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6 September 2018 – El Confidencial
It was just a matter of time. Aliseda, the servicer of Banco Popular, now controlled by Blackstone (51%) and Santander (49%), is starting the school year by looking for buyers for 270 residential plots and work in progress developments, with a total buildability of more than 2 million m2, distributed throughout Spain.
It is the most important land sale currently underway in Spain and, unlike what is happening in other areas of the market, it will not involve a block sale of assets, but rather possible interested parties may acquire each plot individually, which will allow for the entry of local property developers into a market that has been dominated until now by large property developers and investment funds.
The assets are located in 43 Spanish provinces. They consist of 231 plots in total, mainly buildable plots or plots under development, and 39 projects in progress. Many of the sites are located in Galicia, Levante, Costa del Sol and the Canary Islands; the latter market has been especially active in recent months.
“Unlike other sales processes, the operation that Aliseda is now putting on the market allows investors the possibility of submitting an offer for any of the plots independently, which means that they can structure the perimeter that best suits their needs and investment criteria. In this way, both local property developers, as well as institutional investors will have the opportunity to participate under equal conditions”, says Adolfo Blázquez, Director of Land at Aliseda.
Local developers and national developers looking to grow in volume and build large developments may bid for the plots, as may institutional investors looking to buy large blocks of buildable land – a scarce and very sought-after asset, especially in the hottest markets of Madrid, Barcelona and the islands.
Meanwhile, Samuel Población, National Director of residential and land at CBRE, the exclusive consultancy firm selected to launch the sales process, says that “the shortage of buildable land in the Spanish market has become one of the great barriers for property developers. Thus, the activation of residential land sale processes, such as this operation by Aliseda, places prime raw material on the market, which will gradually start to satisfy the high demand that currently exists”.
The process began on 7 September, with access being granted to information about the assets, and will go on until December with the closure of selected bids.
In March, the US fund and Banco Santander created Proyecto Quasar Investments, the holding company that groups together the real estate portfolio of Banco Popular and the marketing platform Aliseda. Blackstone controls the majority of the capital in the new company and also takes care of its management, led by Eduard Mendiluce, the CEO of the company. Mendiluce is also the most senior executive of Anticipa, the other large real estate firm that the fund owns in Spain and the former head of Catalunya Caixa Inmobiliaria.
Original story: El Confidencial
Translation: Carmel Drake