7 May 2019 – Eje Prime
The company Byblos Costa del Sol, in which Ayco holds a 90% stake, has sold the Hotel Byblos Andaluz complex, located in the municipal district of Mijas (Málaga) to an unknown buyer for an undisclosed sum.
The complex includes the hotel building itself, plus a spa and a building housing sports facilities.
Original story: Eje Prime
Translation/Summary: Carmel Drake
12 February 2019 – Press Release
INBISA Inmobiliaria closed 2018 with 378 homes delivered in privileged locations and the purchase of nine buildable plots of land. At the same time, it started 2019 with 1,500 homes under construction and it remains firm in its commitment to search for new opportunities and to its objective of developing new projects in accordance with the current market.
Thanks to the experience harvested since its creation in 1995 and its capacity to adapt to the needs of the market and its clients, in 2018, INBISA Inmobiliaria successfully achieved the objectives established at the start of the year and took another step forward in the fulfilment of its Strategic Plan 2017-2020.
In this context, last year, the company delivered three residential developments containing 379 homes in total (70% more than in 2017), located in the Madrilenian neighbourhood of Sanchinarro, Sant Cugat del Vallès (Barcelona) and the Vizcaya town of Etxebarri (…).
In terms of the new plots of land, during 2018, INBISA Inmobiliaria acquired nine plots on which to construct 600 new homes. The portfolio is distributed between Madrid, Barcelona, Málaga and Palma de Mallorca, priority enclaves for the company within its strategy to back locations with high and sustained demand in the real estate market. In the case of the Community of Madrid, INBISA Inmobiliaria backed the northwest of the capital, primarily the neighbourhoods of Valdebebas and Sanchinarro.
In Cataluña, the company continued its expansion across the metropolitan area of Barcelona, specifically, in Ripollet, Teià y Viladecans, whilst in the Balearic Islands, it acquired a plot in Palma de Mallorca. Finally, in light of the booming interest from primarily international clients in the Malagan coast, INBISA Inmobiliaria opted to purchase two plots in Mijas and Estepona (…).
All of this has allowed the company to start 2019 as one of the leading property developers in Spain, with 1,500 homes under construction distributed across different enclaves of the country and with a clear commitment to searching for new developments in residential and logistics areas this year (…).
Moreover, as part of its strategic plan for this year, the company is also planning to develop some new logistics projects in light of the great interest in the sector from domestic and international investment funds (…).
Original story: Press Release
Translation: Carmel Drake
30 October 2018 – Eje Prime
Taylor Wimpey España is going for gold on the Costa del Sol. The Spanish subsidiary of the British real estate group, which specialises in second homes for foreigners, has invested €68 million in the launch of several residential developments along the coast of Málaga.
The company has started construction of projects such as Horizon Golf, a complex comprising 55 terraced houses in Mijas; Grandview, a complex comprising sixty lofts and apartments, also in Mijas; Green Golf, a residential development comprising 48 terraced houses in Estepona; and Pier Sotogrande, a residential complex comprising 64 apartments in Sotogrande, in Cádiz.
Taylor Wimpey España’s developments are mainly aimed at British buyers looking for second homes right by golf courses. In fact, Málaga and Cádiz account for more than 71% of all the golf courses in Andalucía, according to a report from New Trends in Golf Tourism: vision to 2020, compiled by the Confederation of Entrepreneurs of Andalucía (CEA), in collaboration with the Ministry for Tourism and Sport.
Spain is still the preferred destination for Brits to buy a home, as highlighted by the UK embassy. There are around 300,000 British people in the whole of Spain and “they are still the main overseas buyers of homes, accounting for 15% of the total”, said Marc Pritchard, Director of Sales and Marketing at Taylor Wimpey España.
In the ranking of overseas nationalities who purchase homes in Spain, the British outrank the French, who account for 8.64%; the Germans (7.77%); the Belgians (6.39%); and the Swedish, who remain as historical investors, accounting for 6.38%.
Original story: Eje Prime
Translation: Carmel Drake
21 November 2017 – Expansión
The property developer Ayco plans to carry out a capital increase amounting to between €50 million and €100 million to allow new investors to acquire shares and to accelerate its business plan for the next few years. “We would like to carry out this capital increase, which has been authorised by the General Shareholders’ Meeting, at some point in 2018. For us, it will represent our definitive return to the market”, explained the firm’s President and CEO, Francisco García Beato.
