Exxacon to Invest €200M in the Construction of 741 Homes in Andalucía & Madrid

28 February 2019 – Eje Prime

Exxacon Smart Living is stepping on the accelerator to expand its business. The Andalucían property developer, specialising in the residential market, is going to invest €200 million over the next four years to build 741 homes, distributed over twelve new developments in Andalucía and Madrid.

Within the coming weeks, the firm is going to unveil Living Colmenar, in Colmenar Viejo (Madrid), its first development outside of the Málaga and Costa del Sol area. The project will receive investment of €32 million for the development of a 156-home residential complex, the largest to be constructed by the company to date.

Exxacon, founded in Marbella in 2000 by Gastón Aigneren, the company’s current CEO and Chairman, is launching its expansion plan for the period 2019-2022, but at the same time will continue studying and considering investment in other markets, such as Valencia and Sevilla, according to sources at the company.

After consolidating its business on the Costa del Sol, the entry of the company into the residential market in the Community of Madrid is the real estate firm’s next challenge. The idea is to begin marketing Living Colmenar, which will have a buildable surface area of 17,400 m2, between March and April, and to start construction at the end of 2019.

The complex is going to be built on a plot acquired by Exxacon on Calle Alvarado in Colmenar Viejo, a municipality located to the north of the Community of Madrid, 39 kilometres from the centre of the capital. Living Colmenar will be a residential complex comprising 156 homes with various shared services, including: three swimming pools, a gym, a padel and fronton court and a children’s playground (…).

Original story: Eje Prime (by Roger Arnau)

Translation: Carmel Drake

The Capriles Family will Set the Tone for Operación Calderón with Flats Priced from €5,700/m2

14 February 2019 – El Confidencial

It is a question of weeks. Gran Roque, the investment vehicle owned by the Venezuelans Miguel Ángel and Áxel Capriles, is going to start marketing homes in its most affordable development in Madrid within the next few weeks. The development comprises 105 homes and is located just 600 metres from the Vicente Calderón stadium. The properties are going to be put on the market for €5,700/m2. That price will, undoubtedly, serve as a reference for the potential buyers of the plots in the future Operación Mahou-Calderón, which is currently on standby until the plans for the urbanisation and Reparcelation of the area have been definitively approved.

As reported by El Confidencial, in October 2017, the Venezuelan clan purchased buildable land from Prosegur, just a few metres from where Operación Calderón is going to be built. For that plot, which has not required any type of urban development procedure and which is designated for residential use, as provided for in the General Urban Development Plan (PGOUM) for Madrid dated 1997, they paid around €25 million, approximately €2,900/m2. That price is close to those what is being considered for the plots owned by Atlético de Madrid.

According to explanations provided to El Confidencial by various sources, the development comprises five 5-storey buildings – except for one that has 4 storeys – and to optimise the price, Gran Roque has decided to start by marketing just two of the blocks, which contain 55 flats. In other words, like other property developers have been doing in Madrid, if the first homes maintain a high rate of sales, all indications are that the prices in the subsequent phases will be higher.

The construction permit will be ready by the end of April or the beginning of May, and so the marketing cannot officially begin until then. Nevertheless, 20% of the 55 units have already been reserved, according to assurances given by those same sources.

The project includes 2-, 3-, and 4-bedroom homes, all of which have a parking space and storeroom included in the price. The smallest units will go on the market from €450,000 plus VAT; the 3-bedroom homes will start at €550,000; and the largest homes will cost more than €600,000. That equates to a price of €5,700/m2, which is very high for many Madrilenians, but well below the prices typically charged for luxury developments.

Located just a few metres from Madrid Río and the Río Manzanares, the development will contain two swimming pools (one for children and one for adults), a gym, a children’s play area, a bicycle room and 24-hour surveillance, amongst other features. In total, it will have 1,719 m2 of common space (…).

Original story: El Confidencial (by E. Sanz)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Caledonian Buys 10,000 m2 of Land in Central Madrid For Residential Development

14 September 2018 – Eje Prime

Caledonian has increased its land portfolio in Madrid, but this time it has done so in the centre of the Spanish capital. The property developer has purchased a plot spanning 10,000 m2 in the Chamartín district of the city centre. The company plans to construct a residential development on the site, which it will add to the two that it already owns in the municipality of Pozuelo de Alarcón.

The objective of the construction company is to convert an industrial plot into a residential one. On the site, located on Calle Javier Ferrero, the company is planning to build different types of apartments with between one and four bedrooms.

Like on other occasions, Caledonian is going to collaborate this time with the architecture studio MK27, led by the Brazilian Marcio Kogan, to carry out the design of the urbanisation. The development will also have common areas with a gym and indoor and outdoor swimming pools.

