Tag: Urban planning

Madrid City Council Gives Preliminary Approval to Operation Chamartín

29 July 2019 – Richard D. K. Turner

The Madrid City Hall gave conditional approval to the Madrid Nuevo Norte project, also known as Operation Chamartín, yesterday 25 years after it was first proposed.

The modifications to the General Urban Development Plan will be sent for final approval to the government of the Community of Madrid.

The mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida stated that they would maintain the project originally agreed to by the Ministry of Development, the private developer leading the project, Distrito Castellana Norte (DCN) and the Madrid City Council. The mayor added that construction is expected to begin in 2020 or 2021 and generate 200,000 direct jobs.

Community organisations and environmental groups such as the Regional Federation of Neighbourhood Associations of Madrid (FRAVM), Ecologists in Action and the North Zone Platform, stated that they would contest the development in court.

Original Story: El Diário

Santander Transfers Land Worth €4bn to a Newly Created Land Manager

18 March 2019 – Cinco Días

Santander is making history once again. The entity has created a company to which it is going to transfer all of the land proceeding from its exposure to property, which has a gross book value of around €4 billion (and a net value of around €2 billion).

The purpose of this new vehicle, known as Landmark Iberia, will be to advance with the urban planning procedures required to generate value from these plots and to continue selling the land, with the ultimate goal of selling the whole company if an attractive offer is received.

Landmark is not like any of the bank’s previous projects given that it is not a servicer. Its job is to generate value from the plots that it receives from Santander – it is the first entity of its kind in Spain.

The operation forms part of the group’s overall strategy to reduce its exposure to real estate, in accordance with the instructions of the Bank of Spain. Last year, Santander decreased the value of its exposure by 55.9% in gross terms to €15.1 billion, according to the entity’s annual accounts, thanks to its operations with Blackstone (project Quasar) and Cerberus.

Landmark will likely become the largest landowner in the country, alongside other major companies in the sector such as the property developer Metrovacesa and the fund Cerberus.

Original story: Cinco Días 

Translation/Summary: Carmel Drake

Eurofund Finalises the Entry of a Partner into its Project in Lleida & Starts Marketing

25 January 2019 – Eje Prime

Eurofund is taking another step towards making the Torres Salses retail park a reality. The company is finalising the incorporation of a partner into its project in Lleida, which will result in a global investment of between €80 million and €100 million. In parallel, Eurofund has now started to market the retail park.

According to explanations provided by sources in the sector speaking to EjePrime, the group is finalising the signing of an agreement with a capitalist partner to handle the investment that the complex will entail. It is a typical move within Eurofund’s strategy, which typically turns to partners to finance investments whilst the fund manager itself takes care of the management.

In parallel, Eurofund has now started the marketing phase of the retail park in Lleida, which will have a surface area of 56,000 m2. The company has started making contact with operators in the leisure (cinema), restaurant, DIY, furniture, gym and food sectors, typical firms in these types of developments.

The Torres Salses project, whose construction will begin in the autumn (2019), is located between the Magraneres and La Bordeta neighbourhoods of Lleida. The complex will become one of the few commercial and leisure spaces in the area.

Last October, Eurofund received the green light from the plenary of the Town Hall of Lleida to undertake the project. In December, Eurofund Parc Lleida signed an urban management agreement with the Town Hall to execute the widening and lengthening of the Víctor Torres road and the modification of the urban planning order for the Sur 42 sector of Torre Salses.

Subsequently, in the middle of December, Eurofund made effective the purchase from Sareb of 140,000 m2 of land in Torre Salses (Lleida). The purchase, carried out through Eurofund Parc Lleida, was completed after Eurofund successfully navigated Sareb’s processes, in particular, those relating to overseas investments.

Following those processes, Eurofund is now just waiting for the commercial licence to be granted for the retail park.

Grupo Eurofund currently owns retail assets amounting to more than €3.5 billion, including centres that it has constructed, as well as those still under construction. The fund manager was founded in 1994 and its first major development was Parc Vallès, in Terrassa (Barcelona).

The company is the owner of complexes such as Puerto Venecia in Zaragoza, and has an alliance with the British operator Intu to develop new shopping centres in Málaga, Valencia and Vigo. Over the last eighteen months, Eurofund Capital Partners has converted almost €350 million into real estate operations in Spain.

