Tag: residents

High Land Costs Drive up House Prices in the Balearic Islands

27 February 2019 – Diario de Mallorca

The property market in the Balearic Islands is experiencing the perfect storm. Very high land prices are driving up the cost of the few new homes that are being built. As such, local residents are facing serious difficulties when it comes to affording a home.

Not only are land prices high; in many cases, the plots are owned by large business groups, which are opting to hold onto them to benefit from further capital appreciation rather than develop or sell them immediately. What’s more, the few new homes that are being developed are very expensive, beyond the reach of most local families.

These factors are compounded by the complete failure on the part of the public authorities to construct any social housing in recent years, which only serves to aggravate the housing shortage in the market.

There is a great deal of demand, not only from local families, but also from foreigners, who want homes of their own on the island, and from seasonal workers moving from other parts of the country. Moreover, supply is limited and as such, prices are soaring. This situation is made worse by the fact that many overseas buyers and renters can afford to pay more than most islanders, which is driving out the locals.

All in all, it’s a gloomy picture for island residents.

Original story: Diario de Mallorca (by F. Guijarro)

Summary/Translation: Carmel Drake

Barcelona Gets Ready for the Residential Equivalent of Coworking: ‘Coliving’

29 January 2019 – Idealista

Whilst last year, coworking was one of the most repeated words, this year, it seems that the residential equivalent is on everyone’s lips, specifically, the new formulae for housing, ‘coliving’. So much so that Barcelona is already preparing to receive the first operators: the Consortium of the Zona Franca, a public entity tasked with the economic revitalisation of the city of Barcelona and its metropolitan area, is already managing licences to open the first coliving centres in the La Marina neighbourhood.

Although the names of the firms that are going to make their debuts in Spain under this model are unknown for the time being, sources in the sector say that they have already started to process the first permits for projects that are in an initial phase. “Just like coworking has become a successful phenomenon for the office market in Spain over the last 2 years, so professionalised coliving wants to follow in its footsteps and try its luck in the residential market”, explain sources at the real estate consultancy firm Forcadell.

“The large international investment funds, in their search for alternative assets that offer higher returns, are studying the Spanish market to implement this model, which has already proved successful in other countries such as the USA, Germany, the UK and Japan (Tokyo)”, say the sources at Forcadell.

With their arrival, these operators will professionalise a common practice in Spain of house sharing, by adding sophisticated aspects more typical of student halls. The coliving projects that have been developed to date comprise complexes with bedrooms and individual bathrooms on the one side and large common areas with movie theatres and games rooms (with ping pong, pool. etc.), libraries, gyms, restaurants and swimming pools, amongst others, on the other side.

According to Toni López, Partner at Forcadell and Director of the company’s real estate area, “the millenials have changed the way of consuming and have championed a change of thinking around property ownership, experience and use; it is logical and inevitable that this trend will expand to the real estate sector”. They are a generation that values experiences and seeks to optimise resources to the max, paying only for the use and experience of an asset, without incurring the cost and hassle involved with its ownership.

Medici and Corestate, the first brave players

Medici and Corestate have become the first groups to look closely at Spain for their new homes under the coliving formula (…). The German company Medici has joined forces with the German fund Corestate to invest more than €1 million in the development of business across all of Europe. In the Spanish market, the company will operate under the Quarters brand and it is already negotiating its first coliving project in Barcelona (…).

Medici already has three coliving buildings in Berlin, with capacity for 45 residents and nine apartments; and two more in the USA, in cities such as New York and Chicago, where the monthly rents range between USD 1,100 (€967) and USD 1,500 (€1,320) (…).

Original story: Idealista (by Custodio Pareja)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Barcelona’s Town Hall Invests €32M to Build 244 Social Housing Units in Bon Pastor

23 August 2018 – Eje Prime

Barcelona is strengthening its commitment to public housing. The Town Hall governed by Ada Colau is going to invest €32 million in the development of 244 homes in the neighbourhood of Bon Pastor to rehouse the residents of the so-called cheap houses. The building work forms part of the remodelling plan for one of the areas in a controversial district of Barcelona.

The phase that is about to begin is the fourth phase of the urban planning project, which will involve the construction of five blocks of flats. The building work, managed by the Municipal Institute of Housing and Rehabilitation (Imhab) is expected to be finished during the first quarter of 2021, according to Idealista News.

The Town Hall’s plan is happening so that any homes that are not occupied by rehoused residents will be allocated to the public stock for rental in the Catalan capital. In terms of the list of applicants for rental homes, priority will be given to those residents registered in the areas close to Bon Pastor.

Two of the blocks will be located between Calles Isona and Tallada (54 homes) and Calles Salomó and Isona (42 homes); both enclaves border the limit with Sant Adrià de Besòs. In addition, the plan projects a third building with 38 homes at the junction of Calles Biosca and Claramunt; a fourth block between Calles Biosa and Salomó, with 60 homes; and a final building containing 50 homes between Calles Salomó and Novelles.

The remodelling of Bon Pastor will end with a fifth phase that will put an end to an urban planning macro-development containing 754 homes. The homes will measure between 60 m2 and 90 m2 with parking spaces inside the blocks.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Idealista: Rental Prices Rose by 13.2% in Málaga in 2017

11 June 2018 – Diario Sur

Do you live in Málaga for less than €700/month? Then, hold on tight to your home as if it were a treasure. These days, people who are coming to the end of their rental contracts or who are experiencing life changes that are forcing them to find homes in the city – whether it be a move for work, a separation or an emancipation from the family home – are coming up against a harsh reality: the high cost of rent, which has gotten worse to the extent that, today, homes coming onto the market have an average monthly rent of more than €1,000 in half of the neighbourhoods in the provincial capital. That is according to statistics based on the active adverts on the real estate portfolio Idealista, which calculates that rental prices increased by 13.2% over the last year, one of the highest rises recorded in all of Spain’s large cities. Over the last five years, the cumulative increase amounts to 38% and the price per square metre now amounts to €9.80, the highest of all of the Andalucían capitals.

The sharp rise in prices is the consequence of a significant imbalance between supply – which has decreased by 36% in three years, judging by the adverts on Idealista – and demand for rentals, which has increased by more than 120% over the same period. “What is happening in Málaga is what happened previously in Madrid and Barcelona: a genuine shortage of rental housing, especially in the Centre and Teatinos districts, which are the most sought-after areas”, says Carlos Rueda, spokesman for Idealista in the south of Spain, who knows real estate agents in those neighbourhoods who have waiting lists with more than 100 people on them.

Since Málaga has come late to this trend, its prices are now rising rapidly, whilst prices in the country’s two largest capitals are starting to enter a stabilisation phase, according to the Head of Research at Pisos.com, Ferrán Font. “In Barcelona and Madrid, there are areas where prices have stopped rising because price increases cannot be infinite in the rental market”, he added.

But in Málaga, that ceiling has not yet been reached. Inmaculada Vegas, Partner of the real estate agency specialising in rentals Rentacasa, summarises the situation as follows: “The supply has decreased significantly; almost no homes come onto the market. And those that do come on are very expensive. Many owners can’t help themselves: they see that their neighbour has let his home for €800 and so they raise their asking price to €900…the problem is that they find people to pay those prices”, she explains.

The perception of rising prices is even greater in the case of rentals governed by the old Urban Leasing Law, which are being updated now after five years. They are contracts that were signed at the height of the crisis (2013) and now they are being renewed in a radically different scenario. “In those cases, prices may rise by €300 or €400 overnight”, explains Carlos Rueda (…).

For Vegas, much of the blame for what is happening lies with tourist rentals: “Over the last two years, we have seen continuously how long-term rentals are being taken off the long-term rental market to be let by the day or by the week, above all in the Centre, but increasingly in the east of the city as well”, she says.

Rueda does not agree that the influence of holiday rentals has been that great. In his opinion, “since the crisis, Málaga has seen a huge explosion in demand for rental properties, not only from those who cannot afford to buy but also from those who want to live in rental homes” (…).

Original story: Diario Sur (by Nuria Triguero)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Palma de Mallorca to Ban All Tourist Apartments From July

24 April 2018 – El País

From July onwards, homeowners in Palma, on the Balearic Island of Mallorca, will not be allowed to rent out their apartments to tourists. The capital of the popular Mediterranean destination has adopted a pioneering measure, which will see the definitive prohibition of tourist flats right across the city. The local government team – a leftist alliance between the Socialist Party (PSOE), the local group Més per Mallorca and the anti-austerity Podemos – has taken this decision after commissioning several studies on the matter, which revealed that the supply of unlicensed tourist flats increased by 50% between 2015 and 2017 to reach 20,000 beds across the city. In Palma, which is Spain’s eighth-largest city by population, only 645 properties used for short-term vacation rentals have proper licenses.

The government team will approve initial holiday rental zoning plans at a meeting on Thursday, which will then be subjected to public scrutiny before being put to a final vote at a council session in July. At that point, tourists seeking this kind of accommodation will no longer be allowed to rent apartments in multi-family residential housing. Instead, they will only be able to stay in detached, single-family homes, which are being left outside the ban. Yet even these properties will be off limits if they are located on protected rural land, near the airport, or in non-residential areas such as industrial estates.

The move follows a reform of tourism legislation by the regional parliament of the Balearic Islands in August last year. That reform banned vacation rentals in apartments but left it up to local authorities to decide which neighbourhoods to apply it in. In the end, the city of Palma has decided to consider the entire municipality a “single zone” and so the ban will apply in all parts of town. The decision is meant “to protect residents,” said mayor Antoni Noguera.

Studies commissioned by city officials show that 48% of tourist apartments are offered for seven to eight months of the year, meaning they are not available for long-term residential rentals. “There is a parallel between the evolution of vacation rentals and the rise in rental prices,” said José Hila, the local chief of city planning. Rent in Palma has soared by 40% in recent years, making it the second most expensive Spanish city after Barcelona for residents who rent.

“Tourist accommodation affects the makeup of buildings and neighbourhoods, and it also affects social harmony,” said Hila. A report by the Citizen Ombudsman’s Office shows a rise in the number of complaints filed by residents due to problems with tourists who use these apartments, typically related to noise. There were 42 complaints in 2014 and 192 in 2017.

Pioneering initiative

Mayor Noguera is convinced that this measure, which is pioneering in Spain, will set the standard to be followed by other cities. “Palma is a bold and decisive city. We have agreed this on the basis of the general interest, and we believe that it will create a trend in other cities when they see that finding a balance is key.” said the mayor. “All European cities are being transformed from one day to the next by this type of offer,” said planning chief Hila.

Currently, in the Balearic capital, there is a supply of around 11,000 tourist rental beds, of which 645 have licences, all for family homes. Before the new regional legislation was approved in August, the number of beds amounted to 20,000 but the high fines established by the law – of up to €400,000 – led to the withdrawal of adverts from users of many of the large platforms (…).

Original story: El País (by Lucía Bohórquez)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Servihabitat: House Prices Return to Pre-Crisis Levels in Madrid & Barcelona

13 December 2017 – ABC

The real estate market has definitively overcome the crisis in certain parts of Madrid and Barcelona. According to figures from Servihabitat, house prices in some of those cities’ neighbourhoods are now above the levels seen just before the burst of the property bubble. And according to the real estate servicer, this growth is forecast to continue for the next few quarters at least. House sales will rise by 18% next year to exceed 550,000 operations, thanks to a boost from the sale of second-hand homes. Meanwhile, the price of transactions will rise by 4.7%.

Those are some of the forecasts reflected in the fifth edition of Servihabitat’s report about the “Residential Market in Spain”. The report highlights that house sales will close this year up by 17% and will grow by another 18% next year. The real estate company argues that this improvement is due to factors such as the “increase in solvent demand, policies for granting more credit, the increase in investor interest and the progress in the construction of new homes”.

This recovery will be more homogeneous than in previous years. The improvements in Andalucía, Cataluña and Madrid will be accompanied by increases in other regions such as Castilla-La Mancha and La Rioja, which are expected to record increases of 23.8% and 23.1%, respectively. “The differences between the regions are being mitigated. All towns with more than 100,000 residents are recording strong performances”, explains Julián Cabanillas, CEO of Servihabiat. In his opinion, in 2018, “the trends seen in previous years will be consolidated”.

Nevertheless, the great challenge of this recovery is still how to build enough new homes. Cabanillas acknowledges the fact that “some regions suffer from a lack of stock” for reasons such as a shortage of land, which is pushing up house prices in regions such as Madrid and Cataluña (…).

