Tourist Homes Expect Losses of €2.9 Billion, but Predict a Recovery in 2021

In an interview with Brainsre.news, Tolo Gomila, the President of Fevitur, has warned that the losses on tourist homes due to Covid-19 already amount to €448 million. And he believes that they will reach €2.9 billion in total.

The Covid-19 pandemic has forced the suspension of almost all the economic and productive activity in the country. Spain is facing its greatest health crisis in decades, which will undoubtedly lead to a new economic crisis. Covid-19 has affected every sector of the economy, but one of the hardest hit has been tourism, which has been seriously affected by restrictions on the movement of people, the closure of hotels and homes for tourist use, ERTEs and the mass cancellation of accommodation, events and flights.

Tolo Gomila, President of the Spanish Federation of Tourist Home and Apartment Associations (Fevitur), has indicated, in an interview with Brainsre.news, that this segment of the economy expects to incur losses of €2.9 billion due to the pandemic. As such, it has demanded new measures from the Executive to address the crisis that has caused coronavirus in the country and the rest of the world.

Patron Capital Team Up with Property Developers to Invest €60M in the Residential Sector

10 June 2019 – Eje Prime

Patron Capital is on the hunt for property developers to team up with to invest up to €60 million in the residential sector in Spain over the medium term.

In this vein, the company has already signed its first two joint ventures through which it plans to invest €30 million. The names of the property developers in this case have not been revealed.

The fund’s investment formula through joint ventures sees it contribute 80% of the capital, with the remaining 20% provided by the property developers.

The company currently has eight investment vehicles in Spain, which invest in tourist apartments, retail parks and office buildings. The agreements with the two local property developers will be its first foray into the residential sector.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation/Summary: Carmel Drake

TM Grupo Inmobiliario to Invest €307M in a New Project in Murcia

25 February 2019 – Alimarket

TM Grupo Inmobiliaria has just added a new project to its portfolio in Murcia, which is going to be located in Águilas and which will be constructed over the next ten years.

In this way, last Thursday 21 February, the firm presented the urban plan know as the Partial Plan SUNP-II Costa Playa de la Cola alongside the Town Hall of Águilas. The project will involve an investment of €307 million, as well as the creation of 5,133 jobs over the ten years that its execution is expected to take place. Present at the event were Mari Carmen Moreno, mayor of Águilas (pictured above, second from left); Tomás Consentino, councillor for Town Planning (pictured above, second from right); Cristóbal Ruiz, Director of Development at TM Grupo Inmobiliario (pictured above, far left); and Agustín Rodríguez, architect of the project (pictured above, far right).

The Partial Plan SUNP-II Costa Playa de la Cola in numbers

Specifically, the future development, which will be similar to Mar de Pulpí in San Juan de los Terreros (Almería) forecasts the construction of 2,313 tourist homes in total, and also reserves one plot for hotel use. Moreover, and with the aim of becoming an example of sustainable development, the project will dedicate 270,000 m2 to a public natural park, which will include more than 7km of scenic routes along natural paths with lookouts and picnic areas. It will also have 130,000 m2 of public parks and gardens (…).

Grupo TM Inmobiliario, which has set itself the objective of handing over 4,000 homes between 2018 and 2020, is also present in the hotel segment (…) and recorded sales of €222.53 million in 2017, up by 45.8%.

Original story: Alimarket (by Mónica de la Fuente)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Qatari Fund ‘Sama Global’ Negotiates Investment in Marina d’Or

6 February 2019 – Expansión

Jesús Ger, the founder and owner of the Marina d’Or holiday city, is looking again at the Arab countries to find an investor with whom to consolidate his business project. And in that respect, all indications are that the Qatari investment fund Sama Global Investment is going to become the new financial partner of Marina d’Or.

Ger’s group, which has promoted and which manages the popular holiday city located in Oropesa del Mar (Castellón), has been actively looking to incorporate partners for years, especially since the end of the real estate bubble paralysed its investments in other countries and threatened the continuity of its property development business.

