Tag: Pryconsa

Värde Will Start Building c.900 New Homes In Q1

11 January 2017 – Cinco Días

The new real estate company Dospuntos, which wants to become one of Spain’s major property developers, will start the year by marketing a significant number of new build properties in a sector that has started to wake up slowly, without any star players. “We are going to start 18 developments containing around 900 homes during the first quarter of the year”, confirmed Javier Eguidazu (pictured above), CEO at Dospuntos, a company controlled by Värde Partners.

These homes will be located in Madrid, Galicia, Andalucía, Castilla y León and Cataluña, primarily in large cities and metropolitan areas. In La Coruña, the real estate company already announced last month that it was beginning its first project there, known as Casa Vega, in the centre of the city. The company will also debut soon in Sevilla, Málaga, Valladolid, Barcelona, Leganés (Madrid) and Oleiros (La Coruña).

“The market has finally woken up. There is pent-up demand because hardly any new homes have been constructed over the last decade. Every property that comes onto the market is sold”, said Eguidazu regarding the recovery in the property development sector.

His company is looking to become one of the largest property developers in the country. After the real estate crisis, almost all of the major players disappeared – went bankrupt – or took time out whilst they waited for better times. Just a handful of companies such as Pryconsa, Vía Célere, local developers, cooperative managers such as Domo and new platforms linked to the banks (Aliseda, Altamira, Solvia…) continued to build at a slow pace. Other listed companies, such as Realia – controlled by the magnate Carlos Slim – and Quabit, are only resuming their business now. Anida, owned by BBVA, also strengthened its business at the hand of Manuel Jove, founder of the now bankrupt company Fadesa.

Dospuntos emerged in June 2016, after Värde purchased the damaged real estate business from the San José Group. It was created to construct around 7,000 homes on land coming from several sources: purchases by the US fund, inherited from San José and even some new acquisitions. “The company has financial muscle. In 2016, we spent €150 million on land”, said Eguidazu.

Along with Neinor Homes, owned by the Texan fund Lone Star, Dospuntos leads this new type of property developer, owned by overseas funds and interested in investing in the real estate recovery in Spain, now that the traditional players have disappeared (…).

The real estate company’s main shareholder is Värde, which holds more than 50% of its share capital. The fund from Minneapolis manages assets amounting to more than €10,000 million all over the world. It has been particularly active in Spain, with the acquisition of Popular’s credit card business, as well as half of that bank’s real estate arm, Aliseda, in an operation for which it teamed up with the fund Kennedy Wilson. Moreover, it has entered the office business of Procisa, the owner of the La Finca business park in Pozuelo de Alcorcón (Madrid).

As a shareholder of Dospuntos, Värde (which means “value” in Swedish) is accompanied by the funds Marathon and Attestor, as well as by banks such as Bank of America and Barclays.

From 2019, the company wants to reach a cruising speed of 2,000 new homes per year on average, according to comments made by Eguidazu at a presentation last June. By then, the company forecasts that it will be generating revenues of between €500 million and €600 million per year.

The shareholders plan to invest €2,000 million between 2016 and 2021, at an average rate of €400 million per year, of which €800 million will be allocated to buying more land on which to build homes. Over the long term, between 30% and 40% of the company’s resources will come from bank financing. (…).

Original story: Cinco Días (by Alfonso Simón Ruiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Pryconsa Buys Jose Abascal, 41 From The Alba Family

29 November 2016 – Real Estate Press

The Martínez de Irujo y Fitz-James Stuart siblings have just sold the property located at number 41 on Calle José Abascal, which they owned jointly (en proindiviso).

Pryconsa has managed to acquire the building for around €20 million, however the property developer declined to comment on the operation.

Most of the property is leased to the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, specifically to the following departments: the economic-administrative, internal audit and market regulation teams, as well as the Autonomous Body for Natural Parks.

In addition, the first floor of the building houses the offices of Kuwait Petroleum España, the subsidiary of the Middle East hydrocarbons giant, which decided to move its headquarters to the heart of the Chamberí neighbourhood last year.

Experts in the market speculate that this building will be converted into luxury homes, given its prime location, just three blocks away from Paseo de la Castellana, on the intersection of Calles José Abascal and Modesto Lafuente. It is the perfect site for the development of luxury homes, which are in great demand and for which opportunities are in short supply. Moreover, the conversation of the property into luxury homes will be a more profitable option than maintaining the current office space.

Original story: Real Estate Press

Translation: Carmel Drake

Speculation Returns To The Market For Land In Madrid & Along The Coast

11 April 2016 – ABC

During the years of the crisis, investors regarded land as one of the least attractive assets. In fact, in the face of scarce demand and the paralysis in the construction sector, land values fell to historic lows. (…).

Sales of urban land, the substratum of real estate developments, are growing again after nine years of consecutive decreases. And they are doing so at a healthy – and on occasion, vertiginous – rate in certain areas of the country where the housing market has already started its recovery, such as the more illustrious areas of major cities, including the north of Madrid and established areas along the coast (Málaga, Palma de Mallorca and the Canary Islands). So much so that a warning is now spreading amongst analysts and agents in the sector: the scarcity of developable land – which does not require land planning approval – in certain areas, and renewed interest from investors is generating a new “overheating” in the price of transactions, something not seen since the burst of the real estate bubble.

The latest “Market Trends” report prepared by Solvia, the real estate arm of Banco Sabadell, warns that the expectation of a strong recovery in value is incubating operations of a speculative nature. “The fact that the supply of well-located land is scarce in areas with demand, that there is widespread liquidity in the market and that there is fierce competition to acquire assets, means that land purchases are being made for speculative purposes, in certain specific cases, for subsequent resale at significantly higher prices”.

In this sense, the study, which does not cite who is behind such transactions, highlights the cases of the Madrilenian neighbourhoods of Valdebebas and Montecarmelo. In the case of the latter, the price of land has risen by between 40% and 60% to €2,400/m2.

Montecarmelo and Valdebebas

Fernando Rodríguez de Acuña, Director General of Operations at the consultancy firm RR de Acuña y Asociados distinguishes between three players in the race for land: the financial entities and large investors, who have put their assets up for sale “in stages” and the small and medium-sized funds, which are more prone to speculative operations given that they seek high short-term yields. The confluence of these players has given rise to a situation in which both the activity and value of these real estate assets have increased significantly, if we exclude the statistical effect of operations carried out by financial entities foreclosing unpaid debt. Thus, the number of transactions carried out by operators in the sector (developers, funds and cooperatives) increased by 37% in 2015 compared with the year before and by 60% in terms of transaction volume. (…).

According to the experts, two operations in particular have caused prices in the land market in the Spanish capital to sky-rocket: firstly, the sale of 14 plots containing more than 93,000 m2 of buildable space, by the Valdebebas Compensation Board to the property developer Pryconsa for more than €55 million and secondly, the acquisition of a plot of land in Montecarmelo by Cogesa, which belongs to the Dragados group, for more than €20 million. (…).

Original story: ABC (by Luis M. Ontoso)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Valdebebas: Supreme Court Ruling Undermines Construction Plans

28 March 2016 – El Confidencial

Madrid’s High Court of Justice (TSJM) has dealt another fatal blow to the PAU real estate developments of Ciudad Aeroportuaria and Parque Valdebebas, the area in the north of the capital, where around 12,000 homes are expected to be built. According to a ruling on 4 March, the Administrative Litigation Division has partially accepted the appeal filed by the Association for Responsible Urban Development and has declared null and void the Special Land Sub-division Plan.

The decision by the First Section of the TSJM’s Administrative Litigation Division, chaired by Francisco Javier Canabal, overthrows the approval agreed by the Town Hall of Madrid on 30 October 2014, which modified the detailed plan APE 16.11 for the Ciudad Aeroportuaria and Parque Valdebebas. Although the Town Hall, now chaired by Manuela Carmena, the Community of Madrid, led by Cristina Cifuentes, and the Valdebebas Compensation Board called for the dismissal of the appeal presented in February 2015, the fact is that the ruling calls into question the urban development once again even though it had already been approved by the various administrations.

The plaintiffs allege that the Special Plan, dated 30 October 2014, modified the buildability of the area to include a large shopping centre in the development, with the allocation of space amounting to 145,794 m2 and an annex to it, measuring 36,488 m2 for other tertiary use. The Court emphasised that the Association “was right” when it said that this plan “modifies the structural organisation”, since land transformation operations inherently require an appropriate relationship between public space and collective amenities, and population density. (…).

The Town Hall and Community of Madrid must now decide whether to submit an appeal against this decision, a position that is difficult to adopt given that the new heads of Ahora Madrid and the PP in the aforementioned institutions have inherited a lawsuit fought by their predecessors, Ana Botella and Ignacio González. Moreover, they should take into account that in May the resolution is expected of a previous appeal against improprieties conducted by the Town Hall of Madrid, with the correction of the General Urban Plan (PGOU) approved in August 2013, an emergency action through which the Town Hall corrected the legality of Valdebebas, which had been suspended months earlier, following a ruling issued by the Supreme Court in September 2012.

Pryconsa, in question

But, the factor that calls everything into question, above all, are the plans of Pryconsa, which in December 2015, purchased 14 plots of land from the Valdebebas Compensation Board for €56.7 million. It acquired 92,000 m2 of buildable land, where it plans to build between 900 and 1,000 social housing properties (VPPL). Pryconsa paid just over approximately €600/m2 for the land, a price that is significantly below the €800/m2 that the Compensation Board obtained for one of the VPPL plots that it put up for auction after the summer and which was sold to the cooperative Esta Gestión 100, backed by the architect Enrique Toboada.

That operation ate up the last residential land assets owned by the Compensation Board and practically used up all of the land allocated to social housing in this urban development, given that now less than 5,000 m2 of land remains available. Moreover, following the transaction, only one third of the residential land is available in this area. The plots awarded are located next to one of the main squares in the new neighbourhood, close to the future shopping centre and JOYFE school, whose land also formed part of the assets sold by the Compensation Board, and where construction work is expected to begin soon.

Following the TSJM’s decision, all of these plans have been thrown back up in the air, a real setback for the developers that have bought land in this area of Madrid, located to the south of La Moraleja neighbourhood and to the north of the IFEMA exhibition grounds.

Original story: El Confidencial (by Agustín Marco)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Investment Returns To The Residential Market

11 February 2016 – Expansion

Experts say that this trend is heterogeneous, with regions that need to dispose of their stocks and other in need of developable land.


The residential business – until recently the ugly duckling in the housing sector – emerges again as one of the values on the rise, in part thanks to the return of large reals estate companies to this activity, one of the most affected by the economic crisis. Thus, for the first time since in mid-2007 the gradual deterioration of the housing market situation began, the sector turns its attention to this business, since in 2014 it showed the first signs of improvement, although with a concentrated demand in very well located and high segment product.

Ongoing projects  

Some of the most recent examples are the Socimi Lar-Pimco España, which will soon begin “Lagasca 99 project” on the site at Juan Bravo, 3, Madrid, or Metrovacesa, with “Ciudad del Sur” in Tarifa and the study of new projects in Madrid. Likewise, Realia has residential assets in the Madrid suburb of Valdebebas and Quabit has strongly returned to this activity thanks to the capital increase undertaken last year. At the same time, developing companies like Via Célere, Pryconsa, Aelca, Inmobiliaria del Sur or Neinor Homes are making a move in this segment with the aim of becoming the first residential developer of Spain, as well as cooperatives as Momentum, Domogestora and Ibos. 
The director of the National Residential and Land area of CRBE España, Samuel Población Blanco, emphasizes the “great heterogeneity” in this trend, with differing behaviors. 
Thus Población highlights that while in Madrid there is a great need for developable land, with the risk that in one year the housing demand can be much higher than the existing supply, other regions still need to dispose of their stock. 
Likewise, Población notes that SOCIMIs and asset management companies will be increasingly interested in the residential renting area, coinciding with the change of mentality in Spanish society, the higher functional-geographical mobility and the professionalization in this activity. 
For his part, the Chairman of Armabex, Antonio Fernández, explains that there is a gap between renting demand in Spain and Europe, which tends to shorten due to the new working conditions and the lack of funding. 
”In Madrid, for example, they lack efficient product; no large blocks or buildings dedicated to renting” says Fernández.

Original story: Expansion (by Rebeca Arroyo)

Translation: Aura Ree

Work Begins At Pryconsa’s Luxury Housing Development In Madrid

14 December 2015 – El Mundo

The details of one of the most iconic, exclusive and eagerly-awaited residential projects in Madrid have finally been revealed: the development that Pryconsa is undertaking on the 15,000 m2 plot of land that previously housed RTVE’s Buñuel Studios and which the Madrilenian based property developer acquired in November last year for €35.27 million.

It is a prime location, at number 5 on Avenida de Burgos, next to Paseo de la Habana, the best area in the district of Chamartín, surrounded by parks and gardens and just a stone’s throw away from hot spots such as the Chamartín train station, Plaza de Castilla and the Cuatro Torres.

In tribute to the great Aragonese filmmaker, who has lent his name to the studios for decades, the project has been named, in part, after his home town: Calanda Homes. The property development will contain 89 three- to five-bedroom homes, and will measure between 163 m2 and 218 m2. It will include different types of properties, such as flats (all with large terraces), ground floor flats with gardens and penthouse apartments with terraces of between 117 m2 and 165 m2. The homes will be distributed across two four-storey buildings, 35 m apart and located within a huge urbanisation containing gardens, a (Munich style) swimming pool, padel court and gym, amongst other features.

The project will be developed in two phases. During the first phase, the marketing of which has just begun, prices will start at €808,000 and go up to €1.8 million. Work to demolish the old television studios began last Wednesday, and if construction proceeds according to plan, then the property developer will hand over the keys to the homes in the first phase in June 2018.

Sales success

“During the first few days, almost 50% of the first phase that we are currently marketing has been reserved”, said José León, CEO of the company. (…).

Original story: El Mundo (by Luis M. De Ciria)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Spain’s New Property Developer Kings – Who’s Who?

5 October 2015 – El Economista

The funds, financial institutions and real estate companies that have survived the crisis, forecast that they will construct 150,000 new homes and 50,000 secondary residences per year until 2020.

After the burst of the real estate bubble and the harsh years of the crisis, a new panorama is now emerging in the construction sector with several new players in the wings. Many funds and financial institutions have already emerged as the new stars of the residential development segment and have taken on a significant role in the sector.

Nevertheless, these banks and investment firms will have to share the market with some of the survivors from the past, namely the former property developers. A handful managed to survive the drought, as they diversified their businesses and/or made intelligent developments before the crisis, and they are now ready to become property kings once again.

Neinor Homes, will undoubtedly be one of the most active companies over the next few years, since according to its forecasts, it will construct between 2,000 and 3,000 homes per year. The company, led by Juan Velayos (former CEO of Renta Corporación) is the largest residential real estate company created in Spain following seven years of recession.

Neinor Homes is pushing down hard on the accelerator. This year alone it will invest around €1,000 million on the purchase of land, which it will add to the land worth €350 million that is already holds on its balance sheet. (…).

The banks are also entering the sector

According to the first report prepared by Solvia, to analyse the trends in the real estate market, the banks, through their servicers, have also positioned themselves amongst the main property developers. Solvia itself is playing a significant role in the new panorama. The real estate company owned by Banco Sabadell has already developed more than 3,380 homes over the last few years and has around €4,200 million in land assets under management. (…).

BBVA has also launched itself into property development, as the Commercial Director of BBVA Real Estate – Anida, Lorenzo Castilla explains. The entity is evaluating the development of 25 sites for the construction of 2,000 homes, whilst already developing another 12 for the construction of 630 properties.

The director clearly describes the new model that has now been implemented in the sector, he says that “it is not about filling Spain with cranes, but rather focusing on projects that make sense”, given that “there was a distinct lack of rationale during the boom years”.

According to the estimates published in Solvia’s Market View report, both Altamira, the real estate subsidiary of Banco Santander, and Cerberus will develop between 1,000 and 2,000 homes per year. In the case of the US fund, this development will be centred on the urban complex it purchased together with Orion from NH, in Sotogrande (Cádiz) for €225 million. (…).

The real estate companies make a return

Solvia’s report also highlights that property developers such as Via Célere, Corporación Promotors, Pryconsa and Inmobiliaria Espacio will also be developing between 500 and 1,000 homes per year. (…).

All of these projects come in stark contrast to the still very high figures for unsold housing stock (533,734 units in 2014). Moreover, the experts say that a significant volume of this stock may never be sold, however, the sector justifies the new developments. Solvia says that the business model that it applies now is more conservative than in previous years, since land purchases are generally being financed using own funds. In addition, “the lack of stock in certain areas, and the existence of pent-up demand, makes the conditions very favourable for a return to development”.

On the basis of this data, property developers estimate an annual output of 150,000 new homes and 50,000 secondary residences between 2016 and 2020.

Original story: El Economista (by Alba Brualla)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Saint Croix Socimi To Debut On The MARF

1 October 2015 – Expansión

The Socimi Sainx Croix, owned by the Colomer family, registered its first fixed income program yesterday, for up to €80 million on the Alternative Fixed Income Market (‘Mercado Alternativo de Renta Fija’ or MARF), a financing option launched by the Government in 2013 to facilitate SMEs’ access to capital markets. In this way, Saint Croix became the first Socimi to turn to this market in search of financing.

According to a statement by the BME yesterday, Saint Croix plans to allocate the funds that it will raise through this bond issue to the acquisition of new assets and the maintenance of existing assets in its current portfolio.

Renta 4 coordinated the management and structuring of the plan and will act as the underwriter for the bond issues that are carried out. Axesor Ratings has assigned the issuer a BBB rating with a stable outlook, in other words, it is classified it as investment grade. Ramón y Cajal Abogados was engaged to provide legal advice for the design and registration of the program.

Saint Croix Holding, which relocated its headquarters to Luxembourg from Spain in 2014, owns 150,000 m2 of rentable space, with a total value of €284 million as at 30 June 2015. Its assets include several hotels, located in Huelva and Madrid, as well as the headquarters of CLH. The Socimi’s owners, the Colomer family, also own the real estate company Pryconsa.

The Socimi has included an explicit warning to investors in the bond issue brochure, about the political risks in Spain, making a clear reference to Cataluña (see page 32).

MARF

This  is a new debut for the MARF. In total, according to data from the BME, thirteen companies have decided to issue bonds through this market. Copasa, Pikolin, Tecnocom and Barceló are a few of the companies that have already successfully launched operations on this market.

Original story: Expansión (by D.B., M.S. and R.R.)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Cranes Appear in the Skyline of Madrid’s Center

17/11/2014 – Expansion

Pryconsa, Ibosa, Domo, ACR and Allegra are only examples of the companies that started a new home construction in Madrid. On average, their projects include hundreds of dwellings which were immediately snapped up, in spite of the high level of stock pending sales. Currently, most new projects are proposed by cooperatives.

Managers like Ibosa or Domo have discovered a golden strike in the sales of the plots the Public Administration decided to auction off in search of liquidity. For instance, Metro has sealed a deal on its headquarters in the intersection of the Cavanilles and the Doctor Esquerro street, in the Retiro neighborhood, with Domo Gestores which will raise 209 apartments and 7 single-family homes at prices starting from €91.800 (VAT included). The dwellings will be ready in 2017.

The same co-op is at the same time building two housing developments: first, at a very advanced construction stage and formerly serving as the premises of the Town Planning department of the City Hall of Madrid. In this case, Domo will build 220 flats priced at €305.000 each in the middle of the Chamartin district.

The other development will stand on a downtown plot acquired recently by the co-op for €111 million. Located next to the Paseo de la Castellana street, the piece of land will soon see construction of 355 dwellings selling at 3.400 Euros per square meter each.

Another cooperative manager Ibosa was awarded the plot carrying the depots of Madrid’s subway and situated in the Cuatro Caminos area for €88 million. Thereon, Ibosa is going to build a high-end residential estate with 62 subsidized and 381 unsubsidized apartments, for €1.940 and €2.600 per square meter respectively.

The development, distributed over a 25-floor tower and three eight-storey buildings, is set to be delivered within few years as before starting the works, Ibosa shall underground the existing depots and create a green area of 20.000 square meters.

Apart from the cooperatives, two real estate firms significantly contribute to project reactivation in the heart of Madrid. For example, Pryconsa has just bought the old Buñuel studio of RTVE for €35 million.

Furthermore, Allegra Holding led by Mario Losantos has also acquired a plot of 6.000 square meters in Madrid, specifically in the Puerta de Hierro area, with intention of constructing a new luxury housing development, made up between 50 and 60 dwellings.

Months prior to this project, Allegra and its partner ACR, ran a venture close to the Plaza de Castilla square on the Sorolla street. Out of the 96 marketed homes, 85 have already found buyers ready to pay  2.200 €/m2.

Original article: Expansión (by Rocío Ruiz)

Translation: AURA REE

Ferrovial, Domo, Amenabar & Prygesa Compete For Alluring Plot of MOD

31/10/2014 – El Confidencial

Within less than a week the sector will know the name of the new owner of the Madrid downtown plot sold by the Ministry of Defence that is asking €90.3 million for it. Merely 500 meters from the popular Paseo de la Castellana street and located on the Raimundo Fernandez Villaverde street, one may find the most attractive 14.500 square meters currently up for sale in the capital. The piece of land has been listed at portal Addmeet.com for one and half year.

Despite the commotion and interest the parcel invoked, only four companies presented their binding bids: Ferrovial, co-ops manager Domo, Basque builder Amenabar and Prynconsa’s branch Prygesa.

Participation of Ferrovial is somewhat surprising as the firm sold its residential development arm to Habitat in 2006. Allegedly, it operates on behalf of a fund. At one time, the company constructed more than 200 dwellings on land which used to house the old Madrid’s Town Planning Department, situated in the cofluence of the Guatemala, Alfonso XIII, Paraguay and the Puerto Rico streets. The piece of land was purchased by La Cooperativa EAI 310 for €65 million. Further on, the company named Domo Gestora de Viviendas to manage and develop the project.

Domo itself is another bidder at the tender for the Defense’s plot. If the firm wins, it will build 355 homes ranging from one to five bedrooms at a price fixed between 3.200 and 3.300 Euros per square meter. True bargain as for the Rios Rosas neighborhood inside the Chamberi district, where a year ago prices oscillated around 4.400 euros per built square meter, data by Foro Consultores. Also, Domo takes part in an auction of another plot in Madrid, located at 58 Cavanilles street, up for sale by Metro.

Next candidate to buy the piece of land of the Ministry is Basque builder Amenabar. ‘It is a proven, solvent company with great potential from the economic point of view’, sources from the sector describe it. Few years ago, Amenabar purchased several plots intended for subsidized housing in Arroyofresno from the city of Madrid.

The last player is Prygesa, company belonging to Pryconsa Group, one of the few recession survivors. Its project for the land assumes construction of 310 dwellings, from two to six bedrooms. Besides, Pryconsa bids for the Cuatro Caminos depots of Metro, shoulder in shoulder with Ibosa.

To take part in the auction, all bidders had to hand a 5% deposit equal to 4.513.913,25 Euros.

How high may the price reach?

The Ministry of Defense asks €90.3 million for the plot which is, in the sector’s opinion, a very low listing price. Therefore, the offers for sure will aim above that level but will not exceed €110 million.

 

Original article: El Confidencial (by Elena Sanz)

Translation: AURA REE