Tag: luxury homes

The Capriles Family will Set the Tone for Operación Calderón with Flats Priced from €5,700/m2

14 February 2019 – El Confidencial

It is a question of weeks. Gran Roque, the investment vehicle owned by the Venezuelans Miguel Ángel and Áxel Capriles, is going to start marketing homes in its most affordable development in Madrid within the next few weeks. The development comprises 105 homes and is located just 600 metres from the Vicente Calderón stadium. The properties are going to be put on the market for €5,700/m2. That price will, undoubtedly, serve as a reference for the potential buyers of the plots in the future Operación Mahou-Calderón, which is currently on standby until the plans for the urbanisation and Reparcelation of the area have been definitively approved.

As reported by El Confidencial, in October 2017, the Venezuelan clan purchased buildable land from Prosegur, just a few metres from where Operación Calderón is going to be built. For that plot, which has not required any type of urban development procedure and which is designated for residential use, as provided for in the General Urban Development Plan (PGOUM) for Madrid dated 1997, they paid around €25 million, approximately €2,900/m2. That price is close to those what is being considered for the plots owned by Atlético de Madrid.

According to explanations provided to El Confidencial by various sources, the development comprises five 5-storey buildings – except for one that has 4 storeys – and to optimise the price, Gran Roque has decided to start by marketing just two of the blocks, which contain 55 flats. In other words, like other property developers have been doing in Madrid, if the first homes maintain a high rate of sales, all indications are that the prices in the subsequent phases will be higher.

The construction permit will be ready by the end of April or the beginning of May, and so the marketing cannot officially begin until then. Nevertheless, 20% of the 55 units have already been reserved, according to assurances given by those same sources.

The project includes 2-, 3-, and 4-bedroom homes, all of which have a parking space and storeroom included in the price. The smallest units will go on the market from €450,000 plus VAT; the 3-bedroom homes will start at €550,000; and the largest homes will cost more than €600,000. That equates to a price of €5,700/m2, which is very high for many Madrilenians, but well below the prices typically charged for luxury developments.

Located just a few metres from Madrid Río and the Río Manzanares, the development will contain two swimming pools (one for children and one for adults), a gym, a children’s play area, a bicycle room and 24-hour surveillance, amongst other features. In total, it will have 1,719 m2 of common space (…).

Original story: El Confidencial (by E. Sanz)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Stoneweg Buys Plot to Build Luxury Apartments for €130M

13 December 2018 – Idealista

The real estate market has broken a new record in Madrid: the Spanish-Swiss fund Stoneweg has purchased a residential plot from Dragados for €130 million, the most expensive operation in the history of the capital, according to Idealista News. The plot, located on Paseo de la Dirección, 246, spans 40,000 m2 and two luxury residential towers are going to be built on the site, which will be sold for €6,000/m2.

The project, which is going to be constructed by Dragados, comprises two towers that will have 700 homes in total, and which will go on sale for around €6,000/m2. The land will also be home to two tertiary-use towers, destined for offices, which do not have an operator yet. The operation has been advised by the firm Colliers.

According to sources consulted by Idealista News, these two towers will change the skyline of Madrid and will open the door to a change in the physiognomy of the Tetuán district. The property developer is whereby continuing to take advantage of the real estate cycle and, specifically, of the good times that the luxury residential business is experiencing, which is attracting attention from local and international buyers alike.

Over the coming weeks, Stoneweg is going to open a selection process to choose a company to take care of the sale of the 700 luxury homes. Candidates are expected to include CBRE, Savills-Aguirre Newman, BNP and Colliers (…).

Original story: Idealista (by Custodio Pareja, P. Martínez-Almeida & Ana P. Alarcos)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Uniq to Renovate 256 Luxury Homes in Benidorm’s In Tempo Skyscraper

12 December 2018 – Eje Prime

Uniq is going to renovate the tallest tower in Benidorm. The Catalan property developer has reached an agreement with the US fund SVP Global, the owner of the Intempo skyscraper, to develop the 256 luxury homes that are going to comprise the tallest residential property in the city, and one of the tallest in Spain, at 192 m high.

The real estate company is going to carry out the renovation of the building, which is located on Playa de Poniente, and which passed into the hands of SVP Global in November 2017 from Sareb. The fund already started to market the homes in the summer.

