Tag: PP

Countdown to Los Berrocales: Investment of €4.4bn Over 20 Years

18 February 2019 – Eje Prime

More millions for Los Berrocales. Joaquín Gómez, manager of the Los Berrocales Compensation Board, expects investment of up to €4.4 billion from the owners and future housing developers over 20 years. That amount will be added to the €200 million that has already been invested by the owners in pipelines, collectors, infrastructures, service roads and earth movement work.

The proposal that has been reached with the owners of Los Berrocales is that the neighbourhood will be constructed in phases. First, phases I and III, which are expected to involve the construction of 10,000 homes over 10 years. The rest of the construction work will be carried out in the following decade. Up to 100,000 homes from the plan, located in Los Cerros and Valdecarros, will be suspended due to the requests filed for compensation against the Town Hall, according to reports from Cinco Días.

Nevertheless, the approval of the agreement does not mean that the construction work is going to begin immediately. In fact, Gómez expects that construction of the homes could begin in 2022 or 2023. For now, there are no threats of suspensions for political reasons given that Ahora Madrid, Ciudadanos and the PP are all in favour of the project. The position of Pepu Hernández, the likely socialist candidate, if he is elected mayor, remains to be seen.

The owners of the 8.3 million m2 of land include Habitat, Pryconsa, Santander, Caixabank and Liberbank. Another of the major landowners is the Town Hall of Madrid, which holds almost 8% of the plots.

Original story: Eje Prime 

Translation: Carmel Drake

New Urban Planning PGOU Approved for Málaga

25 November 2017 – Diario Sur

Following the annulment of the PGOU approved in 2010, the route map towards the normalisation of urban planning in Marbella has taken a step forward with the initial approval of some new urban planning rules. The latest document seeks to “update” the plan approved in 1986, which is still valid now and which will serve as the basis for drafting the new PGOU that the city needs. The process, which was approved by the plenary with votes in favour from the government’s team (PP and OSP) and the PSOE, and votes against from IU and Costa del Sol Sí Puede, must now be completed with text from the provincial delegation of the Junta’s Environment Board, prior to the issuance of a mandatory report. Subsequently, it will be presented to the plenary again for definitive approval (…).

In practice, and as the councillor for Land Planning, María Francisca Caracuel, explained, modifications have been made to the framework, amongst others, “which affect many homes” and which mean that “extensions, improvements and renovations will now be allowed” on buildings that were left out of the guidelines after the 2010 plan was annulled.

Another change will affect plots of land, for which it is not currently possible to grant construction licences because no approved urban planning projects exist, in accordance with the plan approved in 1986 “even though, in reality, they are already partially developed”. In these cases, the common rules open the door for the plots to be developed, by submitting an urbanisation work project “which is less complex and which can be processed in less time”.

The new rules will authorise hospitality use on the first floors of homes in the Casco Antiguo (Old Town) and will allow hotel establishments to expand their facilities onto adjoining plots even if the use of those sites is not strictly for hotel purposes (…).

Established urban plots

In the field of urban planning, the plenary also ratified (with votes in favour from the government team, against from IU and CSSP, and abstentions from the PSOE) the proposal made by the Councillor for Land Planning to incorporate established urban plots into the urban development plans, after they have been declared as such by binding legal rulings, administrative declarations, own acts, plenary agreements or by the Local Government. The councillor insisted that, given that it does not require any structural changes, there is no need for the document to be subjected to a new public consultation period, as had been requested by the other municipal groups.

In other matters, the municipal corporation also gave the green light, unanimously, to the proposal from the deputy mayor of San Pedro Alcántara, Rafael Piña (…) to begin the paperwork for the construction of a new secondary school in the south of San Pedro (…).

Finally, the plenary also approved, amongst other items, a proposal from IU to create a network of roads to connect the urbanisations between Bello Horizonte and Elviria, to form a 10km network that will offer a safe alternative to the A-7 motorway, which is “always packed and dangerous”.