Original story: Eje Prime (by P. Riaño)

Translation: Carmel Drake

New Urban Planning Law Permits Legalisation of 350,000 Illegal Homes in Valencia

18 January 2019 – Valencia Plaza

Last Wednesday, the plenary of Les Corts approved a modification to the law governing ‘Territorial Planning, Urban Development and the Landscape’ in the Community of Valencia, better known as Lotup (‘la ley sobre Ordenación del Territorio, Urbanismo y Paisaje’), with votes in favour from the PSPV, Compromís and Podem. It is an update to legislation that, amongst many other issues, will allow the situation of around 350,000 homes constructed illegally right across the region to be legalised, according to figures published by the Generalitat Valenciana itself.

It is a controversial but necessary state of affairs, in the opinion of the Executive, which is supported by three political parties and which defends the need to give some order to a scenario inherited from previous legislatures through this initiative, as reported in Thursday’s edition of La Razón in Valencia.

When asked about the details, sources at the Housing Department explained to Valencia Plaza that these “homes, which were constructed on the margin of administrative approvals on non-developable land”, are characterised by the fact that “they lack certain basic urban services, in particular, sewerage systems”.

“After these buildings had been constructed, the passage of time since their construction gave rise to the expiry of the period for the Administration to act against them. And the legislation is lacking in terms of its ability to respond to this reality (…)”, they indicate.

According to their warnings in this regard, “the existence of these homes has an effect on the environment: the clear deterioration of the landscape that they generate and the dumping of wastewater into the subsoil without any controls or treatment, which is affecting the underground aquifers, the elimination of plant species (…) and the fragmentation of habitats”.

Individual processes for homes built prior to 2015

As a result, they highlight that “beyond safety, health and public aesthetics considerations”, the buildings and land “on any kind of land and whoever the owner”, must be conserved and maintained”, in accordance with the environment in which they are located and in accordance with the rules established by the urban planning legislation for them”.

For this reason, the reform of the law allows these residences to be legalised, although it limits itself “to buildings completed before the entry into force of Lotup (in 2015) (…)”.

According to the Housing Department, the legalisation of these homes “could be performed on an individual basis”, and they may be eligible for it “in all cases regardless of whether or not they have a file open”. Of course, provided they fulfil the requirements stipulated for it.

Solution to the ghost PAIs

Beyond that question, the update to Lotup seeks to provide a solution to the ghost PAIs. The reform reflects that in the case of urban planning projects that have been started but which have been suspended and which may have some viability, Town Halls have the option of dividing the sectors into smaller execution units so as to carry them out, step by step, and it extends the term to 10 years.

For those PAIs that are “anti-economic”, and which may be reversible, an inverse Reparcelation may be applied to return the plots to the previous legal situation and, therefore, remove the burdens on owners (…).

Original story: Valencia Plaza (by Dani Valero)

Translation: Carmel Drake

30% of the New Builds in Barcelona’s 22@ District will be Social Housing Units

19 November 2018 – La Vanguardia

The mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau, neighbourhood organisations and economic and social change agents have signed an agreement to modify the 22@ district, to provide it with more social housing and public transport and to avoid the gentrification of the neighbourhood. In this way, the main transformation will be that the percentage of land reserved for social housing in the northern area of the Catalan capital will increase from 10% to 30%. And most of that will be rental housing, although the plan is to also grant some land to cooperatives and social entities so that they can build protected flats in another form. Similarly, The Town Hall wants the 22@ district to be a space for trials and experimentation in the search for solutions to issues relating to housing and mobility.

The 22@ district comprises 200 hectares in Barcelona, which started to be transformed in the year 2000 and which has turned Poblenou into a hub for small and large technological companies. It is a model for long-term success that is now going to change its strategy to obtain a mixture of uses between tertiary and residential. For that reason, on the 80 hectares that are still left to be developed – above La Diagonal – the surface area dedicated to public housing is going to be increased. In total, between 5,000 and 6,000 new flats will be constructed in the space.

Ada Colau has highlighted the critical efforts that many players have made to be able to sign the document that reviews the 22@ district after 18 years of development. “It is a transcendental agreement for the city. Technological innovation is not enough to make a city”, said the mayor. In this sense, she highlighted the importance of building more housing to bring life to the neighbourhood.

The agreement that has been signed this morning establishes two areas within the technological district that will require Modifications to the General Metropolitan Plan in order to carry out the new transformation. On the one hand, the neighbourhoods of Provençals del Poblenou and Maresme, and on the other hand, the areas of Bogatell, Trullàs and Plata del Poblenou. Whilst in the first spaces, the idea is to obtain an equilibrium between offices and housing, increasing the land available for the construction of public homes, in the second, the plan is to declassify the whole area to preserve the old fabric of Poblenou. The experts understand that these buildings, due to their morphology, are not ideal for housing technological activities (…).

