Tag: quality

La Liga Puts Its HQ Up For Sale For €3.5M

9 October 2017 – Eje Prime

La Liga is hoping to receive a bonus before Christmas. The football league association will complete its move to a new corporate headquarters before December and so plans to complete the sale of its current offices during the final stretch of 2017 or beginning of 2018, according to Palco23. The football clubs’ delegated commission approved the sale of the building at the beginning of the year and has now commissioned the valuation of the building before it puts it on the market: €3.52 million.

The valuation has been performed by an independent third party and has forced the entity chaired by Javier Tebas to recognise a loss amounting to €1.04 million. That is because the price that has been assigned to the property, located at number 10 Calle Hernández de Tejada, is lower than its net book value in the accounts.

The building has a surface area of just over 1,100 m2 and La Liga tried to squeeze into the various floors as it continued to grow. Nevertheless, two years ago, the association decided to rent some additional offices around the corner, and in the end, has decided to concentrate all of its activity in a single building, located just 800m away from the historical headquarters.

As such, the association that represents first and second division clubs will occupy four of the seven floors in Edificio Murano, located at number 60 Calle Torrelaguna. That building is owned by the real estate group Hispania, which has secured the occupation of more than 50% of the property’s surface area (7,574.6 m2) thanks to Spanish football.

The move will not only result in an improvement in the conditions of the 158 workers that La Liga employs, it will also allow the body to offer a more modern image. Compared to the antiquated facilities at Hernández de Tejada, the new headquarters will be located in a glass building with views of Avenida de América and Calle Arturo Soria.

The office market in Madrid

The office market is one of the most active in the Spanish real estate sector. During the first six months of the year, 275,037m2 of office space was leased in the capital, a very similar figure to that recorded during the first half of 2016. According to the real estate consultancy Aguirre Newman, activity has been improving throughout the 6 months.

Another significant feature in the market has been the recovery of large volume operations: 25 deals were signed for spaces spanning more than 3,000 m2, which accounted for 42% of the total volume of operations closed. Those figures include La Liga’s new building on Calle Torrelaguna.

The overall office availability rate in the market in Madrid has decreased significantly over the last six months, from 11.4% in January 2017 to 10.8% in July 2017, as the volume of available space decreased by more than 74,000 m2.

In terms of prices, during the first half of the year, average rents grew in all areas, to reach an average half-year a rise of 3.9%. The average rental cost in the capital’s business district rose to €28.94/m2/month, whilst average rents in the peripheral areas amounted to €12.61/m2/month.

The most significant increases in rental prices by area were recorded in the central business district, with an average rise of 7.7% in six months. That mainly occurred as a result of a change in companies’ requirements, since they are now prioritising location and building quality over rental cost.

Original story: Eje Prime (by M. Menchén and C. Pareja)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Bank Of Spain: Housing Yields Soar By 10.9% In Q1 2016

18 July 2016 – Expansión

(…). According to the latest data from Bank of Spain relating to the first quarter of this year, the average gross annual return on housing amounted to 10.9% in Q1 2016. Three months earlier, the same indicator amounted to 8.8%, which gives an idea of how much the pace is speeding up.

This gross yield figure measures the combined effect of the appreciation in house prices, plus the income obtained from putting those houses up for rent, before tax. In other words, the figure takes into account not only the amount that each investor obtains from renting out his/her property, but also the amount that he/she would earn from selling it after twelve months, which is the most important information for investors.

Specifically, house prices rose by 6.3% YoY during Q1 2016, whilst rental income generated additional returns of 4.6% over and above the value of the asset. And that profit may increase over the coming years, given that Fotocasa calculates that rental prices increased by 4.8% YoY in June, the second highest rise since 2006.

Moreover, this figure is more significant in the context of depressed interest rates, where investments presented as alternatives to fixed income options are shining. For example, housing yields are six times higher than the returns on 10-year Spanish public debt, which is the reference rate used by the financial supervisor; moreover, housing has also offered a safer refuge against uncertainty than the stock exchanges in recent months. (…).

This gap between housing yields and the returns on other assets means that now is a great time to invest in rental housing, for both individual buyers and investment funds, given that the cost of mortgages are also at historical lows.

In fact, the College of Property Registrars indicates that last year, 12.71% of house purchases were made by legal persons, which shows the interest that housing is sparking amongst companies, due to the double returns it offers.

The business model of these businesses and individuals is clear: obtain fixed income from renting out the asset, for an amount that comfortably exceeds the associated operating costs, and also benefit from the appreciation in the property value, so that they can more than double their returns.

Overall increases

In addition, it is a pretty safe bet, given that house prices are rising in most autonomous regions (and the improvement in the labour market should prolong this rise) and rental prices are rising four times as quickly as purchase prices, according to data from Fotocasa. (…).

The percentage of citizens who prefer to rent rather than buy is increasing, from 19% to 21.2% of Spaniards in 2015. In the last three years, the rental market has absorbed more than 1 million homes and is 42.5% larger. For this reason, investors looking for high returns have thrown themselves into the hunt for properties in established locations, with demand, in order to rent them out.

Location and quality

In fact, the experts recommend paying special attention to the location and quality of housing, because Spain is no longer a homogeneous market…but rather a market evolving at two or three speeds, in which prices have not bottomed out yet or are stable in certain cities and neighbourhoods, whilst prices are clearly recovering in others. (…).

Original story: Expansión (by P. Cerezal)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Neinor’s CEO, Juan Velayos, Shares His Views Of RE Market

12 May 2016 – Expansión

Neinor Homes was created in May last year with the aim of leading the property development market in Spain and making a name for itself for quality and customer service. That is still the group’s vision, according to the company’s CEO, Juan Velayos (pictured above), which aspires to be an “industrial, professional and transparent” company. The property developer, created just a year ago from the purchase of the real estate subsidiary of Kutxabank by the US fund Lone Star, owns land worth around €800 million. “This is the largest stock of quality, developable land in Spain, with a surface area that would allow us to construct 8,500 homes”, said Velayos.

The director explained that for years the sector was guilty of a lack of transparency. He insists on the importance of placing the customer at the centre of the business, as well as of relying on new technologies, sustainability and quality standards to lead a transformative change in this industry. “We have to distance ourselves from the image of shady real estate deals”, he said.

In this sense, Velayos believes that the dawn of the Socimis in Spain is “good news”. The director said that, following the crisis, we now need competent institutional fund managers in the property industry.

In terms of the entry of his business into non-developable land, Velayos acknowledged that, “in one way or another, the leading property developer in the country will have to participate in the ‘land factory’. But never as our main business”. The director also pointed out that Neinor has a stock of homes that will last five years.

The company aspires to deliver between 2,500 and 3,000 homes per year. Currently, it has around ten projects in the commercial launch phase and another 21 projects to be launched this year.

The real estate group is currently constructing 300 homes, is about to start building another 300 homes and will start constructing another 800 in Q3 2016.

IPO

Regarding a possible IPO, Velayos explained that it would be a “natural step”, although “at the moment”, it is not something is being considered. “We will debut on the stock exchange if the company’s leadership so demands it and the shareholders require it”, he said.

The Company closed last year with turnover of €340 million and a gross operating profit (EBITDA) of almost €25 million.

More professionalism

To achieve its objective of “putting a rubber stamp” of quality on its services, the company has doubled its workforce, from 80 to around 170 in just one year, and has launched a dedicated communication channel with its clients, Neinor Experience.

Velayos explained that it is an exclusive community for Neinor’s clients, through which the property developer offers advice on all issues, from the point a buyer reserves his home to the hand over of the keys and the subsequent after-sales service.

Original story: Expansión (by Rebeca Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Property Developers Search For Buildings To Refurbish

3 May 2016 – Cinco Días

For the third year in a row, 2015 closed with an increase in the number of building permits, although the level of housing construction is still a long way below that recorded at the height of the boom. So great is demand in places like Madrid that investors/property developers are now allocating almost one out of every five euros to the acquisition of buildings in the centre of the capital for renovation and whereby bringing more new homes onto the market in prime areas.

The slight slowdown in construction detected by the Bank of Spain during the first quarter of the year does not seem to be affect real estate activity that much, but does affect other sub-sectors. In fact, the main market indicators show how the pull of demand for housing is continuing to strengthen and how that has driven the launch of new developments. Above all in places where most of the stock has now been absorbed and there is none left, or the surplus that remains unsold does not match what buyers are looking for.

A recent study compiled by the consultancy firm Knight Frank also shows how the recovery in housing has reduced auto-promotion, or the construction of homes by cooperatives, in favour of traditional property developers by 8%, and the banks have played an important role in the phenomenon as they have started to finance the most solvent developers with the most robust projects once again.

Nevertheless, although it might seem like the real estate business has returned to the high road once again, the fact is that the recovery has only fully arrived in certain, very specific enclaves and one of them is Madrid, and it has done so in a nuanced way and at different speeds.

“Madrid is the most sought-after area for investors in search of residential products, specifically, it receives 19% of all real estate investment. Andalucía, Valencia and Cataluña are the following most popular autonomous regions, accounting for 16%, 15% and 14% of total investment, respectively” says the report. (…).

And, in the meantime, the appetite to buy homes in the prime areas of the major cities is such that investors and property developers are starting to opt mainly to buy buildings that need refurbishing in the centre of cities, to then bring new homes onto the market that better suit the demands of buyers. In 2015, investment in entire buildings accounted for 19% of the total, whilst land purchases represented 81%.

Type of home

(…). In general, the typical buyer profile nowadays is a family with medium to medium-high purchasing power, looking for a home to reposition or improve the one they currently own “in locations with services, transport, urbanisations with common areas and quality in the design of the materials and finishes”. Thus, the most sought-after product is now a three-bedroom house, with an average price of between €230,000 and €450,000.

Does the market in Madrid offer that product in sufficient quantity so as to not generate perverse tensions in terms of prices? The conclusion of the study by the aforementioned consultancy firm is….that the supply is still insufficient. The municipality of Madrid has around 3,000 new homes registered as available. Only 30% of those are located inside the M-30, where the scarcity of land is most acute and prices are highest. 20% are located in the area between the two main ring roads (the M-30 and the M-40) and the remaining 50% are in the PAUs and new developments, some of which are located beyond the M-40. Demand for housing is distributed in a relatively similar way, which according to Knight Frank avoids major imbalances between supply and demand (…).

Original story: Cinco Días (by Raquel Díaz Guijarro)

Translation: Carmel Drake