Original story: Diario Sur (by Mónica Pérez)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Ciudadanos Blocks the PP’s House Building Plans for Alcobendas

24 November 2017 – El Confidencial

Ciudadanos has decided to block one of the most important urban planning operations left to be developed in the Community of Madrid, specifically, in the town of Alcobendas (114,000 residents). On Friday, the PP, which has a minority government, submitted a new attempt to the Urban Planning committee to approve the partial plan for Los Carriles, a new neighbourhood where the plan is to build 8,600 homes. The PP, with 12 councillors, who have been trying to get this project off the ground for years, do not have support from the majority opposition parties – PSOE, IU, UPYD and Sí se Puede—, which comprise another 12 councillors.

The decision lies in the hands of Ciudadanos (three councillors). Previously, those party members supported the PP’s plans (…) but they decided to vote against the project in the meeting on Friday and will do so again in the plenary session on Tuesday. (…). This new block puts in limbo the development of 2,172,909 m2 of land (5% of the surface area of Alcobendas) and business of around €2 billion.

The owners of the affected land include the town hall, the Archdiocese of Madrid and several landowners from the municipality, such as the Serrano Alberca family and the company San José del Taller de Nazaret, which owns 320,691 m2 of land, making it the largest individual landowner in this sought-after development.

A lot of money and a lot of interests have been buried in Los Carriles for 14 years now, waiting for the various political parties to reach an agreement. The initial idea for this development arose under the Socialist Government of José Caballero, who, in 2003, backed by the IU, started the first version of the project, which included 14,000 homes, 50% of which were due to be social housing properties. Nevertheless, that project never received the blessing of the regional Government, led at the time by Esperanza Aguirre.

Four years later, the PP took over the town hall once again and started a new plan, but with 40% fewer homes (8,600 in total). (…). But, even though the PP had an absolute majority in Alcobendas and in the Community of Madrid for many years, the project never ended up being finalised. (…) until September 2016 when the PP found an unexpected ally, the only councillor from Izquierda Unida.

The plenary for this month was called to approve the partial plan, which increased the number of social housing properties to 3,870. But the Madrilenian management of the IU did not support its councillor and he had to back down in the end. It was then that Ciudadanos called the project an “urban planning outrage”. “We do not support it. There is no sufficient demand for 9,000 homes. We do not want to build up Alcobendas to the hilt” (…).

In the face of the block, the PP decided to create a working group to try to reach an agreement, focusing in particular on Ciudadanos, its investiture partner.

In the end, after much too-ing and fro-ing, the agreement was signed between Ciudadanos and PP (…). The PP says that it has started to fulfil the agreement (…) but Ciudadanos does not see it like that (…) and has accused the PP of cheating them. “The matter has reached the Assembly of Madrid this week and, there, the Director General of Urban Planning in the Community of Madrid has explained that the partial plan does not comply with the law (…).

As a result, Los Carriles is going to continue in a dry ditch. Moreover, Sí se Puede and environmental groups say that the planned development is going to harm the ecosystem in Valdelatas, where there are a lot of oak trees and a sizeable population of wild boars. The project includes plans to build 800 luxury homes next to the regional park, a protected space. Without forgetting that the plan’s mobility study reveals that the new neighbourhood will add 156,932 daily journeys to the municipality, of which more than 95,000 would be in private vehicles. That would collapse the area even further (the exit to the north of Madrid from the A-1) which already suffers from serious traffic problems.

Original story: El Confidencial (by David Fernández and Ruth Ugalde)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Valencia’s PSOE Sells Its HQ In Valencia For €5.8M

30 October 2017 – Expansión

After almost a year on the market, the PSPV-PSOE’s headquarters on Calle Blanquerías in Valencia has a new owner. The spokesman for the PSPV, Jorge Rodríguez, said on Friday that the party has agreed to accept an offer amounting to €5.8 million, which means that it will have to vacate its headquarters during the next year.

The buyer is the hotel chain Myr, belonging to the Comatel group, which specialises in recreational machines, according to El Mundo. The PSPV has certainly taken advantage of the rising real estate cycle, given that the initial offers for the property did not even amount to €5 million.

The Valencian Socialist party will use the revenues raised to cover its massive debts, which amount to more than €7 million after its electoral results in recent years have led to a reduction in its income. The Valencian PP has already had to abandon its regional headquarters for the same reason.