Original story: La Vanguardia (by Silvia Angulo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Castilla & León Reclassifies 28,315 hectares of Buildable Land Back to Rural Use

6 October 2018 – El Confidencial

Torquemada in Palencia has 989 inhabitants and sufficient buildable land on which to construct 162,000 homes. Coca in Segovia has 1,863 inhabitants and sufficient buildable land on which to construct 114,000 homes. Valladolid capital has 299,715 inhabitants and sufficient land on which to construct 217,293 new homes. They are just three simple examples of the urban planning absurdity seen in recent decades that is still present in almost every municipality in Spain.

Since the 1980s, and especially since the beginning of this century, town halls, in particular those in rural areas, have reclassified thousands of hectares of rural land to buildable land, on mass, in the hope that, during the boom times there would be a bureaucracy saving for the property developers, which would encourage them to invest, in both homes and industry. But the bubble burst (…) and thousands of buildable hectares were left over, converted today in a kind of weird joke.

Now, the Junta de Castilla y León wants to recover all of that land to return it to what it always was, agricultural and forestry land without any pretensions of being home to long rows of terraced houses or enormous industrial estates. The regional government has established three phases for the change of its land uses on mass.

It undertook the first phase in 2016, converting 10,000 hectares, and on 18 October this year, it will undertake the second phase, affecting 28,315 hectares, equivalent to half of the island of Ibiza or more than half of La Rioja. In total, 87 municipalities including several provincial capitals with capacity for one million potential homes that will now never see the light. The final mass change is planned for 2022. Goodbye then to the reckless optimism of the past; hello to a different future, one characterised by depopulation, which threatens to erase thousands of towns from the map (…).

“This is not Marbella, it was never realistic to think that large companies or property developers were going to come here to build homes. We have an industrial estate with five companies and we have lost 100 inhabitants in the last five years. A town cannot work miracles”, explains Jorge Domingo González, mayor of Torquemada, the rural municipality most affected by this second wave, which will modify 208 areas in Castilla y León (only 45 of them are industrial plots of land) on the basis of the urban planning law approved in 2014. “All of that land was reclassified not to build homes but to facilitate investment (…)”, explains the mayor of Torquemada.

Even so, many mayors did take advantage of the change to approve large residential developments, always under the suspicion, and sometimes rightly so, that they were going to be built with the sole objective of speculation and receiving an illegal bonus. That is where hundreds of ghost urbanisations in the middle of nowhere stemmed from; many are half-built, some even lack roads, but all have now been converted into a burden for municipalities, which do not have enough money to demolish them (…).

The town halls will not see any great benefits from this measure, but the owners of the land will do, since they will save a decent amount by no longer having to pay IBI (property tax) on urban land but having to do so on rural land, which is much cheaper. “In this way, we avoid uncertainties that have no sense in being maintained”, said Marinero…..

There is no record of any owner submitting claims against this change of use, although they have had four years to do so. That in itself is a clear sign that times have changed and that no one in the towns expects to win the lottery. If anything, they now just dream of not disappearing, to avoid being dragged away by the rural exodus.

Original story: El Confidencial (by David Brunat)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Aquila Capital Builds a New 1,300-Home Neighbourhood in Valencia for €350M

19 September 2018 – Valencia Plaza

In case anyone was in any doubt about the exponential growth being experienced in the real estate sector in the city of Valencia, Tuesday saw the announcement of the largest residential project launched in the city to date since the crisis. And the most interesting aspect: it is not one of the long-term investment projects. The new neighbourhood is a PAI (an integrated development plan), which has already been approved and the first homes are expected to be delivered in the Autumn of 2021.

The initiative comes from the property developer AQ Acentor, which belongs to the German investment fund manager Aquila Capital. The firm is going to build a development containing 1,300 homes and 75,000 m2 of tertiary space. “This operation, which exceeds €350 million, will see the creation of the largest residential urban planning development by a single developer in the country in the last decade”, said the company.

The chosen land is the PAI Fuente San Luis, an area that property developers have turned their backs on for years given its complex location, between the V-30 and V-31 motorways and the Nueva Fe train station – right next to the railway tracks that back onto the hospital – but which the resurgent recovery of the sector and the scarcity of land in the city have offered a new opportunity (…).

