Mazabi to Invest €40 Million in New Co-Living Development in Madrid

8 November 2019 – The Spanish asset management Mazabi intends to invest a total of €40 million in converting the properties located at Calle de los Madrazo, 6, 8 and 10 into 25 luxury co-living flats with a total of between 60 and 80 rooms.

Mazabi is currently negotiating with potential partners to operate the development. The firm is looking to focus on three-to-twelve month rental contracts, with the development opening in the second half of 2020.

The building, which the firm acquired three years ago, has 8,000 square meters of surface area for flats, with another 2,300 m2 for stores. Of the latter, Mazabi is looking to create a flexible workspace, stores and restaurants.

Original Story: Eje Prime – Marc Vidal Ordeig

Adaptation/Translation: Richard D. K. Turner

El Corte Inglés Considers Creating a Socimi to List its Real Estate Assets on the Stock Market

15 February 2019 – Modaes.es

El Corte Inglés is looking for solutions for its portfolio of real estate assets. The Qatari sheikh Hamad Al Thani, the third largest shareholder in the Madrilenian department store group, has proposed the creation of a Socimi to manage the rental of its assets.

The plan proposed by Al Thani, who entered the company’s share capital last summer, involves creating a company in which El Corte Inglés would own a 51% stake. The remaining 49% of the shares would be listed on the stock market.

The Qatari investor already proposed this solution to the previous President of the group, Dimas Gimeno, but it was not successful then, according to El Economista. For the time being, the Board of Directors of El Corte Inglés has not received a formal petition regarding the plan.

The real estate portfolio of El Corte Inglés is worth €17.1 billion, according to a report from Tinsa. The department stores and hypermarkets are worth €15.0 billion, whilst the warehouses, offices and mixed-use buildings are worth €1.1 billion. Finally, the high street establishments are valued at €1 billion.

It is estimated that, in the event that the operation proposed by the sheikh goes ahead, the valuation of the assets could amount to half their current value, around €8.2 billion, according to Tinsa.

In parallel, the group is continuing to work on the sale of 130 real estate assets worth €2 billion in conjunction with the consultancy firm PwC. The property that El Corte Inglés wants to divest now comprises land, offices and buildings defined as non-strategic. Those assets also include some logistics centres.

The objective of these divestments is to reduce the group’s debt so that it can obtain a level of solvency that will allow it to raise financing in the capital markets at a lower price. In this sense, Núñez de la Rosa, the President of the group, has committed to reducing the group’s liabilities by €1 billion in twelve months.

Currently, the real estate portfolio of El Corte Inglés comprises 94 shopping centres, which account for 87% of the total value of the company’s assets. Two of those properties are valued at more than €500 million each, and another two are worth between €400 million and €500 million each.

The department store group recorded EBITDA of €335 million during the first half of 2018, up by 4.4% YoY. Between January and August, the company recorded turnover of €7.6 billion, up by 0.4% YoY.

Original story: Modaes.es

Translation: Carmel Drake

Savills: Occupancy Rate of Málaga’s Prime Offices Reaches 90%

15 March 2018 – Eje Prime

The sun is shining over the office market in Málaga once again. The capital of the Costa del Sol achieved an occupancy rate of 90% in its prime office area, a figure that has not been seen since the start of the crisis.

The Málagan office market experienced significant demand last year in the central and financial districts of the city. In both areas, there was a notable reduction in office stock and rental prices rose to €18/m2 on the central street Calle Larios, according to a report from Savills Aguirre Newman.

In addition to Calle Larios, thoroughfares such as Corte-Inglés-Vialia recorded an increase in rents for spaces in the area up to €13/m2-€14/m2.

The main driver of the office market in 2017 was, precisely, the real estate sector. It was followed by technology companies, which, as usual, requested space in the most central parts of the city for offices with surface areas of less than 1,000 m2. Nevertheless, the tech companies that needed more space opened their offices in the Andalucía Technological Park in Málaga, according to the study.

Construction companies, law firms and telemarketing companies are also players with significant demand in the city’s office market, in which Savills Aguirre Newman has brokered operations spanning more than 10,000 m2 of office space over the last 15 months.

The consultancy firm indicates, moreover, that this trend is going to continue in 2018, which means that buildings that have been available for almost a decade will finally be occupied by new tenants. This growth in demand will lead to a record volume in terms of the number of rental transactions in the Málaga office park.

For this reason, Savills Aguirre Newman considers that, given the positive trend for the next few months in the office market, there is a need to develop new projects and to convert existing spaces in order to expand the office stock in Málaga. The Head of the Office Market at the consultancy firm in Andalucía, Aranzazu García, believes that “it is extremely important to identify an area of the city where we can establish future projects”, although, she says that “they must be conceived as exclusive-use spaces, to replace the mixed-use buildings that traditionally have carried a lot of weight in the city, with a market share of close to 50% in the city centre”.

In this sense, the executive believes that “the new projects must be positioned architecturally to house the corporate headquarters of international companies, to respond to their needs in terms of technical features, efficiency and sustainability standards, and locations that allow easy connections with the rest of the city, the airport, the AVE station and the main public transport services”.

Málaga’s Silicon Valley  

In addition to requesting new projects, García reflects on the use that may be given to the Andalucía Technological Park, located in Málaga. The director of Savills Aguirre Newman in the autonomous region calls on the competent authorities to collaborate in this area to position it as “the ideal enclave for the office market in the city or as the Silicon Valley of Málaga”.

In this regard, the executive hopes that they will resolve some of “the problems generated by the inadequate public transport network, with no forecast for a future metro line, service area and parking for users”.

Original story: Eje Prime (by J. Izquierdo)

Translation: Carmel Drake