Banks sell 80.000 properties in their web pages with great discounts.

The institutions decided to get rid of the real estate weight, reduce the price of their properties up to 78%. They offer favorable financing for more than 160.000 properties, half of which are homes. The shop windows of the real estate companies are constantly on sale, with products on clearance sale and discounts of nearly 80%.

Due to the summer season, most offers focus on holiday properties, mainly on the Mediterranean coast, where most of the stock of the banks is concentrated. The offer is not only limited to flats, but offers a whole range of assets. The web sites offer a wide selection of more than 160.000 properties, half of which are homes. The rest is divided between trade premises (9703), offices (1330), industrial units (2146) and garages and storage rooms (50650).

The arrival of the so called bad bank starts to show its effects: the institutions have granted more discounts, in view of the pressure of this competitor, which has more than 50.000 homes.

Apart from this, the great provisions carried out last year by the institutions have left some margin for maneuver to grant additional discounts on the starting prices.

Additionally, banks are offering mortgages with favorable conditions for those buying homes: financing of up to 100% of the value of the asset, payment terms of more than 40 years and moderate interest rates.

Santander

The real estate company of the first Spanish bank sells through its web page www.altamirasantander.com  properties located all around Spain. With the slogan Altamira, where your future lives, the institution promotes homes, but also trade premises, industrial units and even a hotel. Most of the assets are located in Andalusia, Valencia, Catalonia and Madrid. Among its wide offer there are homes in Tarragona for a little more than 50.000 Euros and homes in the exclusive Velazquez Street in Madrid for nearly two million Euros.

The institution offers special conditions for the sale of properties, such as financing of 100% of the value at 40 years with interest rates of Euribor plus 125 and 200 basic points, depending on the link with the customer.

Also, Santander Real Estate allocates a space for professional investors where it presents catalogues of properties (located in Andalusia) and developments under construction which have been paralyzed or are being commercialized. There are also catalogues for land, for individuals (single family plots) and for investors.

BBVA

Through the web site www.bbvavivienda.com, the institution puts within reach of potential buyers more than 35.000 properties. Most of the assets are in Catalonia, Up to the end of June, it maintains the campaign “Put a price on your house”, where it shows a selection of more than 2000 homes, with discounts of nearly 92% where the buyer has the last word.

At the same time, until September, it offers 700 holiday properties, with a mortgage of 108 Euros per month, and a discount of nearly 50%. The institution finances up to 100% of the buying price at 40 years. The interest rate depends on the customer. BBVA also offers a virtual shop window of its properties in Portugal, where it shows properties in Lisbon from 87.500 Euros

Bankia

Bankia Habitat, the real estate subsidiary of BFA, puts the “for sale” sign on more than 13.000 properties. In order to boost its sales, it is now carrying out open house days so as to show its properties in Castellón, Valencia, Cuenca, Valladolid, Málaga, La Rioja, Gerona, Zaragoza and Lerida. Apart from this there are also online bids, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, with properties in Alicante from 73.000 Euros and row houses in the mountains in Madrid for around 100.000 Euros. It also offers homes Km zero (brand new, but with a second hand price) with discounts of up to 28%. Its web, also has an outlet corner, where it is possible to buy a homes from 9500 Euros.

CaixaBank

The web site of the Catalan group Servihabitat.com shows 25.647 properties, half of which are homes, with a wide offer in Barcelona, Valencia and Seville. Through the campaign “Homes for all budgets”, the institution proposes that the buyer decides how much it wants to pay. The online real estate company also gives out an Ipad2 to those users that recommend properties to friends, if finally the operation is closed. Also, the customers linked to CaixaBank in some of its programs have an additional discount of 5% on the selling price.

The web of ServiHabitat is one of the most visited real estate sites in Spain. It now has a specific section of rental homes, www.servihabitat.com/alquilafacil.

Source: Expansión

Botín launches a mortgage to finance properties from Sareb.

Santander has just launched a specific financing line of up to 1000 million Euros to facilitate the acquisition of properties and other assets from the bad bank, Sareb.

For this reason it launches its Supermortgage-Sareb Santander, which will be commercialized in the network of the bank and that will finance the principal home in up to 30 years, for a maximum of 80% of its valuation and at a minimum price of Euribor+2,25%. For second residences, the maximum financing is of 60% of the value, with datelines of more than 25 years, from Euribor+ 3%.

Apart from the homes, Santander will finance the acquisition of non residential real estate assets in the hands of Sareb, such as industrial units, trade premises, or hotels.

This agreement – signed until 2014, but extendable- will allow potential buyers to have an additional source of financing in “favorable” conditions that will make it easier to buy any of the 55.700 properties in the hands of the “bad bank”.

The properties´ company had recently announced that it wanted to reach financing agreements with financial institutions, and this would be the first one with a bank that has not transferred assets. It has already signed such agreements which those institutions that transferred assets.

Sareb, which has a portfolio of 55.700 homes and other properties, is negotiating similar agreements. They are a key element in its sales policy.

Source: Expansión

Santander creates a subsidiary to speed up the sale of properties.

Santander wishes to speed up the sale of its portfolio of properties with a new organization of this activity. For this reason it has founded a new subsidiary, Altamira Real Estate Distribution, which will be in charge of the commercialization of these products.

The new institution takes on all commercial competences which until now had been in the hands of the real estate company of the group, Altamira Real Estate, which will from now on concentrate on administrative tasks.

The subsidiary starts with a capital of 2,5 million Euros. Its president, Eduardo Quintana, holds the same position in the real estate company of the group, but the members of the board are different in the two institutions.

The target of Altamira Real Estate Distribution is to reach a greater specialization in the sale of properties, one of the main objectives of the group.

The requirements of efficiency when getting rid of this type of assets are greater after the entrance of Sareb into the market. , which has received properties from the weaker institutions and that will progressively get rid of them in the next fifteen years. Anyhow,  the institution declares that Sareb is not a direct competitor and will not condition its offer, as both institutions target different markets.

Santander offers 8766 new and second hand properties in the website of Altamira Real Estate, scattered around Spain. Valencia, with 841, is the city with more assets. Las Palmas, with 72 and Barcelona with 640, follow.

The institution has launched a campaign with discounts of 25% on the market price. These discounts are a constant in most real estate subsidiaries from banks in order to adjust to the market situation and the fall of prices.

Santander sold last year 33500 properties with a discount of 51%. These operations reduced its exposure to the construction business (12500 million Euros in 2012 from the 24900 million Euros at the end of 2011) after the effort in provisions carried out by the institution.

During the first quarter of 2013, the bank has gotten rid of 4500 properties and its target is to close the year with the sale of 20000.

Altamira Real Estate, the bad bank of Santander, had losses of 609 million Euros last year and the group carried out a capital extension of 987 million Euros in order to restore its financial situation. The capital of the real estate company after these operations reaches 1112 million Euros.

The group has contributed to the social housing fund with 590 properties to rent. Santander has contributed with 441 and Banesto, with 149.

The fund has 5981 properties scattered around 33 financial institutions, the rural saving banks included. Bankia is the one that has contributed more, with thousand properties, followed by BBVA, with nine hundred properties, and Caixabank with a total of 943.

This method was created at the beginning of the year with the drive of several Ministries, the Bank of Spain and the Spanish Federation of Municipalities.

Source: Expansión

Banks take over from developing companies.

The financial institutions are not only the biggest sellers and gatherers of properties in Spain. They are also the ones who build more and the only ones to sell properties off plan, apart from the cooperatives. Two years ago some of them took the first steps to try to increase the value of the plots in their hands, but now all those who did not transfer their assets to Sareb are doing that, Santander and BBVA being the ones who are developing more the role of developing bank.

Madrid is their favorite testing ground, where they are experimenting all different possibilities. Mainly, because Madrid is the most active market in the first residence segment and the one offering less risks. This is why there are at least 15 developments where banks are assuming a leading role.

In 2011 Bankia and Catalunya Caixa were the first ones to try this option. They transferred the land and granted a to the company Vía Célere in order to develop and sell three developments in relatively secure areas in Madrid, a formula that the analysts within the sector call “operation crane”. The works continue and so do the sales, but the credits that were granted have been transferred to Sareb. Time has passed, reality has set in and, as there are no solvent building companies within the sector, banks have chosen to become developing companies.

In Anida, the real estate subsidiary of BBVA, they admit it. “We have – only in Madrid – a portfolio or more than 20 plots, with different sizes and development stages, with significant locations such as Antonio López, Méndez Álvaro or Serrano”, they explain. “There are numerous projects being studied right now that will start in the short and medium term in most districts”, they add.