The impact of tourist housing

It is not only house sales that are expected to continue to rise next year, rental prices are also forecast to increase. Servihabitat highlights the “positive trend” in the rental sector, which according to its calculations will see an average increase of 2% during the second half of 2017.

“Rental has become an increasingly more attractive alternative in Spain, taking into account phenomena such as labour mobility and the upturn in house prices”, explains Cabanillas.

According to Servihabitat, the average yield on rental housing is 5.5%. In certain regions, such as Cataluña, the figure exceeds 6%. In this segment, the real estate company highlights the impact that tourist apartments are having on the market since they are leading to two-digit rises in rental prices in certain cities.

“It is a practice that is developing fast and that needs to be controlled somehow”, explains the CEO of Servihabiat, who points out that the rise in the rental market in recent months has not only been caused by the impact of tourist apartments, but rather by a “combination of factors”.

Original story: ABC (by Guillermo Ginés)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Barcelona’s Town Hall Reserves Right of First Refusal over 47 Buildings in Raval

12 December 2017 – Eje Prime

Ada Colau’s Government may make a new move in its commitment to social housing. The Town Hall of Barcelona has reserved the right to purchase 47 buildings in the Raval neighbourhood, where the acquisition and subsequent renovation of properties for social purposes is being proposed.

The objective of the Town Hall is to protect residents from losing their homes, either due to the poor condition of the properties in the area or problem with drug dens, as well as to boost activities relating to social housing policies, according to a report from Idealista.

The streets where this right of first refusal has been granted are Sant Ramon, Espalter and Robador. The intervention by the Town Hall in this regard started at the beginning of 2017 when the Town Hall of Barcelona approved the Catalan capital’s right of first refusal over entire plots and buildings. As such, the Town Hall has priority over the purchase of these assets before the owner is allowed to sell them to a third party.

To date, the Town Hall of Barcelona owns twelve blocks in the Raval neighbourhood, containing around 150 homes in total.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Operación Mesena: Santander & Metrovacesa Prepare to Fight the Residents

24 November 2017 – Voz Pópuli

BBVA and Operación Chamartín have some competition on their hands in the form of Operación Mesena. Banco Santander and Metrovacesa are working on two simultaneous real estate operations, which could completely change the neighbourhood of Hortaleza in Madrid, located in the northeast of the city. If the plans go ahead, the entities will star in one of the largest real estate development in the Spanish capital, alongside Chamartín and the Calderón.

The operation revolves around the former Ciudad Banesto and the adjoining plots of land (Colonia Banesto), which have been used as housing for employees and sports facilities for half a century. On the one hand, Metrovacesa – in which Santander holds a 70% stake and which is the owner of La Colonia – has launched a plan for all of the residents to leave their homes.

On the other hand, Santander is working to move the staff that it currently has working at Banesto’s former offices to Popular’s new headquarters. Once that plan has been fulfilled, the entities intend to reclassify the land from offices and sports facilities to urban use. The Town Hall of Manuela Carmena will play a key role. In the past, the Town Hall approved two operations by Banesto-Santander to build some houses and a development of luxury apartments.

Sources consulted at Metrovacesa and Santander note that the two projects are still up in the air and that they are independent of each other. Even so, they will happen at the same time and will be located next to each other. Moreover, the bank controls the real estate company, given that it holds 70% of the share capital, and BBVA also holds a stake, of almost 30%.

The operation has entered controversial territory given that the homes in the former Colonia Banesto are subsidised housing properties (VPO), which were granted to employees of the group who are now retired. Of the 160 families who originally resided there, just 39 remain. Most of them are retired and aged between 70 and 80 years.

In the last few days, those residents have received a letter from Metrovacesa Suelo y Promoción, notifying them of “the termination of their lease contracts and granting them a period, until 31 January 2018, to hand over their homes”, according to the letter to which this newspaper has had access.

The real estate company wants to negotiate with the residents who still live in Colonia Banesto one by one, to find them a suitable exit. The current tenants are not going to make it easy for the entities; they are now seeking advice through the Federation of Neighbourhood Associations and several law firms.

In this way, several dozen former employees of Banesto and mayor Carmena are preparing to deal with what could become one of the largest real estate fights since the outbreak of the crisis. After the planning phase, come the negotiations.

Original story: Voz Pópuli (by Jorge Zuloaga)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Valdebebas Takes First Steps to Unblock its Construction Licences

24 November 2017 – Expansión 

On 30 November, the Valdebebas Compensation Board (Madrid) is going to approve the largest land reparcelling project in history, which will involve the processing of 15,000 registry notifications. That will allow the unblocking of the licence granting procedure, which is affecting almost 4,700 homes, around 40% of the total planned for the area.

In total, 11,400 homes are planned for Valdebebas. Currently, 4,800 units have received their first occupancy licences and another 2,000 are being built. Moreover, 850 homes are under development and 3,800 are pending development. These two last categories are affected by the block imposed. More than 16,000 people already live in Valdebebas and by the end of the year, there will be around 18,000.

“We want to comply with the route map set out by the Town Hall. The mere beginning of this process should give rise to the lifting of the suspension over the granting of licences”, explained the Managing Director of the Board, Marcos Sánchez, to Expansión.

With the economic reparcelling, the pending urban planning charge, which amounts to €30 million, is redistributed. The previous reparcelling, approved in 2015, was annulled by the High Court of Justice (TSJM). It also ruled that the special plan for the so-called ‘Pastilla Comercial’ was void.

Original story: Expansión (by Rebeca Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

 

Madrid’s Gran Vía To Be Part Pedestrianised By 2019

10 November 2017 – Expansión

On 4 April 1910, King Alfonso XIII seized a silver pick to symbolise the start of the construction of Madrid’s Gran Vía. It took 21 years to finish the 1,306m long thoroughfare, which, as well as connecting the east and west of the capital, became a showcase for large department stores (today’s multi-nationals fashion chains), cinemas and theatres (of which less than half of the original spaces are now left) but, above all, a catwalk for passers-by of every kind; because Gran Vía is a concentrated example of the 21st century society.

And this road is going to be subject to construction once again from February next year, with the aim of restoring value for two of its major stars: the pedestrians and the historical buildings that stand tall on this street, which we barely have time to appreciate given the frenetic pace of life today.

This change will undoubtedly have consequences for the real estate market in this area, which is already quite unusual. “It is a neighbourhood with just a few, very special homes and so logically, they are going to go up in value significantly”, says Julio Rivero, real estate consultant for the central region at Engel & Völkers.

For Daniel Díaz, architect and agent at Lucas Fox in Madrid, “giving pedestrians more space is something that is being done in all of the major cities in Europe. It makes a lot of sense on Gran Vía because it has more people walking along it nowadays than it does vehicle traffic”. Díaz recalls the case of Serrano and how the reduction in the number of lanes and the widening of the pavements there has been a revulsive, improving trade in the area.

Expansive effect

Gran Vía has so much force that it magnetises the area, and almost twenty streets flow into it, with a lot of life of their own, such as San Bernardo, Valverde, Fuencarral, Hortaleza and Barquillo. The manager at Lucas Fox predicts that this reactivation will have a porous effect: “The benefits of pedestrianisation are going to expand to the adjoining streets and squares, such as Plaza de Pedro Zerolo and Calle Fuencarral, which have more homes that are going to go up in value”. For Díaz, this will attract the domestic market to the area once again, which has been dominated by tourists and young people in recent times.

Although none of the experts consulted doubts that the quality of life will improve, it is clear that some people will inevitably lose out. Ana Calderón, Director of Real Estate at Home Select, the real estate consultancy that manages several tourist apartments in the area, indicates the damage that the limitations on traffic will have for properties owners in buildings such as Gran Vía 48; they also purchased parking spaces in a large underground car park there (…).

The Town Hall’s future project has been explained in several different ways (…) and the details of the plans have not been completely defined, but it seems certain that the current six lanes will be reduced to four. In this way, the 55,000 vehicles that currently travel on this thoroughfare every day will be reduced to just 10,000, according to the Town Hall’s forecasts (…).

According to Sergio Fernández, Director of Retail at JLL, the changes will have a clear beneficial effect for shops, above all due to the plan to widen the pavements, which will be undertaken to resolve the severe pedestrian (traffic) jams that the street suffers from on the weekends and during peak shopping times (…).

The new face of Gran Vía will require an investment of €9 million and is likely to be ready by the spring of 2019.

Original story: Expansión (by Loreto Ruiz-Ocaña)

Translation: Carmel Drake