The company, founded in 1998 by Enrique López Granados, plans to start work on the construction of the homes at the beginning of 2019. The project managers confirm that the construction work will take approximately one year.

Caledonian’s turnover in 2017 amounted to €25 million. The firm focuses its activity on the north-west of Madrid with projects that include several residential developments containing more than thirty homes.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Metrovacesa Invests €175M in Torre del Río Residential Project in Málaga

13 September 2018 – Eje Prime

Metrovacesa is backing the Malagan residential market. The property developer is going to invest €175 million in the Torre del Río residential project in the city of Málaga. The proposal involves the construction, on a surface area spanning 58,368 m2, of three residential properties, distributed over 21 storeys and with the capacity for more than 250 homes.

Each tower will house around 75 large homes, two swimming pools, a gym, a gastrobar, a coworking area and a movie theatre. The first units are expected to be handed over at the beginning of 2021.

The construction of the project is going to generate 1,500 direct and indirect jobs and is going to be led by Estudio Lamela, the company that won the architectural tender to construct Torre del Río. In the vicinity around the three skyscrapers, 39,131 m2 of space will be dedicated to free public areas and 12,648 m2 will be allocated for school, sports and social uses, as well as a building for tertiary and hotel use.

According to the developers of the project, “the urban development of this area is going to allow the recovery for Malaga of old industrial enclaves along the Antonino Banderas seafront on Calle Pacífico.

The Torre del Río residential development follows another investment undertaken by Metrovacesa in the south. In June, the listed property developer signed an agreement with the Town Hall of Sevilla to unblock the largest real estate development in the Andalucían capital at the moment.

That project is going to be located in Palmas Altas and will comprise more than 2,800 homes, of which 2,200 will be constructed by Metrovacesa. In terms of investment, access and the urbanisation of the land, the Spanish property developer is going to invest €60 million, funds that will come from a corporate loan that it signed with seven entities at the end of 2017.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Habitat Inmobiliaria Revives a 186-Home Development in Camas (Sevilla)

30 July 2018 – La Vanguardia

Habitat Inmobiliaria has acquired almost 12,000 m2 of land in the Sevillan town of Camas to build a new residential development comprising 186 homes that will involve an investment of more than €30 million. According to the company, the plot on which the new development will be located has a total buildable surface area of 23,357 m2 and the project will allow the re-launch of a development that was first started back in 2009. The marketing of this development will begin at the end of this year.

Specifically, the development will contain 186 homes in total and 277 parking spaces. It will have common areas with green spaces, playgrounds and swimming pools and four commercial premises. According to the property developers, the project is located around 20 minutes from the centre of Sevilla by car and just a few minutes from the bus stop that connects with the regional capital.

According to Habitat Inmobiliaria, the purchase of this plot forms part of the land acquisition plan that the group has launched and the project will be added to the more than 1,400 homes that the company currently has under construction. This operation follows other land purchases made by the firm in Collado Villalba and Móstoles in Madrid and the plots in Entrenúcleos in Dos Hermanas and Mairena del Aljarafe, both in Sevilla.

Currently, Habitat Inmobiliaria has a presence in the Andalucian provinces of Málaga, Córdoba and Sevilla and is interested in continuing to invest in the region, where the company has four developments up for sale and where it is planning to start on new residential developments in the coming months.

Original story: La Vanguardia 

Translation: Carmel Drake

Gestilar Launches Plan to Address Mallorca’s Scarce Housing Supply

6 July 2018 – Eje Prime

Gestilar is thinking about the Mediterranean. The property developer has started the summer by marketing the first 89 homes that it is building in Mallorca. As part of its €123 million investment plan, the real estate company is going to build 400 homes over the next few years in Palma across three developments in the Nou Llevant area, to the south-east of the city.

Mediterrània 1, the residential development through which the real estate firm has arrived in the Balearic Islands, is going to comprise homes with two, three and four bedrooms. It is designed for locals, both first-time buyers as well as those looking to reposition”, explain sources at Gestilar speaking to Eje Prime.

On an island with a “shortage of structural supply and economic stability”, Mallorca has become “one of the most desirable markets in Europe for investing in the real estate sector”, according to Raúl Guerrero, Director of Developments at Gestilar.

At the end of 2017, the property developer led by Javier García-Valcárcel purchased three plots in the Balearic capital with a total surface area of 55,300 m2. “We set our sights on Palma due to the shortage of new housing projects that have been built there in recent years”, explains Guerrero, who highlights the “the pent-up and unfulfilled demand” that exists in the city.