Original story: Expansión

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

Rajoy Will Give Tax Breaks To Banks That Lease Empty Homes

29 November 2016 – Expansión

Housing will be one of the first major agreements of the new legislature. The PP has reached “an agreement with the opposition” to approve a non-binding proposal to establish guidelines for real estate policy until 2021. This initiative, which will be debated by the Development Committee in Congress on Wednesday, includes an important new feature: it will incentivise the occupation of empty homes owned by financial institutions, public companies, Public Administrations and “other owners” by the “most vulnerable” families. For example, those on low incomes and those who have been evicted from their homes.

To achieve this, “tax incentives, agreements with large home owners and exchanges of land” will be approved, according to sources in the Popular Parliamentary Group. “All of the parties support the agreement”, which will give rise to a new Housing Plan, to be agreed, as always, with all of the regional governments.

The tax benefits that will be approved have not been defined yet because the PP still needs to agree them with the opposition. Moreover, the Ministry of Development, which is piloting the reform is in the middle of handing over powers and is not in any rush. “The left-wing parties like the idea. The agreement that we are going to reach on Wednesday is generic and we will have to do further work to iron out the details”, say the same sources.

In the face of initiatives to penalise owners of empty homes, such as those introduced in Cataluña, País Vasco and Andalucía, the new housing agreement will seek to “promote mechanisms of cooperation so that available unoccupied homes, owned by the Public Administrations, public companies, financial institutions and other owners may be occupied by the most vulnerable members of the population” according to the text in the Proposal, which has received a favourable report from the Ministry of Development.

The banks will be the main target for these measures. The appraisal company Tinsa calculates that the financial institutions own more than 80% of the stock of empty homes. In its most recent report, based on data as at 2015, Tinsa calculates that the banks own a surplus of more than 300,000 (empty) homes. In addition, the ratings agency Fitch says that at the end of last year, the financial sector owned “around 150,000 unsellable (new) homes”.

With this reform, it will be much easier for banks to free up their empty homes. Firstly, because they will receive guaranteed income from the State in the event that they allocate them as social rental properties. Secondly, because although the lease payments will be relatively low, the tax benefit will have a compensatory effect. Thirdly, because when the entities exchange properties for land, they will remove those assets that are hard to divest from their balance sheets and they will only include new properties in better locations and with better outlooks.

INE estimates that there are 3.5 million empty homes in Spain, but that almost all of them are owned by individuals. Tinsa says that, of all of the residential properties constructed since 2008 (that have never been lived in), only around 11,670 are owned by professionals, but they are not being marketed. That figure represents 3.9% of the total commercial stock (389,000 homes in 2015). (…).

Original story: Expansión (by Juanma Lamet)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Cifuentes Presents New Land Act For Community Of Madrid

25 October 2016 – Expansión

Yesterday, the President of the Community of Madrid, Cristina Cifuentes (pictured above), submitted the draft bill for the new Law governing Urban Planning and Land in the Community of Madrid, an initiative long demanded by the Madrilenian real estate sector. The bill aims to clarify and organise the management of urban planning in the region, whereby replacing the existing regional Land Act, which dates back to 2001.

During its 15 years of life, the existing text has been partially modified 15 times, which, as the Ministry of the Environment, Local Administration and Land Planning itself admits, has ended up making it “difficult to understand and interpret”.

“Circumstances have changed considerably over the last 15 years and so the content of the Land Act has been completely distorted”, acknowledged Cifuentes yesterday during the presentation of the new draft bill. “This new law has been put together as a single piece of legislation to give coherence to the urban planning rules”, she added.

The regional Government plans to submit the Draft Bill to the Assembly before the end of the year and, according to Cifuentes, it hopes to obtain “the maximum consensus and support possible”. It is something that seems almost impossible, taking into account that eight months ago both the PSOE and Podemos left the technical and political tables that have been managing the text presented yesterday.

This was not helped either by the fact that Ciudadanos decided to put “an end” to these working tables in a unilateral way “to look for a new consensus”, according to an announcement last week from its spokesman in the Assembly, Ignacio Aguado. The orange party’s idea is to look for maximum political support to approve the law, and so it is advocating that the work of these tables be transferred to the specific report about the Land Act, which already exists in the Assembly.

