Tag: unsold

British Fund Behind Purchase of Benidorm’s Kronos Building for €20M

21 March 2018 – Alicante Plaza

A British fund is behind the purchase of most of the apartments in the Kronos building in Benidorm. According to local sources, of the more than 150 homes that are owned by Sareb, 136 are going to be taken over by a British fund. The operation is worth more than €20 million and just needs to be signed, something that should happen within the coming days.

As Alicante Plaza published on Tuesday, the so-called “bad bank” has managed to sell the properties that it owned in the city’s skyscraper in just one year. Around 20 homes have been sold to individuals, whilst the remainder will end up in the hands of a British fund.

But that is not the full story. It would seem that, at the end of last year, Sareb sold the storerooms and garages that it also owned in the building, the fifth highest skyscraper in Benidorm, and one of the tallest in Spain.

The tower has 41 storeys and was conceived as a luxury residential property: the structure occupies less than 20% of the plot. The remainder is used for common areas and recreation with two swimming pools, one for adults and one for children, a gym, a football pitch, padel and tennis courts, as well as extensive green areas.

The building was constructed by the Valencian property developer Grupo García Ojeda in 2005, and the keys were handed over three years later. But the crisis hit the sale of the apartments and ten years later almost all of the flats were still on the market

In this way, Sareb is getting rid of one of the skyscrapers that was hit the hardest by the “bursting” of the real estate bubble. It is worth remembering that Sareb rescued nine savings banks, including properties and loans to property developers. The latter was an operation that saw the skyscraper awarded to the “bad bank, whose debt used to belong to one of the companies owned by Grupo García Ojeda. Kronos has more than one link to Valencia, given that it was designed by the architecture firm MAPRC, which is also from that city.

Original story: Alicante Plaza (by Alba Mercader)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Strong Recovery In Madrid’s Market For New Homes

14 July 2015 – Cinco Días

The lack of new housing developments in Madrid in recent years means that the few blocks that have been built are being sold quickly, as the economic environment improves. So much so that the marketing company Foro Consultores has conducted the first comprehensive study of the new build segment, which not only estimates the size of the stock of new homes in the capital, it also calculates when that stock may be depleted if the current strong rate of sales continues.

The study, based on visits to all of the developments currently for sale and simulations of purchases or direct surveys at the sites, has focused on analysing the existing supply in new urban developments (Arroyo del Fresno, Montecarmelo, Las Tablas, Sanchinarro, Valdebebas, El Cañaveral, El Ensanche de Vallecas and Carabanchel), since those are the areas where the new builds are concentrated. Whole new buildings are the exception rather than the rule in the city centre and in the city’s more established neighbourhoods.

Foro Consultores begins its report by highlighting the number of new homes: currently the stock of new homes available for sale in Madrid amounts to 1,770, of which 781 are “free” and 989 are social housing (VPO) homes. That figure represents just 20% of the total number of buildings that have started to be built since 2010. Moreover, we are talking about very small numbers if we take into account that the study has analysed 102 developments in total, containing 4,001 “free” homes and 3,861 social housing homes, almost 8,000 homes, which came onto the market in recent years as turnkey properties or homes sold off-plan.

4.1 homes sold per development per month

The uptake of homes by region is not uniform. More than half of the new homes built in El Cañaveral, in the south of the city – the last development to get underway – have not yet been sold. Meanwhile, in other new neighbourhoods, such as Montecarmelo, less than 5% of the new homes or those under construction remain unsold. Furthermore, in Ensanche de Vallecas in 2007, there were almost 3,000 unsubsidised new homes for sale, but now there are just 166 left.

As well as the scarcity of supply due to the construction paralysis in recent years, one of the keys that explains the fast absorption of the stock is the acceleration in the rate of sales in recent months. Foro Consultores estimates that if no new developments come onto the market, then the excess would be depleted in just six months, at the current sales rate of 4.1 homes per development per month.

The study highlights that these 4.1 homes sold (per development per month) represents the sale of 5.3% of developments every 30 days, an average rhythm that has not been seen since 2003, and for unsubsidised housing, that figure is almost 5 homes per development per month, whereas during the crisis, it never exceeded one unit per month.

The study also shows that 79% of the developments on the market were started between 2010 and 2015, and of those 77% have already been sold.

In terms of prices, the report also highlights that in certain developments in El Cañaveral, the price of unsubsidised homes is lower than the price of VPO homes, which is not very typical in Madrid. “This shows that the social housing pricing model is out of synch with the market and that the promoters of unsubsidised homes have adapted better to the changes in conditions”, explained Foro Consultores.

In the areas analysed, the absolute prices of unsubsidised homes ranges between €77,000 and €657,000, with an average price of €273,021. Meanwhile, the prices of VPO homes range between €38,474 and €382,652, with an average price of €150,721.

Finally, the study concludes that by type of home, three-bedroom houses are in most demand. Meanwhile, the construction of studios and small flats, which were so fashionable during the boom, is now reducing.

Original story: Cinco Días (by Raquel Díaz Guijarro)

Translation: Carmel Drake