The first of the developments comprises several four- and seven-story blocks with their ground floors allocated to commercial premises. The design of the project has been entrusted to the Spanish architecture studio L35, which has created an urbanisation with substantial common areas.

Located 500 metres from the beach and the port of Portixol, Mediterrània 1 will have communal spaces with a swimming pool, a gym and a games area for children. The construction of the first phase is due to start between the last quarter of this year and the first quarter of 2019, with the aim of handing over the first keys before the end of 2020.

“There is space for new projects in Palma” 

Gestilar’s interest Palma is not the first from a Spanish residential property developer in recent months. A few days ago, the listed company Aedas Homes put on the market its fourth project in the Balearic capital and several other companies are working to begin projects this year.

This growing interest in Mallorca comes in response to the sales rates on the island that place it at the top of the ranking in the residential sector, behind Madrid and Barcelona. “It is still too early to assess the rates of our own developments, but for the last few months, we have been monitoring and updating our market research, and the results of this analysis reveal a high rate of marketing in the area”, explains Guerrero (…). According to the director of Gestilar, “there is space for new projects in Palma”, where the property developer has already opened an office.

In this regard, the property developer believes that Palma is going to be one of the cities, like Madrid, Barcelona and Bilbao, that will look to improve its positioning abroad. In the Balearic capital, we are seeing a recovery in terms of property development activity, where a significant number of developments have started to be marketed between December 2015 and October 2017, which means that home completions are now growing, according to Gestilar (…).

Original story: Eje Prime (by J. Izquierdo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Tauro Real Estate Buys Torre Ámbar in Madrid

3 July 2018 – Eje Prime

The new Tauro Real Estate is rearing its head in the Spanish residential market. The fund, which is now under the mandate of Globe Invest, the Israeli company that acquired the firm in April by paying €180 million to its former shareholders, has recently purchased Torre Ámbar in the centre of Madrid.

In the middle of May, Globe Invest, owned by the multi-millionaire Teddy Sagi, acquired the rights to purchase the residential block from the Inveriplus group. The tower comprises 64 prime homes very close to Paseo de la Castellana, according to confirmation from sources involved in the operation. The amount of the transaction has not been revealed. The vendor in this operation, Inveriplus, is a group dedicated to investment in real estate assets for their subsequent management and value generation. The company, which is headquartered in Madrid, is led by Óscar Bellette.

The asset has been acquired after the clean-up that Inveriplus conducted of the tower. It, in turn, had purchased the homes during the crisis from several merchants of the Proinlasa real estate group. For the last few years, the manager has succeeded in leasing the block in its entirety.

Torre Ámbar is one of the skyscrapers that comprises the residential area of Isla Chamartín, located to the north of Madrid. The building, whose first homes were handed over in 2009, was designed for sale, but the change in economic cycle forced a change in the objectives and it was put up for rent in 2014.

The sale was signed “at market price”, according to sources close to the operation speaking to Eje Prime. “The returns that the property could generate are of much greater interest than the purchase opportunity”, say the same sources.

Torre Ámbar comprises luxury one and two bedroom homes, as well as several studios. The urbanisation is private and has security gates, a swimming pool, garages and storerooms, a padel court and private green spaces, according to Proinlasa’s corporate website.

The owner of the property has real estate assets for sale and rent in Madrid, Valladolid, Palma and Córdoba. In its property development plan, the group says that, in addition to residential land, it is also backing the tertiary and industrial market.

The owner of Camden Market’s commitment to Spain

Teddy Sagi is an Israeli multimillionaire and owner of the renowned Camden Market in London. The businessman, through Tauro Real Estate, has acquired 600 homes spread between Madrid and Barcelona.

Tauro has fattened up its portfolio in less than four years with the purchase of assets, primarily from banks, involving the investment of up to €160 million. In Madrid, it owns 350 homes and in Barcelona, it has another 250 properties. In the Catalan capital, it owns tourist apartments, which comprise 30% of the assets that Tauro owns in the city (…).

Original story: Eje Prime (by J. Izquierdo & P. Riaño)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Habitat Inmobiliaria to Build 79 Homes in Collado Villalba (Madrid)

5 June 2018 – El Mundo

Habitat Inmobiliaria has acquired a plot of buildable land in Collado Villalba (Madrid) measuring more than 6,600 m2 on which it is going to build a new real estate development comprising 79 homes and 119 parking spaces distributed over a single 4-storey block. According to a statement from the company, which specialises in the development and construction of residential projects, the two- and three-bedroom homes, will have a useful surface area of between 74 m2 and 94 m2 each, and will all have a terrace. The urbanisation will also have extensive green spaces and a swimming pool.

The future urbanisation is located in Collado Villalba, on Calle Cañada Real, on the corner of Santa Teresa de Jesús and bordered to the south by the Guadarrama River. The area is fully equipped with facilities, schools, nurseries, a doctors’ surgery and supermarkets, and has excellent access to the A6 motorway with connections to Madrid in less than 20 minutes.

The marketing of this new real estate development will begin over the coming months and the scheduled date for the start of the construction work is the third quarter of 2019. In terms of delivery, the homes are expected to be ready by the second quarter of 2021.

Habitat Inmobiliaria indicates that “the acquisition of this plot forms part of the land acquisition plan that the company has launched and which will be added to the more than 1,000 homes that it already has under development”.

Original story: El Mundo (by S.V.)

Translation: Carmel Drake

ACR Acquires Land in Sevilla for €5M to Build 157 Homes

29 May 2018 – Eje Prime

ACR is launching operations in Andalucía. The real estate group has invested €5 million in the purchase of a plot land in Sevilla, its first project in the autonomous region. Spread over three developments, the company is going to build 157 private family and cluster homes.

ACR’s property developer division has acquired a plot measuring 22,000 m2 in the municipality of Mairena del Aljarafe, very close to the Sevillan capital. In that town, the real estate group is going to build family homes with four bedrooms, two garages each and a private garden, as well as a communal swimming pool. Meanwhile, the apartments will be distributed over two six-storey blocks and will have between two and four bedrooms, according to explanations provided by the company.

The first development will comprise 48 homes; the second 69 homes; and the third will be the smallest with 40 homes up for sale. The project in Sevilla will serve as the launch pad for ACR in Andalucía, and the firm is already considering new purchases as part of its national expansion objective. Levante is another “established market”, which is of interest to the group. Currently, ACR has 2,000 homes in its development portfolio.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Paraguayan Magnate Buys Luxury Development on c/General Oráa 9

8 April 2018 – El Confidencial

A new Latin American investor has entered Spain’s luxury residential market. The person in question is Carlos Gill Ramírez, a businessman who was born in Paraguay and who also has Venezuelan citizenship. He has just purchased the high-end development at c/General Oráa 9 in Madrid from Platinum Estates, according to sources.

This sale is the first divestment that the Asian fund has carried out in Spain and forms part of the asset rotation policy that it has launched for its first Spanish fund, to focus on raising and investing €500 million in its new vehicle.

For Gill, this acquisition represents the first step in his growth plans in the country, where he has constituted the company Sari Holdco with a view to continuing to star in operations that will allow him to create his own real estate empire. Uría has represented the Latin American businessman in the purchase of General Oráa and Garrigues has represented Platinum, whilst Engel & Volkers has acted as the advisor.

Having obtained all of the necessary authorisations from the Town Hall of Madrid, construction of this luxury development is almost 70% complete. It will allow the transformation of this building, dating back to 1926, into 10 high-end homes, measuring between 348 m2 and 409 m2 each, plus two penthouses measuring 500 m2, with 250 m2 dedicated to a solarium and private swimming pool. The sales prices range between €3.6 million and €10 million per home.

Since Platinum acquired this development from the Catalan firm Renta, four years ago, it has always been said that it would be aimed at Latin American buyers interesting in owning a home in the Salamanca neighbourhood. Nevertheless, nobody imagined that a businessman from the other side of the Atlantic would also end up taking over the entire project, with the objective of finishing the construction work and putting it on the market.

Industrial wealth

Born in Paraguay, in July 1956, aged just six, Carlos Gill moved with his family to Venezuela, where he ended up being an honorary counsel for his native country. After studying Dentistry at the Central University of Venezuela, the businessman participated in important restructurings such as those of Banco Unión, Mercedes-Benz Venezuela, Grupo Corimón, Banco Capital, Banco Canarias de Venezuela and Bancentro Banco Comercial.

He is currently the President of Grupo Corimón, a Venezuelan corporation that operates in the paint, chemical product and flexible packaging sectors. The firm claims to be the largest conglomerate of its kind on the entire sub-continent and its shares are listed on the Caracas Stock Exchange.

Moreover, four years ago, Gill purchased a controlling share of Ferroviaria Oriental, the company that operates the railways in the east of Bolivia and, months later, he did the same with the country’s western network, by acquiring Ferroviaria Andina from the Chilean firm Luksic. Recent operations include his purchase of Bridgestone Firestone Venezuela.

Original story: El Confidencial (by Ruth Ugalde)

Translation: Carmel Drake