This latest project in Benidorm follows the recent alliance between Uniq and Goldman Sachs for the purchase of a plot of land on Paseo de la Habana in Madrid for €63 million. Moreover, the Catalan company has a second development in the neighbourhood of Chamberi in the Spanish capital. In Barcelona, Uniq is building two properties for prime housing on Calles Nicaragua and Numancia in the Les Corts district.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Which Homes Cost More Than €10,000/m2 in Madrid?

2 November 2018 – Expansión

Canalejas (€14,500/m2)

Canalejas is undoubtedly one of the most anticipated major luxury mega-projects. Owned by OHL and Mohari Limited, the company owned by the Israeli businessman Mark Scheinberg, the central corner surrounded by Calles Alcalá, Sevilla and Carrer de San Jerónima, now known as Project Canalejas, is going to be home to the first Four Seasons hotel in Spain, with 200 rooms, as well as 22 luxury apartments costing €14,500/m2 on average. For the project, 7 historical buildings have been joined together, which used to house the headquarters of some of the most important banking institutions in the country, and in which €300 million have been invested. Of the 22 properties available, 16 have already been sold, including a penthouse for €10 million.

Lagasca 99 (€11,800/m2)

But the record for an apartment with these characteristics in the centre of Madrid is still held by the duplex that was sold on Lagasca 99 at the end of 2016. It is a penthouse duplex spanning 703 m2, with a terrace and private swimming pool, and two parking spaces, which was sold for €14 million. That building, which is currently being promoted by Grupo Lar, after suffering several ups and downs in its development history, has become one of the most exclusive buildings in Madrid, with 44 new homes in total, measuring between 300 m2 and 700 m2 each, and of which 90% have now been sold.

General Castaños 2 (€20,000/m2).

Meanwhile, the property developer Mabel Real Estate has undertaken a stunning renovation of the property at c/General Castaños, 2. Although the 11 homes that the building is going to comprise never actually went on the market (they were offered directly to private investors), the sector calculated that the prices amounted to around €20,000/m2.

José Abascal 48 (€10,000/m2)

Two years ago, the first homes in one of the best fully reformed buildings in the Castellana area, José Abascal 48, started to be handed over. Three exclusive penthouses are still available, including the so-called “duplex penthouse retreat” measuring 462 m2, with terraces spanning 100 m2, 4 parking spaces, a storeroom and an independent service room, which is on the market for €5.87 million.

The home has two main entrances on each of its floors, in such a way that you can access the rooms from the lift if you do not want to use the internal stairs. Moreover, the building has an exceptional entrance hall and an automated parking lot, an events area, a 100 m2 gym and a spa.

Original story: Expansión (by L. Ruiz-Ocaña)

Translation: 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

Grupo Ibosa Acquires 10,000m2 Plot on Paseo de la Habana for c. €70M

24 July 2018 – El Confidencial

It has undoubtedly become the most expensive land operation since the start of the real estate recovery. Paseo de la Habana, 147 has smashed all records, given that almost €70 million has been put on the table for its 10,000 m2, which represents a repercussion price of between €6,500/m2 and €7,000/m2. That figure is significantly higher than the expectations of the plot’s vendors, which had set a sales price range of between €60 million and €65 million.

Since the real estate bubble burst, no one has paid such a high repercussion price for a plot of land. The figure comfortably exceeds the €5,000/m2 that the builder Rafael Ortiz and the popular shipping entrepreneur Fernando Fernández Tapias paid in 2007, at the height of the boom for a plot located on Juan Bravo 3, where the Spanish capital’s largest luxury development is currently being constructed, Lagasca 99.

Since coming onto the market just three months ago, the plots have passed through the offices of more than a dozen property developers and private investors and, although many of them agree on the high price of the operation, the fact is that the plot has had half a dozen suitors in the end.

The companies that placed an offer on the table include Nozar, Grosvenor, Domo and Pryconsa, although the successful bidder in the end was Grupo Ibosa, according to some of the candidates that have been left out of the process, speaking to El Confidencial. Both JLL, the consultancy firm advising the sales process, and Ibosa declined to comment in this regard.

The plot in question is located in the heart of Madrid, opposite the Cuban consulate, just 700 m from Paseo de la Castellana and 1km away from the Santiago Bernabéu stadium, where the supply of buildable land for sale is very scarce. In fact, the vast majority of the projects in the area are being built in renovated properties.

Five detached homes are currently being constructed on the acquired plot, with surface areas of between 300 m2 and 400 m2 each, which will have to be demolished to make way for the buyer’s future project. All indications are that a luxury apartment development will be built on the plot, which will be added to the high-end projects that Ibosa currently has underway in Valdemarín – on some plots it acquired from Blackstone – and in Aravaca, and marketing of which has just been launched.