“We want a Law that represents the consensus of all of the political groups and not another piece of steam roller legislation from the PP”, said Aguado. “Ciudadanos is going to fight to ensure that there is real citizen participation and genuine transparency in the way that urban plans are prepared. We want to put an end to the current opacity”, said the spokesman. (…).

New elements

In addition to the goal of making urban planning “more agile and transparent”, the Draft Bill presented yesterday by Cifuentes includes some important innovations. The most notable is its commitment to urban renovation and regeneration, compared with the model of expansionist urban planning under the previous legislation.

In this sense, one of the most innovative aspects is the fact that cities in the region will have the opportunity to undertake the renovation of large areas without the need to modify their General Plans. (…).

The new text retains the categories of urban land – buildable and non-buildable, but eliminates the category of unsectorised buildable land, which becomes non-buildable common land. Nothing can be built on this kind of land, under any circumstances, unless its classification is changed in the general plan upon request by the town halls themselves. “The aim is to achieve a more sustainable urban planning approach that avoids unnecessary urban planning developments”, say sources at the Ministry.

Other novelties include the creation of a Simplified General Urban Plan, designed for towns with fewer than 5,000 inhabitants and budgets of less than €6 million. Those towns may choose to adopt this framework, which is more flexible and agile than an ordinary plan, provided that the work focuses on historical centres and does not include any new developments. This framework may be applied to almost half of the 179 municipalities in the region.

Original story: Expansión (byLuis M. De Ciria and Carlota G. Velloso)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Zaragoza’s New TorreVillage Outlet Will Create 1,000 Jobs

25 October 2016 – Expansión

The new TorreVillage outlet, which is being driven by the owners of Pikolin, will create 1,000 jobs over six years

TorreVillage, the outdoor shopping outlet that is due to be built in Zaragoza, has finally been given the green light after a year and a half of debate. The concerns of Zaragoza en Común (ZEC), the political party that now leads the Town Hall in the Aragonese capital, have been set at bay by an alternative proposal, which has been backed by votes from the opposition parties: PP, PSOE and Ciudadanos.

The project involves an investment of €60 million and the property developers expect to create more than 1,000 direct jobs during the first six years of activity. The initiative is being drive by Iberebro, the real estate company owned by the Solans family, which also owns Pikolin. The outlet will be constructed on a site that has, until now, housed the central headquarters of that company, which is moving to the Zaragoza Logistics Platform (Plaza).

The shopping outlet will comprise a fashion village, an international centre for business innovation, a restaurant and concert area, an area for large format retail stores and 2,000 free parking spaces. It will house approximately 90 stores from leading brands, offering discounts of between 30% and 70% and its goal is to complete with the villages already in operation in Madrid, Barcelona and Toulouse.

The goal is to attract visitors from Aragón, País Vasco, La Rioja, Navarra, Soria, Lérida and the south of France, as well as to capture some of the traffic travelling to the Pyrenees from Madrid and the Community of Valencia. In this way, it seeks to benefit from the geostrategic location of Zaragoza, by adopting a similar philosophy to the one followed by the developers of the Puerto Venecia shopping centre, also located in the Aragonese capital, which opened in 2012 and which is one of the largest shopping centres in Europe.

Original story: Expansión (by Marcos Español)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Alquiler Seguro Prepares Its Socimi’s Debut On The MAB

10 June 2016 – Expansión

The first Socimi specialising in the residential rental market in Spain is finalising its debut on the stock market and hopes to be ready to list on the Alternative Investment Market (MAB) before the end of the year. Quid Pro Quo – the name of Alquiler Seguro’s real estate investment company – wants to raise €50 million initially, which it will use to purchase properties for their subsequent rental.

The CEO of Alquiler Seguro, Antonio Carroza (pictured above), explained that the company wants to begin by incorporating 500 homes into its portfolio during the first phase. To that end, it has identified around 6,000 homes, from the total pool of homes that it manages, which fulfil the requirements set in terms of rotation, tenant retention and which are also likely to be acquired from their owners at market prices. The company has already signed purchase options with owners worth €12 million in total.

“Within 5 years, the aim is that the Socimi will own around 6,000 homes and achieve an investment volume of €500 million, through several capital increases”, explained the CEO.