The space has a staggering 232,000 m2 of residential buildability, of which 130,000 m2 will be used by AQ Acentor to build 9 developments in total (4 social housing blocks and 5 private residential blocks), according to a statement issued by the firm. In total, 544 homes will be built for social housing purposes, according to the company.

15-storey towers

When asked about the project by Valencia Plaza, sources at the company explained that their plans imitate “the successful model of the Engineers Residential Park in Madrid”, another major project promoted by the brand after it acquired a significant portfolio of land from the public company Sepes. All of the buildings will have 15 floors and two of them will form part of a combined complex of 360 homes (180 plus 180, with a private garden area). The rest will be towers, of the same height, containing more than 100 homes each, located around a freely accessible green area.

Moreover, “the complex will have an enormous plot, measuring 79,000 m2, of very versatile tertiary land, which will be dedicated to various uses (commercial, hotel, social…)”, according to AQ Acentor, which explains that it has “several proposals on the table in this regard”. “No decisions have been taken yet, but the complex could be of interest for the creation of a hotel designed to serve people visiting the hospital, for the development of new offices…there is a lot of space, the idea is to achieve an attractive mix”, they say.

The area has 308,000 m2 of public space for green areas, as well as for educational, cultural and sports facilities, which will be completed with a large urban park measuring 33,000 m2. The company owns most of the plots, acquired formally from the firms Analyst and Proalival last July, but the Town Hall of Valencia also owns land in the area (in fact, it is the second largest owner). The rest of the plots belong, for the most part, to the former owners of the allotments on the site (…).

Original story: Valencia Plaza (by Dani Valero)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Goodbye to Galicia’s Concrete Blocks

29 August 2018

The Galician Regional Executive is imposing more orderly and aesthetic urbanism to municipalities without urban planning rules. The government is prioritizing the adaptation of new buildings to the environment and to traditional construction.

The wide range of municipalities with no urban planning, 215 of a total of 313, which had been governed by minimum standards dating to 1991 and which are already obsolete – three land laws have been approved since then -, will henceforth be subjected to a basic urban planning corpus, that sets outs more orderly urbanism and aesthetic rules. The new rules regulate everything from the appearance of canopies and roofing to the walls that surround farms. The Basic Regional Plan, which was published on Monday in the DOG, but will come into force in a few weeks when it is published in the four provincial bulletins, has a more protectionist bent for non-urbanized spaces and will be mandatory for those countries that lack their own planning. “Determinations of Basic Regional Plan will be binding on any municipalities that lack a general plan for municipal ordination, until they are endowed with such,” the text assures, incorporating the urbanistic and planning guidelines of the territory as approved in the last years by the Regional Executive, especially the Lei do Solo (Land Law) and its regulatory development, both approved in 2016.

Municipalities with less than 5,000 inhabitants may delegate their planning. The Basic Regional Plan, besides being the immediate legal framework for any municipalities lacking planning, will be the template on which the basic municipal plans should be elaborated, and include some urgent urban planning instruments that the Regional Executive will elaborate for those municipalities that ask for it expressly, delegating this function to the Regional Government. The Regional Executive thus assumes the important task of assisting the municipalities that lack the means to elaborate their own urban planning, delimiting the rural centres, the consolidated urban land and the rural version. However, in those municipalities that have a General Plan for Municipal Ordination (PXOM), the basic plan will have a complementary nature. In other words, it will fill the gaps in municipal planning without modifying land classification.

Standards for buildings

The buildings must be convergent and “with constructive aesthetic solutions.” The “anything goes” phase is over. Both the materials and the colours used in houses must be adapted to the environment and houses must be adorned “with characteristic features”, as well as ethnographic elements of interest such as balconies or galleries. Buildings must employ “constructive aesthetic solutions”, according to the rules of the Lei do Solo, “without major transformations or negative alterations”. In other words, the displacement of earth is limited.

Walls and Canopies

Goodbye to concrete blocks. The elements that close off farms must also be in harmony with the existing structure in the area. Opaque materials are limited to 1.5 meters. From there, vegetal or metallic elements must be used. The traditional walls – those of stone, for example – should be preserved and any new ones should be inspired by them. If the walls are built using new techniques, they must be justified. “The use of cement blocks or factory materials is prohibited unless they are duly covered and painted.”

The canopies and roofs of any houses should be adapted to the predominant style of each geographical area (roofing with slate or tile, for example). The use of corrugated sheet metal without covering is prohibited.

Facades

Integrated into the surrounding environment and with walls treated as facades. The facades must also be adapted to the characteristic construction of their surroundings. The walls should be treated as if they were facades, to avoid the terrible visual effect that occurs in many Galician towns. Service networks should preferably be placed underground. Thus, electric power lines must avoid “a strong visual impact” to avoid a mishmash of wiring. The buildings that are not in agreement with this directive will be able to do conservation works, without worsening their lack of compliance.

Height

Between 10 and 7 meters. In consolidated urban lands, one-floor houses cannot exceed 7 meters, while those with two floors should be limited to 10. In rural areas, the height may not exceed 7 meters.

Rural centres

The dwellings must be “completely” finished. Exposed brick or unpainted homes are prohibited. Detached or paired single-family homes are allowed. Only one dwelling is allowed per plot, and the occupation of the land may not exceed 50% of the net plot. Farms must have a minimum area of 300 square meters. The buildings must adhere to the constructive solutions provided for in the Lei do Solo. The typology of the constructions and the materials and colours used should not only be integrated into the environment, but all of their elements must be completely finished. “Exposed partitions are explicitly prohibited, as is the use of other materials without covering or painting.”

Town councils with problems approving their planning

Approvals for urban planning can be complicated, especially when there are platforms or individuals that successfully take legal action. This is the case of two Ourense towns. In the case of Verín, a year and a half ago, the Supreme Court vetoed its urban planning after a complaint by an individual. Curiously, the urban development document approved in 2012, was the second annulled by the court. In Monterrei, the document was also annulled by the Spanish high court. Both municipalities had been elaborating urban development plans for months. Something very similar has happened in the municipality of Abegondo, in the province of A Coruña.

In Cambre, the local government determined the redrafting of the PXOM in 2010, but the breach of the contract and errors of the packaging of the documentation made the current local government rescind the contract at the end of 2017 and reconvene a new tender. Regarding Noia, the plan was approved definitively a couple of years ago but was sent back by the Regional Executive. This was due to the lack of a hydrographic report that guaranteed the population’s water supply, among others. Meanwhile, Rianxo had already received approval, but during the elaboration process, the Lei do Solo changed and it was necessary to readjust it. In Carnota and Mazaricos they have also been trying to approve the plan for years.

Several municipalities on the Costa da Morte have been awaiting approval of the PXOM for years, without success. Sometimes, it is for judicial reasons, since the TSXG has just cancelled the initial planning of Muxía because it was not submitted for a strategic environmental assessment. Other municipalities lack rules for many reasons: lack of agreements, differences of opinion with the Regional Executive, lack of political will, changes in government… Although in different phases, Cee, Cerceda, Corcubión, Dumbría, Fisterra, Malpica and Vimianzo are still pending.

In Celanova, a PXOM approved in 1995 is in force. In 2008, the drafting of the revision was awarded to a company that was absorbed by a Chinese multinational that broke away from the planning division.

Original Story: La Voz de Galicia – Pablo González

Photo: Merce Ares

Translation: Richard Turner

 

Spain’s CNMC Takes Madrid, Bilbao & San Sebastián to Court Over Anti-Airbnb Legislation

7 August 2018 – El País

The competition authorities are cracking down on the attempt by some of Spain’s large Town Halls to regulate the boom in tourist apartments, created by Airbnb and its competitors, which many blame for contributing to an increase in residential rental prices and the expulsion of the most underprivileged from the centre of Spain’s cities. The National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC) announced on Tuesday that it is going to challenge the urban planning rules approved recently in Madrid, Bilbao and San Sebastián on the basis that they violate “competition” and harm consumers and users. Other rules, not yet in force, in Barcelona and Valencia, could also be targetted by the CNMC, warn sources at the agency.

Imposing a compulsory licence on those who rent their homes to tourists. Limiting the types of properties that may be leased for short periods. They are some of the measures introduced by the Town Halls that the CNMC is now challenging. And the battle doesn’t stop there. New rules that other cities decide to approve may also clash with the opinion of the market regulator, which is now sending the cases of Madrid, Bilbao and San Sebastián to the High Court of their respective autonomous regions. They will have to decide whether to admit the appeals and overturn, in part or in whole, the municipal regulations.

The body chaired by José María Marín Quemada said that it has sent a request to the three municipalities to provide explanations regarding the “need and proportionality” of the restrictions or, failing that, for those restrictions to be annulled. In the absence of a satisfactory response, the CNMC will resort to the courts through a contentious-administrative appeal. The informal talks held so far have made very clear the gulf that separates the independent body from the Town Halls.

In its note, the CNMC details the different regulations that are, in its opinion, deserving of appeal for being measures with “restrictive effects on competition”. Madrid requires a licence for the rental of tourist apartments and homes. The municipality also establishes a period of one year, extendable for one more, before new licences can be granted in areas such as the Centro district. According to the recently approved legislation, the rental of tourist apartments that do not have an independent entrance will be prohibited, which represents 95% of the homes in the city centre.

In both Bilbao and San Sebastián, the regulations limit tourist apartments to ground and first floors only, unless they have independent access from the street. In Bilbao, moreover, tourist apartments need to be authorised and registered; and in San Sebastián new tourist apartments are prohibited in certain parts of the centre.

Higher prices

The Competition authority believes that, with their decisions, the municipal teams in Madrid, Bilbao and San Sebastián “are impeding the entry of new operators and consolidating the position of the existing suppliers of tourist accommodation”. The body has announced that these measures will lead to “higher prices in terms of tourist accommodation” and lower quality, investment and innovation in tourist accommodation in those three cities (…).

The affected municipalities reacted quickly, stating that they will defend their regulations in the courts. The Town Hall of Madrid, governed by Manuela Carmena (Ahora Madrid) said that it wants to combine the defence of tourism with the rights of “citizens in our neighbourhoods”, according to Julio Núñez. “Our objective is introduce regulation that protects the residential use of land and favours competition in a sector where hostels and hotels already operate”, add sources at the Urban Planning Department (…).

Original story: El País (by Luis Doncel)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Dragados is Asking for c. €180M for 88,000 m2 Buildable Plot in Tetuán (Madrid)

6 August 2018 – El Confidencial

A new and powerful land operation is taking shape in the centre of the Spanish capital. The star is Dragados, one of the heavyweights in the construction sector in Spain. The subsidiary of ACS has been trying to sell several plots, which together span a buildable surface area of just over 80,000 m2, on Paseo de la Dirección in the Tetuán district in the north of Madrid and just 2 km from the Cuatro Torres, for almost a year. And this area has just received the green light from the Town Hall of Madrid, which approved a Partial Plan on Tuesday that will undoubtedly favour land transactions since it means the urban planning risk has disappeared.

According to the sources consulted, the plots have been on the market for a year, but the high price expectations of Dragados – which amount to around €180 million – have prevented the sale from being closed, until now. Large property developers, investment funds and family offices have all expressed their interest. The construction company is being advised by Colliers International, which declined to comment on the deal.

On the table is a real gem, given that the plots are all finalist, in other words, ready to be built on. Such assets are in very short supply inside the M-30. Specifically, the site comprises two plots for the construction of private housing and two other plots for the construction of social housing properties (VPPL) and mixed-use assets (offices and tertiary).

For the former, which have a buildability of around 40,000 m2, Dragados is asking for around €2,500/m2 (…), in other words, around €100 million, which would make it one of the largest land operations in the capital in recent months. “That price would mean selling the future homes at prices of around €5,000/m2, which is way above current market prices in the area”, say the same sources. House prices in the area amount to around €2,400/m2 – €3,000/m2, depending on the types of homes.

For the plots to be used for social housing and offices – which also have a buildability of approximately 40,000 0m2 – the vendor’s price expectations amount to around €80 million. Despite the boom in the capital, these figures exceed the prices that the potentially interested parties are willing to pay.

Ten years in the making

With the approval this Tuesday from the Town Hall of the new planning order for the area, it seems that finally, and after more than a decade, work is going to begin on this ambitious urban remodelling project. It will involve the construction of around 2,000 new homes, most of which will be protected in some way (VPPB and VPPL), including two rehousing buildings and several 25-storey towers. To put that into context, the Cuatro Torres have between 45 and 58 floors (…).

Historically, Paseo de la Dirección has been a downtrodden area in the north of Madrid with numerous substandard homes that would benefit greatly from the definitive launch of Madrid Nuevo Norte – formerly Operación Chamartín – just 2km away. What’s more, the site is very close to the capital’s financial district par excellence, Azca, as well as to Plaza Castilla, the hub for much of Madrid’s land transport network (…).

Original story: El Confidencial (by E. Sanz & R. Ugalde)

Translation: Carmel Drake