Ayco is the oldest listed real estate company in Spain. The property developer, founded in 1941, with the name Inmobiliaria Alcázar and in which the Valencian businessman Onofre Miguel held a stake at the time, was one of the many victims of the real estate crisis that took hold in 2007. The property developer went on to complete a restructuring process, involving the transfer of some of its assets to Sareb at the end of 2014, and several months later, it welcomed the entry of new investors, including Alpha Moonlight, amongst others.
“After successfully completing the restructuring process, the company, which is currently listed on the “open outcry market”, is the ideal vehicle for investors looking for transparency, governance and to make their investments liquid through the stock market”, added García.
Ayco, which has own funds amounting to €8 million and a market capitalisation of €26 million, is currently working on a property development project in Palma de Mallorca, involving the construction of 24 homes on independent plots. It also owns a plot measuring 25,733 m2 between the municipalities of Gibraltar and La Línea de la Concepción, where it is building a four-star hotel with 250 rooms.
Hotel Byblos
In addition, last year, Ayco purchased Hotel Byblos (in Mijas), one of the most iconic establishments on the Costa del Sol in its heydey, for €9.75 million. This hotel, which has been closed for six years, used to be owned by the property developer Aifos, which filed for insolvency in 2009. Following a comprehensive renovation, the company plans to reopen the hotel – which will have 288 rooms, of which 65 will be newly built luxury suites – in the summer of 2019.
To this end, the firm is currently holding negotiations with hotel operators interested in participating in the project, from both a management and financing perspective. “Having a significant volume of resources tied up in a single asset has an opportunity cost. The ideal scenario would be for us to identify an operational and financial partner that would allow us to retain control and in turn participate in the generation of value for the project”.
García revealed that Ayco is negotiating with one international chain that does not currently have a presence in Spain and one Spanish hotel operator. In both cases, the partners work with real estate investors.
Ayco also owns land with a buildable surface area of 85,000 m2 in Málaga, Sevilla and Cádiz, where it plans to build around 800 homes. Moreover, it is evaluating operations to buy plots for the construction of another 1,000 homes in Andalucía, the Balearic Islands, Madrid and the north of Spain. Specifically, it plans to spend €15 million on the execution of those purchase opportunities.
The company will close 2017 with a turnover of around €5 million and a net profit of €500,000. It expects to generate earnings of €10 million in 2018 and of up to €24 million in 2022.
Original story: Expansión (by Rebeca Arroyo)
Translation: Carmel Drake
27 September 2017 – Inmodiario
The collaboration between the Spanish subsidiary of the British property developer Taylor Wimpey Plc and the Irish hotel chain FBD Hotels and Resorts is pushing ahead. On Thursday 21 September, Taylor Wimpey España and La Cala Resort convened media and real estate agencies to unveil the new show home, which represents the launch of the sale of the 2nd and 3rd phases of the Horizon Golf development in La Cala de Mijas. This new initiative between the two large companies will involve an investment of approximately €11 million.
It is worth remembering that the strategic alliance signed between the two companies will result in the construction of more than 600 homes over the next ten years, with forecast investment of more than €125,000,000.
Currently, Taylor Wimpey España is selling 2- and 3-bedroom homes in the 48-unit Horizon Golf Apartments development. Asking prices start at €280,000 and the first phase of properties, which have all been sold already, is expected to be ready by March. The second phase, comprising 18 apartments, is currently being sold.
Similarly, also in Horizon Golf Adosados in the La Cala Resort in Mijas, Taylor Wimpey is selling 55 terraced homes. The first phase has been completely sold and those homes will be handed over to their owners before the end of the year.
The second phase is currently up for sale and has been since March, with asking prices starting at €410,000. Those homes are expected to be finished by June 2018. The third phase was the one presented last week.
Through this alliance with Taylor Wimpey, La Cala Resort is not only consolidating its position as a unique golf and leisure destination in Spain, with three 18-hole golf courses, an exclusive 4-star hotel with 107 rooms, a spa measuring 1,300 m2, tennis, paddle and squash courts and a football pitch; it is also positioning itself as a leader of international residential tourism, with one of the best and most varied offers of residential homes in low-density complexes, with panoramic views over the golf courses, sea and mountain, and all this just 5 km from the city centre and Mijas Costa’s beaches, and just 30 minutes from Málaga airport (…).