Carroza said that, with that volume of assets, the group would then be able to consider moving onto the main stock exchange. Quid Pro Quo’s assets will be mainly located in Madrid, although it will also have a portfolio of homes in Barcelona, Valencia and Sevilla and, to a lesser extent, in Alicante, Vitoria and Bilbao. “We have worked hard to make the intermediation business profitable and to encourage both supply and demand; now, we want to close the circle by professionalising the supply”, said Carroza.

For the CEO, the future of the Socimis will involve specialisation. “The few (Socimis) that have been working in the residential sector until now are getting rid of that part of their businesses”, he said.

In terms of Quid Pro Quo’s shareholders, Alquiler Seguro will acquire up to 5% of the Socimi’s share capital, whilst the remainder will be offered up to domestic and international investors.

In terms of the Board of Directors, the Socimi’s highest executive body will comprise five members: the President of Alquier Seguro, Gustavo Rossi; the CEO, Antonio Carroza; and three independent directors, one of whom will come from a multinational entity and will have a financial background, to lead the Audit and Internal Control Committee. The other two independent directors will be Salvador Garriga – who has served as an MEP for the PP for twenty years – and José Luis Bartolomé, a real estate consultant and advisor.

Original story: Expansión (by Rebeca Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Villar Mir Receives Approval To Resume Work At Canalejas

24 May 2016 – Cinco Días

The Canalejas Complex has returned to cruising speed after overcoming one of the obstacles that stood in its path. In April 2015, the Local Heritage Committee (comprising the Town Hall of Madrid and the regional Government) opened an investigation into the construction work that the Villar Mir Group was carrying out, after it detected that damage had been caused in the first bay (the space between load-bearing walls). After months of work, it completed its investigation in January 2016 – confirm sources at the company – and so Villar Mir was allowed to continue with the building work at the site, which will house a Four Seasons Hotel, luxury homes and a shopping arcade right in the centre of the capital.

“The investigation into the first bay was resolved and the suspension (of the building work) was lifted”, explain sources at OHL, the listed company that forms part of the Grupo Villar Mir and which is responsible for developing this complex. The Committee’s investigation was opened by municipal technicians when Ana Botella (PP) was still the mayoress. Sources at Estudio Lamela Aquitectos, which was appointed to design Canalejas, confirm that the construction work has continued as normal since then.

The problem arose when part of the bay, located in a small area, threatened to break off, say sources at the company chaired by Juan Miguel Villar Mir. For the time being, although the investigation has been closed, they do not know whether the listed company will face any financial penalties in the future.

The team led by the Government of Manuela Carmena (Ahora Madrid) has also granted OHL a structural licence to raise the frame of the building, and so construction work has continued apace during the first few months of the year. “We received the structural licence in January”, say sources at Estudio Lamela. “That licence has allowed us to carry out the work that is visible from the outside”, say sources at OHL. Now the only licence pending is the one relating to the completion of the refurbishment.

The project was unblocked at the end of last year by political and legal means. On the one hand, a trial judge dismissed the application to suspend the building works, which had been filed by a company that alleged that it had signed a previous sale and purchase contract with Santander. Villar Mir ended up acquiring this central block for €215 million and whereby took ownership of the properties in the Canalejas area, next to Puerta del Sol.

On the political side, after Carmena took over the reins of the city, the Town Hall decided to review the project and it opened a negotiation table with the company and the regional Government. In October, the parties agreed to reduce the volume of the block at its highest point so as to reduce the visual impact. The agreement meant that the listed company had to relinquish its plans for the height of the building in order to unblock the construction work and accept a lower return on the project.

The last remaining stumbling block now is the public prosecutor, which is continuing its investigation, following a claim by the Madrid, Ciudadanía y Patrimonio Association that an alleged crime has been committed against the historical heritage of the city during this refurbishment.

The renovation involves seven adjoining properties located between Calles de Alcalá, Sevilla, Plaza de Canalejas and Carrera de San Jerónimo. For the last few decades, those historical buildings have housed the headquarters of financial institutions such as Banesto, Central Hispano and Zaragozano.

Original story: Cinco Días (by Alfonso Simón Ruiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake