Plan Nazaret Recovers 230,000 m2 of the Port of Valencia for the City

11 January 2019 – Inmodiario

The Board of Directors of the Port Authority has approved the Nazaret Este Plan, which represents the first step in the development of a new area in the Nazaret neighbourhood of Valencia.

The mayor of the city, Joan Ribó, has highlighted the importance of the approval of this plan, which will involve the recovery of 230,000 m2 of land in the Port for citizens, of which more than 86,000 m2 will be configured into a large green space: the future “Rivermouth Park”, which will connect with the end of the Turia Channel.

According to the mayor, “it will be one of the largest parks in Valencia. It will be connected to the river and will have green corridors that will link up with the L’Albufera National Park (…)”.

Original story: Inmodiario

Translation: Carmel Drake

Madrid’s Most Indebted Town To Pay €3M More Due To Fraudulent Ex-Mayor

20 October 2017 – El Confidencial

The political legacy of Baltasar Santos (pictured below), who served as the mayor of Navalcarnero for 20 years (between 1995 and 2015), is still taking its toll on the public coffers. According to the Ministry of Finance, Navalcarnero is the most indebted town in the Community of Madrid (and number 24 in the ranking for the whole of Spain). Each one of its 27,000 residents owed more than €3,700 as at the end of 2016. Then, the tax authority based its calculation of financial debt of €101 million, although the current Government estimates that the figure is more like €230 million. And that amount is expected to increase gradually due to the steady trickle of legal rulings that are going to be made against the previous Town Hall due to mismanagement by the former PP-party mayor.

The most recent ruling, issued by the Provincial Court of Madrid on 28 September, ordered the Town Hall to pay €2.8 million (plus legal interest) to around fifteen local residents and companies because the local Government, led then by Santos, sold them land that was not actually owned by the Town Hall (…).

This is the first ruling of its kind, but José Luis Adell, the current (socialist) mayor, expects that more will follow, unfortunately, against the Town Hall due to the “disastrous management by Santos” (…). We estimate that we are going to pay around €70 million in relation to these types of rulings, which will increase the municipal debt to €300 million (…).

Nobody knows where Baltasar Santos is now. He was expelled from the PP in 2015, after hiding from the party that he had been charged for several legal misdemeanours. Santos participated in the municipal elections that year with another political party, URCI (…) but resigned just a few months later, in October 2015, just like he had done previously. Nobody has replaced him. The Town Hall has created an investigation committee to analyse his management. Moreover, it has engaged legal counsel so that all of the irregularities that have been detected can be brought to justice and it has asked the Chamber of Accountants to audit Navalcarnero’s accounts for the financial years from 2007 until 2015.

Original story: El Confidencial (by David Fernández)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Land Use In Espai Vila-Real May Be Modified

20 October 2017 – El Periódico Mediterráneo

“Clearly, times have changed”. With that phrase, José Benlloch, the mayor of Vila-real, acknowledged that the plots of land in Espai Vila-real may be reclassified (in terms of their use), now that the Government has decided that the intermodal station will not be constructed in Castellón.

One door closes, but others open, and the Town Hall wants to be prepared not to waste its opportunities. It is for that reason that Benlloch is planning to meet the owners of the land, spanning 1 million m2, which comprises this Comprehensive Action Plan (PAI), to find out “what options are being considered in terms of its ownership and to inform them about the current possibilities”.

The mayor seems willing to modify the uses of the land if necessary and to “change the terms of the program, provided there are expectations on the part of the owners”. The one option the municipal corporation has ruled out is the large shopping centre that the Popular Government’s team, led by Juan José Rubert, planned in 2007. That plan included, amongst other matters, the arrival of the Swedish multinational Ikea in the town.

Mediterranean Corridor

One of the options that is gaining strength at the moment is the conversion of these plots, located opposite Porcelanosa, into a logistics hub, linked to the construction of the third strand of the Mediterranean Corridor. Such infrastructure is being demanded not only by the Regional Government but also by most of Valencia’s businesses. “We are aware that if this goes ahead, users will need places for storing goods temporarily, and we think that these plots are perfect for that, given that they are located in the heart of a very industrial district, La Plana Baixa”, explained the mayor.

Even though this idea will be on the table at the meeting between the Town Hall and the landowners, Benlloch is convinced that this question may be “compatible” with other proposals linked to the installation of new industries and projects relating to services, as well as the business that may be negotiated over the next few months. That said, the mayor wants to begin the new phase that is been opened by drawing “a roadmap that is shared” with the owners.

Original story: El Periódico Mediterráneo (by Xavi Prera)

Translation: Carmel Drake

KKH Has Spent €500M+ In Spain & Wants To Invest More

17 July 2017 – El País

After the abrupt collapse of the real estate sector following the burst of the bubble, it was five years before capital returned to the industry. And it did so five years ago, when the recovery in the sector was based essentially on investment funds with foreign names, which bought anything ranging from portfolios of properties from the administrations to buildings that were weighing down heavily on the banks. One of the funds that arrived then was the KKH Capital Group. Rather it made its return to Spain then.

The instrument was led by the person who until 2007 had been the CEO of Renta Corporación, Josep María Farré. He returned to Spain after a six-year break with the intention of building a portfolio of properties exceeding €300 million. Five years later, and after joining the US fund Perella Weinberg, the resulting alliance, KKH Property Investors has now spent €500 million and is considering expanding its financial muscle to continue acquiring buildings.

After undertaking acquisitions in Barcelona and the Balearic Islands, KKH recently entered the Spanish capital. There, it purchased the former headquarters of the Caja Madrid Foundation, in Plaza de las Descalzas, which it is going to convert into a 170-room luxury hotel. The building, which has a surface area of 25,000 m2, spread over seven floors and another two parking floors, could be operational by 2019 (…).

Buying and renovating

This acquisition fits perfectly into the company’s business model, which, unlike other funds, does not just sit back and wait for its properties to appreciate in value, but rather seeks to increase their value through renovation and, in most cases, changes of use. On paper, the model is similar to that employed by Renta Corporación, but sources in the sector highlight a significant difference: the real estate company used to try to hold onto properties for the shortest time possible. When the crisis hit, that logic became impossible.

The same operation that it undertook in Madrid – the transformation of a property into a large luxury hotel – was frustrated in Barcelona with the election of Ada Colau as mayor of that city. The group had acquired the iconic Deutsche Bank building, on Paseo de Gràcia, for around €90 million, according to market sources. That establishment was going to be managed by Four Seasons and was going to be another magnet to attract new investment to the area. In parallel, KKH was developing other hotels in the city. For example, it is still planning to open an establishment close the Santa Caterina market, under the Edition brand from Marriott International and the businessman Ian Schrager, by the end of this year.

Not in vain, hotels are one of the most sought-after assets at the moment, given the pull of the tourist sector. According to the consultancy firm CBRE, last year, investors spent €1,706 million on these assets in Spain after a record year in 2015, when they spent more than €2,000 million.

Nevertheless, when Colau’s team came to power, KKH withdrew from the hotel after her party opposed the project during its campaign and decided to build luxury apartments in its place. Barcelona’s new hotel plan, which prohibits new openings in the centre, has forced the fund to shift its focus. “New hotel projects in Barcelona are complicated. The areas where they can be built are not ideal for such use, but we have the vocation to continue operating in the city. We will adapt to the political situation and I am sure that we will continue”, said Enric Venancio, CEO at KKH. He added that besides Madrid, another key destination for the firm is Ibiza, where it started work last year on the construction of a luxury establishment.

In addition to hotels and luxury homes – (…) this fund has a third string to its bow, in the commercial segment. In an unprecedented operation in the Catalan capital, the fund is immersed in the conversion of the former Montecarlo hotel, on La Rambla, into a commercial space. (…).

Original story: El País (by Lluís Pellicer)

Translation: Carmel Drake

IESE: Demand For New Homes In Madrid Will Reach 20,000 In 2019

2 June 2015 – El Mundo

At a conference organised by the College of Civil Engineers before the local elections, Manuela Carmena, who will become the mayoress of the capital provided Esperanza Aguirre does not stand in her way, ruled out Operación Chamartín as a significant objective: “I do not think that we need 17,500 homes, we will talk about that again in 2017 or 2018, but not now”.

Her comments are interesting because just a few days later, professor José Luis Suárez, of IESE, has claimed that, during 2015 and 2016, demand for new housing in the metropolitan area of Madrid will reach 14,000 units and in 2017 alone, it will reach 13,000. Suárez is one of the foremost experts in the Spanish real estate market and during the annual symposium of the Center for International Finance (CIF), he presented the preliminary results of a study about the evolution of demand for new homes in Spain until 2028.

Suárez and his team of researchers are building a model to allow them to predict the demand for new homes in nine large Spanish urban areas. The model is driven by several factors, including the reduction in the number of people per household; financing; the rate of obsolescence of homes in use; the demand for replacement; the acquisition of second homes; employment; investment in housing; the preference for new housing; renovations; the declining population; the over-stock of housing; and rentals.

Although Spain’s “demographic winter” may lead us to expect a decrease in the number of homes, as well as in their average size, the calculations performed by Suárez for the Madrid area show that demand for new homes will reach 20,000 units in 2019. This quantity would mean demand returning to the levels last seen in 2009-2010, years when the trend lines between the purchase of new homes and the supply of new homes intersected. At the height of the bubble, in 2006, more than 40,000 new homes were sold in Madrid and during that same year, more than 60,000 units were constructed.

In fact, the excess stock of housing in Madrid is practically non-existent now. There is still excess supply in Spain, but not in places where demand is high.

Urban planning is one of the areas that the local politicians enjoy the most and where Carmena is undertaking a detailed program. She is committed to renovating and supporting operations in deprived neighbourhoods, such as the so called Operación Campamento, which is sponsored by Chinese capital. Although critics accuse the plans of being neoliberal since they serve individual interests, the fact is that urban planning is anti-liberal by definition and is fertile territory for commercialism.

(…)

Original story: El Mundo (by John Müller)

Translation: Carmel Drake