Original story: Inmodiario (by Carmen Durán)
Translation: Carmel Drake
5 September 2017 – Inmodiario
Following the cancellation by the Supreme Court of the Land Use Plan (POT or ‘Plan de Ordenación del Territorio’) approved in 2006, the Governing Board of the ‘Junta de Andalucía’ has started the process to prepare a new POT for the Western Costa del Sol.
As well as addressing the formal questions behind the legal ruling, the document will update and adapt to the changes that have been seen in the region in socioeconomic terms over the last ten years. The aim is to establish a new framework for urban and land development in the area, which comprises nine municipalities and has a population of almost 400,000. In addition, the plan will set objectives and supra-municipal organisation criteria for infrastructure, green spaces, and areas of growth.
To prepare the plan, the formulation decree approved by the Board establishes the creation of a drafting committee, which will comprise representatives of the central and regional administrations, as well as from the Provincial Council and the Town Halls in the district.
In general terms, the POT identifies those areas that should be protected from the urbanisation process due to their environmental, scenic cultural value, and those that should be allocated to the development of economic activities and the location of supra-municipal equipment and facilities, given their strategic value. All urban plans and public and private initiatives must adhere to these guidelines.
The POT for the Western Costa del Sol includes the following municipalities within its scope: Benahavís, Casares, Estepona, Fuengirola, Istán, Manilva, Marbella, Mijas and Ojén (…).
Original story: Inmodiario
Translation: Carmel Drake
16 January 2017 – Málaga Hoy
Investors have set their sights on Málaga and are placing a special emphasis on the hotel sector, in light of the visitor and occupancy rate data being registered month after month there, both in the capital as well as along the rest of the Costa del Sol, with the consequent yields that they are generating.
These investors, which include domestic and international companies and funds spent €184 million on eight major hotel operations in the province last year, according to comments made on Thursday by Gonzalo Gutiérrez, Analyst in the Hotels Department at the consultancy firm Irea, in his presentation in Madrid of the Overview of the Hotel Investment Market in Spain in 2016. This amount is less than the €223 million registered in 2015, but Gutiérrez highlighted that all investment records were broken in Spain during 2015, which means that the volume recorded in 2016 “was very good”.
To calculate these figures, Irea includes the sale and purchase of hotels that already exist, as well as of buildings and land that are acquired for conversion into hotels. However, it does not include amounts relating to possible renovations performed at each establishment or for each project. Of the eight operations completed in the province in 2016, six involved the purchase of hotels already in operation and two involved the conversion into hotels of buildings that were previously used for other purposes.
Málaga capital accounted for half of those projects. The Hotel Tryp Málaga Alameda changed hands for the second time in less than a year. Merlin Properties, which recently purchased a portfolio containing several hotels in Spain, including the Malagan establishment, from Testa, sold the same package of hotels to the French investment fund Fonciére des Murs on 30 December, and communicated the sale officially on 2 January. Merlin sold 19 hotels in Spain to the French fund for €535 million. Gutiérrez also said that another hotel was sold in the capital but that he was unable to reveal the name or the amount paid for confidentiality reasons. Also in Málaga capital, the German group Activum purchased the Palacio del Marqués de la Sonora on Calle Granada to convert it into a hotel and another group acquired the building at number 10 on Calle Larios for the same purpose.
In the rest of the province, there were four other major hotel operations in 2016. The most talked about was the sale of the Hotel Byblos in Mijas, which was acquired by the Madrilenian group Ayco for €60 million. The plan is to renovate the property, open it again and restore the luxury tourism market that it used to serve decades ago. The Incosol, another iconic establishment, which had filed for bankruptcy, was acquired by a company owned by Banco Sabadell called HI Partners, for €20 million. Meanwhile, a domestic group purchased Hotel Las Palomas in Torremolinos; and Hotel Costa Park in Torremolinos, which has 388 rooms, was included in the package that Merlin sold to the French group.
Gutiérrez forecasts that 2017 will be positive given that “the Vincci Estrella del Mar was sold for more than €20 million and that other operations are being analysed, which will be closed this year”. The expert noted that Málaga is the fifth most attractive destination for hotel investors after Madrid, Barcelona, the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands.
Original story: Málaga Hoy (by Ángel Recio)
Transltion: Carmel Drake
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