The last one to join this movement, less than one month ago, was Kutxa Bank in Vallecas, with a development – Jardines del Sureste – which, for many will mark a milestone in the battle for the demand in Madrid, as the homes have been put on sale for 1600 Euros per square meter. “They are bringing down prices radically. Until recently, operations were closed based on values of 2000 Euros per square meter – building value plus impact of the land – and now they are selling finished properties well below that level”, as declared by sources from a trading company. La Caixa and BBVA are also building in Vallecas, although at higher prices, as they started to market them earlier.

Plots are the most unwanted asset in the hands of banks since the Government and Brussels obliged to cover up to 80% of their value in books more than one year ago. And although many of them would like to get rid of them rapidly, the real estate sector has lost weight so dramatically and is so risky that there are no buyers. Not even for those plots that could be valuable if the market goes up.

But this year and once the loss has been accounted for, the institutions do not have anything to lose. On the contrary. For this reason banks have been selecting and preparing those plots where they will build or that can have any value in the future because, once the losses have been covered in 2012, any operation which might increase their value would have a profit. (…)

Currently Altamira Santander Real Estate is marketing four developments off plan in Madrid. Each one of them is aimed at a different demand, but most of them are small sized, looking for buyers indifferent to risk. (…)

Although Altamira does not wish to reveal its plans, the number of residential plots in their balance is rather high. The catalogue published in April reveals that the plots in the capital would allow the building of more than 600 homes. And these are not all. (…)

Most banks are choosing the same method to promote. They create small coordination teams in their real estate subsidiaries that hire an architectural firm, a building company and an engineer that acts as the manager of the project. They are appointing middle sized construction companies, not too affected by the crisis, like Arpada, Ortiz, Oproler or Avintia.

They are also surrounded by real estate consulting companies, that value the possibilities of the land based on the possible acquirers and establish the selling price. With such a low demand, this is the most tricky part. (…)

Generally banks are offering the projects and its marketing through tenders, dividing the game between companies certified by the own banks. (…)

BBVA is one of the banks that most resorts to this division of tasks. It gathers four developments in Madrid, 15% of the total developed in Spain by this institution. (…)

The Basque bank announced an investment plan of 100 million Euros in those residential developments which offered a profit until 2018. (…) Other institutions do not offer any information on their developing strategy (…)

Source: El Mundo

Santander sells 300 million Euros in consumer loans to a vulture fund.

The Santander group has sold a portfolio of 300 million Euros in default consumer loans to Elliott Management, with a discount of 96%. This vulture fund, which keeps a virulent dispute with Argentina on the release of its sovereign debt, intends to do more operations in Spain.

The multimillionaire Paul Singer, public enemy number one in Argentina, lands in Spain. This investor has acquired a portfolio of default consumer credits from Santander Consumer Finance through its fund Elliott Management with a nominal value of 300 million Euros. Official sources from Santander declined any comments on this operation.

The price paid by Singer´s investing company is practically symbolic: around 12 million Euros, according to sources within the market. The difficulty in being able to recover anything from a portfolio of 87000 operations leads banks to offer bargain prices in order to get rid of them.

For Elliott Management, founded in 1977 by Paul Singer and with 21000 million dollars (16170 million Euros) in managed assets, this operation is the beachhead for future acquisitions in Spain. The group has available funds and considers that the current situation of the Spanish financial sector presents good business opportunities.

The majority of loans within the sold portfolio are for the purchase of cars, although there are also personal loans and for companies. The average amount is 3500 Euros.

The Santander group has closed similar operations during the last few months. In October 2012 it sold a portfolio of loans with a nominal value of 1000 million Euros to Bank of America Merril Lynch and in April 2012 it got rid of another 1000 million Euros in consumer loans, which were transferred to Fortress, specialized in the purchase of default loans.

The company Gesif has participated as a consultant in the operation, in order to measure the recovery possibilities of this portfolio and will offer Elliott its services to manage those default loans.

Paul Singer´s preference for the acquisition of high risk assets has lead him to conflicts with several governments, once his firm has tried to charge its investments in sovereign debt.

The most notorious case was the open conflict with the Argentinian government. Singer keeps a legal claim against the South American country for the non payment of a debt of 370 million dollars (around 270 million Euros) accrued in 2001.

In October 2012, Singer managed the withholding of the vessel Libertad, training ship of the Argentinian army, by the Ghanan government, as an asset which could be seized for the payment of a debt, but finally it was liberated and it returned to Buenos Aires last week.

Source: Cinco Días