 homes and Neinor has land for another 13,500 units (…).

It remains to be seen whether the appetite of property developers for these locations outside of Madrid and Barcelona, the most active markets, is sufficient and whether they will be capable of swallowing up this supply. It is the first time that interest in the market for land proceeding from bank assets has been tested on such a large scale (…).

Original story: Cinco Días (by Alfonso Simón Ruiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake