15 July 2019 – Richard D. K. Turner
Grupo NYESA is selling a portfolio of flats and villas in Valencia, Madrid, Toledo, Cantabria, Murcia and Extremadura, with more than 20,000 m2 of constructed surface area. The properties include apartments, modern single-family homes, charming houses, penthouses. Prices range from 25,000 to more than 230,000 euros.
Original Story: Idealista
25 February 2019 – Alimarket
TM Grupo Inmobiliaria has just added a new project to its portfolio in Murcia, which is going to be located in Águilas and which will be constructed over the next ten years.
In this way, last Thursday 21 February, the firm presented the urban plan know as the Partial Plan SUNP-II Costa Playa de la Cola alongside the Town Hall of Águilas. The project will involve an investment of €307 million, as well as the creation of 5,133 jobs over the ten years that its execution is expected to take place. Present at the event were Mari Carmen Moreno, mayor of Águilas (pictured above, second from left); Tomás Consentino, councillor for Town Planning (pictured above, second from right); Cristóbal Ruiz, Director of Development at TM Grupo Inmobiliario (pictured above, far left); and Agustín Rodríguez, architect of the project (pictured above, far right).
The Partial Plan SUNP-II Costa Playa de la Cola in numbers
Specifically, the future development, which will be similar to Mar de Pulpí in San Juan de los Terreros (Almería) forecasts the construction of 2,313 tourist homes in total, and also reserves one plot for hotel use. Moreover, and with the aim of becoming an example of sustainable development, the project will dedicate 270,000 m2 to a public natural park, which will include more than 7km of scenic routes along natural paths with lookouts and picnic areas. It will also have 130,000 m2 of public parks and gardens (…).
Grupo TM Inmobiliario, which has set itself the objective of handing over 4,000 homes between 2018 and 2020, is also present in the hotel segment (…) and recorded sales of €222.53 million in 2017, up by 45.8%.
Original story: Alimarket (by Mónica de la Fuente)
Translation: Carmel Drake
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
10 November 2018 – La Verdad
Land is moving in the Region of Murcia. But it is not because of an earthquake. In this case, it is due to a shake-up of the real estate business, launched by the US fund manager Blackstone and Banco Santander, which have put land up for sale, spanning around 16.5 million m2 and located in different municipalities throughout the Region.
Yesterday, around thirty property developers and executives from the sector in Murcia expressed their interest in finding about more about the offer by attending a professional meeting that the firm Aliseda, the former real estate arm of Banco Popular – absorbed by Santander – organised in Murcia, in addition to others that requested information in this regard as they were unable to attend the meeting.
Of the different lots offered, there are plots in Murcia, Cartagena, Águilas, San Pedro del Pinatar, Yecla and Torre Pacheco, amongst other locations. Sources at Aliseda highlight that more than 11 million m2 of the total portfolio comprises buildable land or land under management, which is ready to be built on. And although most of the plots are urban residential, there is also some industrial and hotel land. Similarly, the portfolio includes some buildings and unfinished urban developments due to the effects of the crisis.
The President of the Association of Property Developers from the Region of Murcia (Apirm), José Hernández, acknowledged to La Verdad that “there is interest in the market, and so companies are going to value all of the assets, although evidently, those with greater certainty are arousing the most interest, depending on the profitability involved and taking into account key factors such as location”. He also added that “long-term investments must be taken into account”.
This divestment by Blackstone and Santander (which hold stakes of 51% and 49%, respectively) follows the operation involving Project Origin, also launched last month, comprising the sale of 2.1 million m2 of land all over Spain with an estimated value of more than €500 million, of which the Murcian region accounts for the largest part, almost 290,000 m2, with a value of €43 million. Specifically, that comprises 18 assets, on which 2,651 homes could be built. The peculiarity of this initiative is that the sale process has been organised through an electronic dataroom to which thousands of investors may have access.
In terms of the meeting yesterday, Aliseda’s regional director for Levante, Vicente Brotóns, together with the regional commercial delegate for the land area of the real estate group, Joaquín Ivars, were responsible for showing the entire portfolio to the Murcian business leaders.
Now, it remains to be seen which real offers are going to be confirmed, as well as to check whether they will be formalised immediately, taking into account that the US fund manager, having teamed up with the Spanish bank and created the largest real estate empire in the country, with assets worth more than €20 billion, seems determined to divest its land as soon as possible. “It is clear that they are ruling out developing the land themselves, they are going to limit themselves to managing the plots to sell them”, concluded Hernández.
Original story: La Verdad (by Zenón Guillén)
Translation: Carmel Drake
16 October 2018 – Eje Prime
Torre Medi in Murcia has a new owner. Grupo Zambudio has acquired the building, which stands 60 m tall, where it will open its new corporate headquarters. More than 230 employees will work in the offices.
The property is located on Avenida Juan Carlos I and comprises sixteen floors plus a terrace. Similarly, the asset has three underground floors, two of which are used for commercial purposes (spanning 1,500 m2 in total) and a third for parking spaces, according to reports from Murciadiario.
The office building was designed by the architect Fransico Sola and used to belong to Banco Pastor. Promoted at the time by the developer Medi, the asset is located close to the Televisión Murciana building, which is also owned by Grupo Zambudio.
Original story: Eje Prime
Translation: Carmel Drake
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
18 May 2018 – Voz Pópuli
Project Quasar Investment, the company created by Santander and Blackstone to bring together Banco Popular’s real estate assets worth €30 billion, has absorbed the company ‘Gestión de Activos Castellana 40’ (GAC40), whose debt amounting to €220 million Popular forgave on 30 December 2014, a move that caught the attention of the European Central Bank.
According to sources familiar with the operation, GAC40 filed for creditor pre-bankruptcy after it found itself in the cause of dissolution, but that measure was cancelled after the formal agreement was reached to transfer Popular’s assets to Project Quasar Investment in March. Sources consulted describe the operation as a “bargain”, given that Santander and Blackstone have effectively acquired GAC40’s assets at a discount of almost 69% and without the burdens that was weighing it down.
The Hispania Buildings in the centres of Murcia and Alicante are just two of the assets owned by GAC40. The company also owns the following shopping centres: La Fuensanta in Móstoles (Madrid); Juan de Borbón (Murcia); and Hispania, in Orihuela. Moreover, it has one supermarket in Totana (Murcia) and another one in Vinarós (Castellón), as well as a hotel in Cartagena. Although most of the properties are occupied, the mortgage charges that had been hanging over them since the real estate boom meant that their sale was unfeasible, according to the sources consulted.
The properties form part of Grupo Hispania, which the businessman Trinitario Casanova, the same person who agreed the sale of Edificio España in Madrid to the Riu group last year, sold in 2008 to José Ramón Carabante – the former shareholder of real estate companies from the boom and the founder of the only Spanish team to have operated in the Formula 1 arena, Hispania – for €650 million.
Carabante abandoned the management of Grupo Hispania in 2011 and was replaced by José Fernando Martínez Blanco, an expert in the liquidation and restructuring of companies. According to the sources consulted, Martínez Blanco was appointed by Banco Popular to acquire Carabante’s companies.
Martínez Blanco changed the registered name of the companies acquired from Carabante to ‘Gestión de Activos Castellana 40’ (GAC40) in 2012. The firm was weighed down by a debt amounting to €562.5 million, with Banco Popular as the main creditor. Until the absorption of GAC40 by Santander and Blackstone, Martínez Blanco had continued as the administrator of the company.
Forgive and refinance
GAC40 has remained active all these years thanks to financial support from Popular, which has been forgiving and refinancing the company’s debt year after year.
On 30 December 2014, Banco Popular’s Board of Directors decided to waive GAC40’s debt. That decision caught the attention of the European Central Bank, which conducted an inspection and identified “deficiencies” in the authorisation of the operation, as this newspaper reported.
The most recent refinancing of GAC40’s debt happened a month after the intervention of Banco Popular and its sale to Santander. On 6 July 2017, the company agreed “as the primary financial creditor”, to “convert the debt into a participation loan amounting to €19.4 million”.
With that debt conversion agreed just a month after Popular’s intervention, GAC40 was able to correct the critical situation that it found itself in. According to the company’s accounts for 2016, to which this newspaper has had access through Insight View, the company was in cause of dissolution with a negative goodwill balance of €221 million and financial debt of almost €250 million.
Original story: Voz Pópuli (by Alberto Ortín)
Translation: Carmel Drake
23 April 2018 – El Confidencial
Sacyr wants to take the conflict with the Region of Murcia over the private airport in Corvera to its logical conclusion. The construction company chaired by Manuel Manrique is claiming €518.5 million from the Regional (Partido Popular) government for the suspension of the concession to operate the airport infrastructure, which has ended up in the hands of the public entity Aena. The company in which the Murcian owner of El Pozo also owns a stake is demanding twice the amount that it cost it to construct the property.
According to an internal document from Sacyr, the ‘Concessionaire Company of the Airport for the Region of Murcia’ (‘Sociedad Concesionaria del Aeropuerto de la Región de Murcia’ or SCAM) filed a report on 17 January urging the autonomous government to issue a resolution to award the concessionaire a settlement of €518.5 million. That petition comes almost five years after the Government, now chaired by Fernando López Miras, terminated the contract for an alleged breach and a month after the Murican Executive agreed the management of the private airport with Aena – which is controlled by the State – for the next 25 years.
The claim is based on three concepts. The first relates to the investments and costs incurred by SCAM, in which Sacyr holds an 80% stake, for the development and execution of the concession contract. That sum amounted to €256.69 million as at 22 March 2016, the date immediately prior to when the Region of Murcia took ownership of the asset, plus an additional €1.97 million for the maintenance work carried out by the construction company until 30 September last year.
Sacyr and its shareholders, which include Banco Sabadell and Grupo Fuertes (El Pozo), the largest industrial group in Murcia, are also claiming €35.1 million in extra costs borne by the company resulting from the early termination of the concession contract, amounts that “must also be updated at the date of their reimbursement and/or settlement”. Finally, the company is demanding €224.82 million for the profit forgone or forecast loss, as assessed by an independent expert, whose identity has not been revealed by Sacyr.
The Corvera airport was awarded to Sacyr in 2007 (…). Nevertheless, after construction was completed in 2012, it could not be opened due to insurmountable differences that were so great they even led to the intervention of the Guardia Civil.
After long disputes (…) and some unsuccessful negotiations, the regional Government expropriated the airport and awarded it again at the end of last year. The winner was Aena (…), which undertook to manage the airport in exchange for closing the San Javier military airfield, closer to the Mar Menor and just 30 km from Corvera.
The new airport, which is expected to begin operation in December, is going to be called Juan de la Cierva, in honour of the Murcian man who invented the gyroplane. The infrastructure is expected to receive 800,000 international tourists during its first four years and will be able to handle 3.5 million passengers per year. Initial forecasts indicate sales of €495.8 million during the 25-year concession. Its largest competitor will continue to be the airport in Alicante, which handles more than 12 million users per year.
Original story: El Confidencial (by Agustín Marco)
Translation: Carmel Drake
25 May 2017 – El Economista
The Costa del Sol is the stretch of the Mediterranean coast where the largest number of new homes for sale can be found, according to a report prepared by ST Sociedad de Tasación, which analyses a total of 67 towns along the coasts of Girona, Tarragona, Alicante, Murcia and Málaga.
ST has analysed 456 new housing developments in total and has identified 5,594 units for sale, along the five coasts analysed. According to the study, the average price of these homes amounts to €210,760.
In fact, the study shows that the coasts that are located towards the South of Spain have the most homes up for sale, compared with the coasts located towards the North, and it reveals that the Málagan coast has a total of 2,482 new homes on the market.
Specifically, the report highlights that along the Costa Brava, Dorada, Blanca, Cálida and del Sol, there are 5,594 new housing units in total, however, they are not distributed in a homogeneous way along these coastlines. In addition to the homes in Málaga, the other dwellings are located in Alicante (2,100 homes), Tarragona (378 homes), Murcia (345 homes) and Girona (279 homes).
ST also said that the supply is unequal within these coastal regions and that Murcia and Málaga are the areas where the available housing supply is distributed in the most balanced way.
The pending supply for sale does not exceed 70% of the properties developed, although that percentage is higher in Altafulla, Cambrils and Cunil, all towns in Tarragona. Along the coasts of Girona and Alicante, only two towns in each one, Blanes and Finestrat, have a volume of supply that is similar to these towns.
The study reflects that there are four coasts with an average house price of between €150,000 and €200,000, whilst in the case of the Costa del Sol, that figure soars to €353,000.
Although on the Costa Dorada and the Costa Cálida, there is not a single dwelling being sold for €500,000, on the Costa del Sol, 287 homes are on the market for that price, accounting for 12% of the total. Moreover, that figure decreases to 4% in the case of the Costa Blanca and 2% on the Costa Brava.
The average surface area of the homes for sale is 112 m2. Nevertheless, the homes on the Costa del Sol exceed that average (145 m2). Meanwhile, the towns on the Costa Brava (100 m2) offer the smallest homes in general, followed by those on the Costa Blanca (102 m2) and the Costa Brava (103 m2).
In terms of the type of home, only 60% of the dwellings on each coast are family homes and almost none of the properties are studios (i.e. few have no bedrooms), given that most homes typically have one or two bedrooms.
Taking into consideration the construction status of the homes, ST has recorded that the majority (60%) of the properties up for sale have already been completed, more than 25% are still under construction and 10% have not been started yet.
Original story: El Economista
Translation: Carmel Drake
25 May 2017 – Expansión
Klépierre has strengthened its presence in Spain with the purchase of the Nueva Condomina shopping centre (Murcia), which is worth €233 million, according to a statement issued by the French multi-national.
Specifically, as a result of this acquisition, Nueva Condomina is now the third most important asset in Klépierre’s Spanish portfolio in terms of net rental income.
The property covers a surface area of 110,000 m2, split between the shopping centre (73,000 m2) and the retail park (37,000 m2).
Last year, the Murcian shopping centre received more than 11 million visitors and recorded store sales of €257 million. Tenants include several brands from the Inditex group, as well as Mango and Fnac.
Original story: Expansión
Translation: Carmel Drake
Portugal 
Italy 
Greece 