The lack of new build product in the area and the high demand explain this pressure on prices. The development will be built in the Chamartín district, which is home to some of the most sought-after residential areas in the centre of the city, such as El Viso, where the Venezuelan investors Miguel Ángel and Áxel Capriles arrived in April last year to purchase Villa San José on Pablo Aranda 3, just opposite Florentino Pérez’s real estate bunker.

In terms of benchmark prices, one example is the 11 homes that are being built on the plots of the former headquarters of RTVE. The Ministry of Finance put that plot up for auction at the end of 2015 and it was awarded to Martell Investment for €10.8 million, which represents a repercussion price of €4,800/m2. Construction of those homes has now begun and the prices fluctuate around €7,000/m2.

Boom in prices

In just two years, the prices in the most sought-after neighbourhoods of the Spanish capital have soared by more than 20% (…).

According to a recent report from Engel & Völkers, maximum prices in this Madrilenian neighbourhood amount to €6,000/m2, although, as sources specialising in the sale of luxury homes at the agency explain, “there are no new build properties in the area, and so the final prices depend a lot on the features of each project”.

In terms of the area, like in the most trendy areas of Madrid, prices have risen sharply over the last year. According to Engel & Völkers, prices have risen by 10% since 2017, “although, at the moment, more operations are being closed than last year because there is greater access to credit, but, nevertheless, prices are barely rising”.

Original story: El Confidencial (by E. Sanz)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Colau to Force 30% of New Build Homes to be Allocated to Social Housing

13 June 2018 – La Vanguardia

The mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau, is going to force house builders that are constructing new homes or undertaking major renovation projects in the Catalan capital to allocate 30% of their buildings to social housing. This proposal from the Government’s team will be taken to the municipal plenary at the end of this month and threatens to generate a fierce legal battle between property developers and the Town Hall. The legal consequences are expected to be even more profound than those brought about by the Special Urban Plan for Tourist Accommodation (Peuat), which has been the subject of more than one hundred appeals.

The initiative proposes two modifications to the existing General Metropolitan Plan (PGM), which will need agreement from the municipal groups if they are to be approved initially. One of them establishes the bases to oblige private property developers to contribute to the creation of social housing. The other involves extending the Town Hall’s right of first refusal across the whole city, in such a way that the administration will have preferential rights for the acquisition of estates in all sale and purchase transactions.

This proposal can be traced back to a requirement launched a few months ago by the Platform for People Affected by Mortgages (PAH), which demanded that the Town Hall apply this percentage – 30% – to property developers in an obligatory to expand the public stock of housing. Ada Colau, who in February hired Carlos Macías, one of the spokesmen for the PAH, as an advisor, is hereby looking to satisfy that entity, for which she used to work as an activist and which has openly criticised her housing policies on more than one occasion.

Nevertheless, the urban modification project, which the BComú government has forged with the utmost secrecy and without the involvement of any trade associations or other affected agents, has infuriated the sector, which warns of the dangerous effects that this measure may generate. They include the risk of paralysing real estate activity at a time of recovery and the consequent legal battle to annul these plans.

The document, prepared by municipal experts in collaboration with Barcelona Regional, has been sent to municipal groups to start conversations and try to make progress in a meeting today towards its approval by the Urban Planning Committee next week. After overcoming that process, if the first obstacle is indeed overcome, the proposal will be discussed in the plenary. Even so, it still has a long way to go before it could come into force.

The modification would affect all new build or major renovation projects that have an urbanistic housing roof (surface area) of more than 600 m2, in practice, the vast majority of real estate developments in the city. According to the document, they would be obliged to “allocate at least 30% of those roofs to public housing”. The properties could be sold or leased but must be located in the same building (…). If the proposal goes ahead and overcomes all of the legal processes, it will become normal for residents of luxury homes in the city to live alongside residents of social housing properties (…).

If the current rate of construction in Barcelona continues over the next few years, if Ada Colau’s government manages to push through her proposal and if the inevitable legal appeals rule in favour of the Town Hall, then the initiative to allocate 30% of new build homes to social housing could increase the city’s public housing stock by 400 units per year. In 2017, 1,373 new homes were started in the Catalan capital (…).