The business includes the Marina d’Or Golf project, which was the largest urban development plan undertaken by the Community of Valencia spanning a surface area of 18 million m2, which was suspended by the courts and due to a lack of funds. Initially, Ger was looking for capital willing to finance part of the colossal €6 billion investment forecast for the macro-urbanisation around the themed golf course and hotel.

In 2015, it was even understood that the Chinese group Wanda was going to acquire a majority stake in the Castellón-based group after reports were published to that effect by an official news outlet of the Chinese Communist Party. The truth was that, although Marina d’Or maintained contact with several Chinese investors, Wanda was not one of them.

Focus on the tourist business

Now, however, the interest of the Qatari fund is focused on Hoteles Marina d’Or, the company that manages the tourist activity in the Castellón resort and which includes seven establishments – two outside of the complex -, the rental of tourist apartments and the operation of the restaurant area, the spa and the attraction parks in the holiday city. In recent years, those activities have generated revenues of more than €40 million per year and, unlike the real estate business, they are still profitable.

The interest from Sama Global, which dates back to 2017, appears to focus on replicating the holiday city model in other international markets. In fact, the fund, which is headquartered in Doha, has already closed its first operation to become a partner in a property developer and operator in the Philippines, Premiere Horizon Alliance Corporation, which is listed in Manila (…).

Official sources from Marina d’Or acknowledged yesterday that conversations are being held with a Qatari fund, but they said that they are still in an initial phase and are not close to completion yet (…).

Original story: Expansión (by A.C.A.)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Venezuelan Investors Buy a Building in Málaga to Convert it into Tourist Apartments

30 January 2019 – Diario Sur

Operations involving the sale and purchase of buildings in the Historic Centre of Málaga, driven by the tourist boom in the capital, are continuing to rise. At the beginning of this month, this newspaper revealed the sale of the former Casa del Niño Jesús building to the company White Málaga, a group of investors of Jewish origin, who have set their signs on the city for the development of real estate projects, encouraged by the recovery of the market and advised by the consultancy firm Salvago Advisors. All indications are that that property, which used to be owned by the Church, is going to become a project for tourist apartments, like the many others that are already operating or being constructed in the Centre.

And the same thing looks set to happen to the building located at number 22 Plaza de la Merced, on the northern corner with Calle Victoria. According to reliable sources, that property has been acquired by the company Orinoquia Real Estate, which is backed by investors from the Capriles group, a family saga of Venezuelan businessmen living in Spain with million-euro investments in the country’s major capitals such as Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia. This sale and purchase operation, whose amount has not been disclosed, has been managed by the real estate consultancy Savills Aguirre Newman (…). .

According to sources consulted by this newspaper, the plan is to convert the property into tourist apartments, which could be operational within just four months. The same sources reveal that the project to refurbish the building, which is in a good condition, is very advanced and the new owners are just waiting for the building permit to be granted by the Town Hall.

The building has a grade 1 listing protection and forms part of the northern façade of the Plaza de la Merced, which makes up the so-called Casas de Campos. The property dates back to the 19th century and bears the name of its builder, the promoter of the era, Antonio Campos (…).

Economic injection

This apartment project is going to be carried out by the Socimi (…) Orinoquia Real Estate, in which the Capriles injected an initial investment of €40 million to develop businesses in the first-rate tourist apartment sector.

The real estate business of the Capriles family in Spain comprises luxury housing development and renovation projects, although it is also worth highlighting their €5 million investment in the Bluemoon tourist apartments in the centre of Valencia. Their corporate network in the country is made up of more than twenty companies dedicated to real estate development, the sale and purchase of buildings and rental. Together, they have assets amounting to €125 million in total, according to information published in recent months (…).

Original story: Diario Sur (by Jesús Hinojosa)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Baraka Invests €60M in the Construction of 2 Skyscrapers in Torrevieja

21 January 2019 – Idealista

Trinitario Casanova is on a roll with Baraka. Baraka Properties, the group’s arm specialising property development, has invested €60 million in the construction of two skyscrapers in Torrevieja, which will house more than 130 homes and 250 tourist apartments, according to explanations provided by the company to Idealista News.

The project is going to materialise into two 26-storey towers. Whilst the first will be dedicated to housing in its entirety, the second will be dedicated to hotel use. “Right now, the approval of the project is in the evaluation phase, although our plans are to finalise this first phase during the first quarter of the year”, explain sources at the group, “and once the project has been approved, we will request the licence”.

The land on which the two towers are going to be built is located on Avenida Doctor Gregorio Marañon, on the seafront next to the Doña Sinforosa park. “It is 200 metre from the marina, and all of the homes from the first floor up will have views of the sea. The homes from the fifth floor up will have 360º views”, say sources at Baraka Properties.

According to the company, these will be the first towers in the city, and the tallest to date. The other enclave with towers of this calibre is Benidorm. “The trend for tourists in the area is to look for more unique properties, with higher quality finishes, where they can be offered services like in an American condominium, and this plot fulfils all of those characteristics, both due to its location, and its scale/volume”, they conclude.

In total, 32,000 m2 of space is going to be built in the two towers, and by way of reference, the price per m2 of the penthouse will amount to around €7,000/m2, making it one of the most expensive developments in the area (…).

Original story: Idealista (by Custodio Pareja & P. Martínez-Almeida)

Translation: Carmel Drake

The Boom in Tourist Apartments Cools Down

3 December 2018 – Eje Prime

The boom in Airbnb and other collaborative economy platforms has removed thousands of flats from the real estate market in recent years. The high returns that owners receive from the overnight stays of tourists are behind the phenomenon, which has contributed to a decrease in the supply of rental homes available for residents and, therefore, to an increase in rental prices, especially in the large cities. Nevertheless, this phenomenon appears to have peaked.

At least that is according to the latest results from the Tourist Apartment Occupancy Survey published by Spain’s National Institute of Statistics (INE). In October, Spain had 133,567 tourist apartments registered as such in the corresponding registers of the tourism councils of each autonomous region, which represented a decrease of 6,976 units with respect to the same month in 2017.

The decrease in October is the third consecutive monthly fall and the sixth so far this year; it comes after a period of continuous increases, which started in 2015. The maximum stock of tourist apartments in recent years was recorded in July of this year, with 167,241 units, coinciding with one of the months during which this indicator rises the most. Nevertheless, in August, the number of registered apartments decreased by 3.2% YoY, before falling by 2.3% in September and by 5% in October.

The decrease in the number of establishments took place in the last year to October in the five autonomous regions with the largest supply of that type of apartment. In the Canary Islands, where 45,958 apartments were recorded in October, the YoY decrease amounted to 2.9%, with 1,350 fewer establishments.

The most marked decrease, amounting to 13.1%, was recorded in the Community of Valencia, which lost 3,662 apartments, bringing the total to 24,280. The decrease amounted to 1.2% in Andalucía (with a stock of 18,442 apartments), 10.3% in the Balearic Islands (to 17,479 apartments) and 5.6% in Cataluña (to 10,895 apartments).

On the other hand, although the general trend is a decrease, in some autonomous regions, the volume of tourist apartments is continuing to rise, with increases in the double digits in some places, such as in the case of Cantabria, with an increase of 27.6% compared to October 2017 and of 14.8% in Castilla y León.

Original story: Eje Prime 

Translation: Carmel Drake

MH Apartments Arrives in Madrid

29 November 2018 – Expansión

MH Apartments, the chain of tourist apartments founded by Javier Monguió (pictured below) in 2003, has just made its debut in Madrid with the opening of a building containing 24 apartments in the central square of Tirso de Molina and is preparing to open a new establishment in Prague, its third in the Czech city, containing 50 apartments.

With the incorporation of the building in Madrid and the upcoming opening, in March, of its third establishment in Prague, the company now has around fifteen buildings across three cities. With the two new openings, MH Apartments will have 250 apartments and around 1,300 beds.

The majority of its business is located in Barcelona, where it has 11 buildings. “Madrid formed part of our natural growth plans. This opening allows us to diversify our portfolio and take advantage of the boom in tourism in the city”, explains the founder and General Director of MH Apartments, Javier Monguió, in an interview with Expansión.

Original story: Expansión (by Rebeca Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Pierre & Vacances to Increase Revenues in Spain by 50% in 3 Years

28 November 2018 – Expansión

Pierre & Vacances, the vacation apartment, hotel and resort chain, wants to strengthen its presence in Spain with a growth plan over three years, which will allow it to achieve 80 establishments in Spain and Portugal and increase is turnover in the region by more than 50% to around €100 million by the end of 2021, compared to its forecast revenues of €65 million for 2018 and €85 million for 2019.

The French company, which has added six new establishments to its portfolio this year, will add another three properties next year, taking the total to 59 complexes and 5,000 apartments by the end of 2019.

Its plans for 2021 include having 80 tourist complexes in Spain and Portugal, containing between 6,000 and 6,500 units, according to Ghislain d’Auvigny, Director General of Pierre & Vacances in Spain, talking to Expansión.

One of the most recent openings includes Madrid, where the company has just incorporated apartments in the Eurobuilding 2, a building with 123 apartments at number 69 Calle Orense. This represents Pierre & Vacances’s debut in the Spanish capital and it joins other urban complexes that the company already has in Sevilla and Barcelona.

Pierre & Vacances, which arrived in Spain in 2005, employs around 1,200 workers in the country during the high season. “We will continue to take advantage of opportunities and to reach agreements with owners for the management, rental and marketing of complexes”, said D’Auvigny.

In parallel, the company is going to take advantage of purchase opportunities if it finds the appropriate assets, although it will subsequently sell them to third parties, be they funds or individuals, to maintain its policy of not owning any assets itself.

Original story: Expansión (by Rebeca Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Town Hall of Málaga Authorises Four Buildings for Tourist Apartments

16 October 2018 – Diario Sur

The boom in projects to build new tourist apartments in the Málagan capital continues apace. That is reflected in the list of activities that received building permits from the Municipal Urban Planning Department during the months of July, August and September, which will be submitted to the governing board of that Town Hall body tomorrow. The projects include four properties for tourist apartments, of which two involve the adaptation of existing buildings, and the other two the construction of new properties on separate plots, located in the Trinidad neighbourhood.

One of the authorised projects involves the construction of a building for 49 tourist apartments, 26 parking spaces and a swimming pool on the plot located at numbers 7, 8 and 9 Avenida de Fátima, located right next to the parish of the same name. It is being promoted by the company Pinar Concept. Similarly, around 200 m from that site, also in the Trinidad area, the Town Hall has granted a construction licence for another tourist apartment building, to be promoted by Inmoplan Promociones, which will be constructed on the plot at numbers 5 and 6, Plaza de Nuestra Señora de la Soledad, next to c/Don Juan de Austria.

The other two approved initiatives involve the conversion into tourist apartments of two residential-use buildings located at number 52 Calle Mariano de Cavia, in the Pedregalejo area, on the one hand, and at number 2 Calle Barroso, next to Calle Córdoba, on the other. As this newspaper already reported (refer to SUR18/9/2018), behind this latest activity in the Soho area is the chain Hotusa, which is planning to develop a project involving 42 tourist apartments through the company Tandem Apartments.

Student halls

On the other hand, on another plot of land in Trinidad, located at numbers 8 and 10 Calle Carril, the Urban Planning Department has approved the construction of a hall of residence for students promoted by the company specialising in internships for overseas students, Euromind Projects.

In addition, the Urban Planning Department plans to approve tomorrow the start of the procedure to declare the expiration of the permit that was granted in 2008 for the construction of an industrial, office and parking lot building at number 303 Avenida de Velázquez, next to the headquarters of Canal Sur. That project was started but only the structure was completed. In a letter to Aena in July, it was stated that in 2009, the obligations of the airport were modified and so currently its height represents “an obstacle” for manoeuvres for the approach and take off of planes from the runway.

Original story: Diario Sur (by Jesús Hinojosa)

Translation: Carmel Drake