Original story: La Vanguardia (by Silvia Angulo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

RTV Grupo Inmobiliario Invests €10M in Purchase of Former Lluro de Mataró Cinema

5 June 2018 – Eje Prime

RTV Grupo Inmobiliario is continuing to expand its portfolio of properties in the Catalan market. The company is going to invest €10 million in the purchase of the former Lluro de Mataró cinema (the largest cinema in Spain in its hey-day) and its subsequent renovation, according to explanations provided by the group in a statement.

The start date for the execution of the construction work is planned within the next six months, once the building permits have been granted. The former cinema, which closed its doors in 2001, and the complementary office building, which used to house the Tax Authorities in Mataró until their move to the El Rengle building, has a total surface area of 9,650 m2, of which 4,500 m2 are above ground and the remaining 5,150 m2 are below ground. The buildings will be renovated in their entirety.

The new complex will comprise two residential buildings with 23 homes in total, a commercial space on the ground floor and two underground floors for parking. The plot on which the complex to be renovated is constructed and the area inside the block where the commercial space and parking lot will be located amounts to around 2,700 m2.

RTV Grupo Inmobiliario is working on residential promotions with similar characteristics in different areas of Maresme, including in Vilassar, Llavaneres and Mataró, and it plans to start work on new developments shortly in Barcelona and its surrounding area, Girona and Ibiza.

RTV Grupo Inmobiliario started its activity in 2000 focusing on the property development sector through the management and development of integral real estate projects. In recent years, it has managed the marketing of luxury homes, participated in advising real estate investments and worked on the administration and management of real estate assets.

It acts as a partner for several private banking divisions whose portfolio of clients are interested in diversifying their investments and returning to the real estate sector once again, taking advantage of the opportunities that are arising in the market.  In recent years, they have resumed the direct development of residential promotions in the regions of Cataluña and the Balearic Islands.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Twin Peaks Buys Plot of Prime Residential Land in Pozuelo (Madrid)

4 June 2018 – Eje Prime

Pozuelo de Alarcón has land for sale and nobody wants to miss out on the chance to acquire a slice of it. The Madrilenian town, the richest in Spain in terms of income per capita, has had a large portfolio of land up for sale for a few months now, and the family office Twin Peaks has opened the bidding in the flurry of purchases that are expected to be signed soon. The family office has acquired a plot of buildable land owned until now by Banco Santander.

The plot in question is included in the Arpo Partial Plan, the name given to the whole portfolio. Definitive approval is expected to be given for the reparcelling and urbanisation of the plots soon, which will allow investors to start building the first homes on the site. As such, the operation by Twin Peaks comes as it tries to position itself ahead of the great appetite from international funds, which are already working on buying plots on this site, according to El Confidencial.

In fact, Oaktree is already very close to sealing two operations with Iberdrola for the acquisition of plots located on the perimeter of Arpo. For Twin Peaks, the land attached to its real estate portfolio will allow it to continue growing in the luxury market in Madrid. In Barcelona, the other major Spanish city in which the firm has a presence, it acquired an asset on the central Paseo de Gracia last November for €25 million.

Pozuelo is a prime and very attractive market for property developers and funds in the residential boom that the Spanish capital is experiencing. Its high rents and ability to generate high yields are a showcase for luxury in the sector, which has seen how in just two and a half years, land prices in this municipality have risen by 20%, boosted by demand and, above all, by the shortage of buildable land available for development in Madrid.

Property developers such as Metrovacesa, which owns land spanning 46,000 m2 in Pozuelo alone worth €25 million, Vía Célere and iKasa already have important projects in place in this prime area of the Spanish residential market.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Grupo Baraka to Invest €20M in Casa Cerdá in Murcia

25 May 2018 – Expansión

Grupo Baraka is continuing to grow its portfolio of properties. The real estate group chaired by Trinitario Casanova has purchased Casa Cerdá, located in Murcia, from a group of individual investors. The plan is to convert the property into luxury homes for rent.

The investment by the Murcian firm in the property will amount to €20 million, including both the purchase and renovation of the asset. The Casa Cerdá building, with a surface area of 3,500 m2, is one of the most iconic properties in the city. The asset, which is almost ninety years old, is located in Plaza de Santo Domingo.

The property is going to be remodelled to house 24 premium homes for the rental market. The first homes will be available for rent from the beginning of 2019.

Moreover, the lower part of the property is going to be converted into a flagship store for a “large company”, which will occupy around 1,000 m2.

Original story: Expansión (by Rebeca Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake