Tag: valencia

Blackstone Owns c.5% Of Spain’s Logistics Assets

28 June 2016 – Expansión

Blackstone created Logicor in 2012 and since then, has grown the company by acquiring portfolios of logistics assets, to reach its current surface area coverage of 13 million sqm.

In Spain, Logicor has been purchasing assets for three years and now owns properties covering a total surface area of 1.1 million sqm, primarily in Madrid and Barcelona, making it the largest owner of logistics land in the country, with a market share of between 5% and 7%. It is followed in the ranking by Merlin Properties and Prologis, in an otherwise very fragmented sector.

Logicor’s Director General for Southern Europe, Manel Vericat, said that the company is still looking for logistics warehouses in Madrid and Barcelona, as well as in other cities, such as Valencia and Pamplona: “We are searching for products that have may potential thanks to the management of our team; and we are able to participate in operations that have higher risk because we have experience in this segment and are capable of managing these situations.

The Spanish subsidiary is led by Alejando Rumayor, who previously worked for Aguirre Newman, Iberdrola Inmobiliaria, ING Reim and CBRE, where he worked last before joining Logicor. The team in Barcelona is led by Xavier Novell, who joined the firm from Aguirre Newman, where he led the logistics and industrial department for the last decade.

In recent years, Logicor has made some major investments in Spain, such as the purchase of a portfolio of logistics assets from CBRE Global Investments, which covered a surface area of 78,000 sqm.

It also acquired a batch of logistics warehouses covering 106,000 sqm, from the French insurance company Axa.

Similarly, it purchased a batch of logistics assets from Gran Europa with a combined surface area of 319,000 sqm. And another one from SEP investments, measuring 138,000 sqm. Finally, one of its most important acquisitions at the global level involved a batch of warehouses from General Electric, of which around 348,000 sqm were located in Spain.

Rents

Vericat confirmed that, since last year, rents in the logistics sector have recovered in Barcelona. In Madrid, “we have not detected any increases yet, but certain rent incentives have disappeared, such as grace periods.

Original story: Expansión (by Marisa Anglés)

Translation: Carmel Drake

How Long Does It Take To Sell A House In Spain?

21 June 2016 – Cinco Días

The improvement in the economy, the credit recovery and the belief that discounted house prices have come to an end are all driving up house sales. In fact, several studies agree that it now takes just 10 months to sell a home, on average, when in 2013 it took more than a year. What’s more, in April, homes in good locations with reasonable prices in Madrid and Barcelona were sold within 30 days.

The three major indicators of the real estate market: price, sales and construction have been reflecting an improvement in the sector for months now, and in some cases for years. But another way of taking the pulse of this activity is to look at how long it takes to sell homes, on average. For the time being, the only figures available are provided by private companies operating in the market, such as the appraisal company Tinsa, and the real estate portals Idealista and Fotocasa.

Care should be taken because the results depend on the methodology used in each study, and given that we do not know what happened in terms of average sales periods before 2010, the reality is that all of the cases indicate the same trend: it takes less time to sell a home now than it did a year ago.

The appraisal company Tinsa has been preparing its study for just four quarters (its figures for Q2 2016 are due to be published within the next few days). It obtains its data by cross-checking the volume of supply and demand for homes in all of the provincial capitals and in the country’s five major cities: Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Sevilla y Zaragoza. Two conclusions stand out from its finding.

The first is that, on average, during the first quarter of this year, it took 10.5 months on average to sell a home in Spain, slightly less time than during the previous quarter (10.6 months). Although, we should keep in mind that the start of the year tends to be the quietest time for house sales, which could also affect the average sales period.

The second aspect…is the disparity in average sales periods by region. Whilst in some parts of the country, average sales periods are pretty stagnant and have barely experienced any changes in four quarters, either up or down; in other areas, there has been a clear upwards or downwards trend (homes are being sold more quickly or it is taking longer to complete sales, respectively).

In the ranking by province, for example, Madrid stands out because it now takes just seven months to sell a home there; meanwhile, in Cantabria, the autonomous region with the longest average sales period, it takes 19 months to sell a home, almost triple the period reported in Madrid. Other regions at the top end of the ranking include: the two Canary Island provinces, Badajoz and Zaragoza. Whilst, at the other end of the scale, as well as Cantabria, we have Ávila, Álava, Segovia and Ciudad Real, amongst others. The large cities that complete the appraisal company’s study all have a common denominator: they are the areas where average sales periods are decreasing the most quickly.

Meanwhile, Fotocasa’s figures are prepared based on a survey of owners with homes up for sale. Its latest figures relate to 2015 as a whole. Its findings show that it takes 10.6 months to sell a home on average…well below the maximum peak of 13.2 months reached in 2013. In addition, it breaks down the supply by tranches and concludes that last year, just 15% of the homes that were bought had been on the market for more than 24 months.

Finally, recent analysis performed by Idealista shows that in April, 20% of the homes sold in Madrid and 15% of those sold in Barcelona found a buyer within less than a month. (…).

Original story: Cinco Días (by Raquel Díaz Guijarro)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Blackstone, Cerberus, Arcano & Others Head To The Beach…

30 May 2016 – El Confidencial

(…). Just over a year and a half ago, the large real estate investment funds were concentrating their activity in Spain’s two large (regional) capital cities (namely, Madrid and Barcelona). Nevertheless, the saturation of operations and a gradual increase in prices (there is no sign of a bubble in either city, but there are increasingly fewer bargains to be had) has forced investors to explore new locations, in cities that are one step down in terms of size and population, but where there is significant latent demand, and above all, very attractive prices for operations with payback periods of five or seven years. Valencia and the Valencian Coast are in the spotlight, according to sources from an important real estate consultancy firm headquartered in the city, which has participated in some of the largest transactions completed in recent months.

Blackstone, Cerberus, and even the Real Estate division of managers such as Arcano, have been exploring and closing operations in the Valencian market for more than 12 months now, primarily acquiring debt portfolios secured by well-located residential properties and focusing on upper-middle class segments of the population with a certain amount of liquidity and the capacity to borrow. The assets acquired include not only finished promotions, but also urban land, such as the case of a group of plots located in Nou Campanar, which Sareb has just sold to the US fund Castlelake. The land used to be owned by Juan Armiñana, one of the local property developers who made his fortune during the real estate bubble and was destroyed following the crash, leaving behind a small empire of bankrupt companies and millions of euros of debt from the banks.

The presence of a fund like Castlelake in this type of operation is striking because two years ago, no-one would have imagined such a fund exploring operations beyond Madrid or Barcelona. Last year, Sareb sold it 76,000 sqm of residential land in the Madrilenian town of Boadilla del Monte for around €13 million. In the cae of Nou Campanar, the consideration has been lower, given that the plot of land measures just 12,000 sqm and has a buildability of 40,000 sqm.

The funds are exploring “prime” areas of the city of Valencia, both in the centre and along the seafront, as well as along the Patacona beach area, where there is still some undeveloped land and several developments for sale, in the hands of financial institutions. In the same way, local investors, such as the Zriser Group (Pablo Serratosa) are looking to launch a residential development in the vicinity of the Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias. (…).

Five year payback periods and returns of 20%

The logic behind these investments tends to have a common element – payback periods of just over five years with average returns of 20%. These deals are conceived from a purely financial point of view, but they include agreements with construction companies when they involve land development and sales plans. (…).

Original story: El Confidencial (by Víctor Romero)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Sareb Puts 564 Unfinished Developments Up For Sale

30 May 2016 – El Diario

Sareb, better known as the bad bank, has put 564 residential housing developments up for sale. The majority of the portfolio contains properties in the initial stages of development or work in progress and most of them are located in Cataluña, the Community of Valencia, Andalucía and the Canary Islands.

Initially, Sareb will release 140 unfinished residential developments onto the market and will thereby supply almost 5,000 homes and a few tertiary use buildings.

Most of the unfinished developments to be sold during this first phase are located in Andalucía and Cataluña, with 28 buildings each, as well as in the Canary Islands, with 26; whilst by province, the supply is most abundant in Barcelona, Las Palmas, Alicante, Cádiz, La Coruña and Madrid.

In this way, the Canary Islands, with 1,166 homes; Andalucía, with 1,057; and the Community of Valencia, with 838, together account for more than half of the properties that will come onto the market at the start of this operation.

The General Business Director at Sareb, Alfredo Guitart, considers that “having overcome the crisis”, now is the time to provide a commercial outlet for these developments.

“In this way, the sale represents an investment opportunity for local property developers, who are very familiar with their environment and have the capacity to finish the construction work and bring the properties onto the market successfully”, said Guitart.

The company also resumed 68 developments between 2013 and 2015 and expects to finalise 20 developments, where work had been suspended, before the end of 2016.

Original story: El Diario

Translation: Carmel Drake

Zriser Group Sells Generali Building In Valencia For €30M

25 May 2016 – Levante-EMV

The Valencia-based Zriser Group, the investment vehicle owned by the siblings Pablo and Ana Serratosa, has sold the Generali building for €30 million to the businessman Juan Luis Gómez—Trénor, founder of the former Colebega bottling plant and shareholder of Coca-Cola European Partners with a 8.5% stake.

The property was designed in 1930 by the architect Luis Bonetm, a disciple of Gaudí and one of the construction directors at the Sagrada Familia. The building has a surface area covering 6,079 sqm across six floors, containing offices and commercial premises, and its main tenant is the law firm Garrigues.

The Zriser Group purchased the building, located in La Plaza del Ayuntamiento 27, from Generali Seguros for €21 million in 2011, which means that it has obtained a capital gain of almost 50% in five years.

Sources at the investor group declined to provide any information about the buyer or the consideration paid for the operation on the grounds of confidentiality. However, other sources familiar with the sale confirmed that the proceeds amounted to around €30 million and that the purchaser is Juan Luis Gómez-Trénor. The transaction comes at a time when the real estate sector in Valencia is in full recovery.

Luxury development

In just a few days, the Serratosa’s investment group has placed 33 of the 34 homes in its first housing development on the market in Valencia. Zriser is going to construct luxury homes at number 11 on Avenida de Francia in Valencia, next to Hotel Barceló.

Despite the sale in 2011, the insurance group Generalia has continued to occupy the building in La Plaza del Ayuntamiento, as a tenant alongside the law firm Garrigues. The Zriser Group already owns another office building, Edificio Alameda, which it acquired in 2009, for €24.3 million. Moreover, it owns another property on La Alameda (which it leases to PricewaterhouseCoopers) and another one on Alfahuir.

Original story: Levante-EMV

Translation: Carmel Drake

Sonae Files Complaint Against Store Opening Hour Restrictions

25 April 2016 – Expansión

Legal action/ The group behind the retail brands Worten, Sport Zone and Zippy is rebelling against the store opening restrictions being imposed by the Generalitat in certain areas of Valencia.

Sonae SR, a division of the Portuguese group Sonae, the retail specialist, is on the war path against the Valencian government. The company will start legal proceedings, probably tomorrow or on Wednesday, against the General Trade Directorate of the Community of Valencia, after that body took the decision in March to prohibit stores and shopping centres from opening on Sundays and Bank Holidays in certain areas of Valencia, including the area around the Arena shopping centre (pictured above).

Rafael Maortua, from the law firm Main Servicios Profesionales and the legal representative for Sonae SR, estimates that the opening hour restrictions will have a negative impact of more than 20% on the Sonae SR group’s sales at that shopping centre. The company has calculated that, under the new legislation, they will have to close their doors on an additional 38-40 days per year.

To avoid this, they are filing a claim that will be lodged with the secretary of Spain’s National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC). (…).

Although the main driver behind the recent restriction on openings hours is the protection of small retailers, Maortua says “Consumers are not going to change their decision to shop on a Sunday or Bank Holiday because their favourite store is closed..”.

The legal representative of Sonae SR points out that when trade was liberalised in Madrid, 20,000 new jobs were created. (…).

Original story: Expansión (by Ana Antón)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Norwegian Pension Funds Sells Off Two Logistics Assets

22 April 2016 – Expansión

The Norwegian Pension Fund has sold its 50% stake in two logistics assets in Spain, which it held jointly with Prologis, for €25.1 million. The operation has been performed through Norges Bank Real Estate Management, the company that it created in 2014 to independently manage its investments in the real estate sector, which it expects to account for 5% of its investment portfolio in the future.

The properties, which have a combined leasable surface area of 96,000 m2, are located in Valencia and Zaragoza. The Fund acquired the assets in March 2013 for €20.6 million.

Original story: Expansión (by A. Medina)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Palladium & ECI Consider Rebranding Valencia Hotel Under ‘Only You’ Ensign

7 March 2016 – Expansión

The Palladium Hotel Group and El Corte Inglés are considering converting Hotel Ayre Astoria, acquired in 2006 for around €36 million, into an Only You branded establishment.

Located in the heart of Valencia, the Ayre Astoria Palace has 204 rooms and, due to its size and location, is emerging as the most likely candidate to form part of the new ensign that the family chain, owned by the former Minister of Foreign Affairs and the retail group, which each hold a 50% stake. Currently, the urban Only You brand has one property on the Madrilenian street of Calle Barquillo, and in the next few months, it will add a new hotel in Atocha, with 206 rooms.

The hotel chain’s strategy includes establishing this premium brand in other Spanish cities, where it already has assets that could be converted into Only You properties, before setting its sights on growth overseas. Specifically, its internationalisation plans include expanding into the main European capital cities, as well as making the leap across the Atlantic (to Latin America and the USA). The plan is to complete these three stages over the next five years.

Original story: Expansión (by Rebeca Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Price Increases Spreading In Major Cities. Valencia, Malaga And Palma De Mallorca Gain Speed.


13 February 2016 – Expansion

Real Estate recovery takes pace and extends to a growing number of provinces and province capitals. Specifically, 21 provinces are already positive year-on-year, according to the sold homes assessment carried out by Tinsa valuating company. On the other hand, sixteen provincial capitals have also increased prices in the last year. 
Thus, the recovery is concentrated in Madrid, Barcelona and Costa del Sol, which are the leading indicators of Spanish Real Estate sector. In fact, whenever there has been a crisis, these three areas have been the big headlights targeting where the rest of the market would head for in the coming months. 
Firstly, Madrid and Barcelona are the two largest metropolitan areas and also the cities that account for more space in prime areas. Stock depletion in these areas as well as high demand in these two cities has led to strong advances, reaching 6.2% in the Spanish capital and 8.7% in Barcelona. These increases are also supported on the largest credit facilities and improvement in confidence during the past year. 
On the other hand, many coastal capitals have experienced a great boost thanks to the pull of Marbella, Valencia, Malaga and Palma de Mallorca. This increase is due to the strong increase on foreign demand. These cities show a strong acceleration in the last month. For instance, the price of housing in Valencia rose at a rate of 0.6% in the fourth quarter, 1.6% in Málaga and 2.2% in Palma de Mallorca; in January, the three of them soared to paces of 4.7%, 5% and 5.6%, respectively. In addition, tha fact that this price has been relaunched in cities where the stock was weighing down the real estate suggests that this volume of unsold homes is very quickly shrinking.

Two paces     

However, Spanish market being divided into two speeds is something that cannot be left out. On the one hand, the great capitals and certain areas of the Mediterranean coast, which show a strong growth. On the other hand, much of the inland Spain, where there is either a large second-hand market or an aging population that subtracts dynamism from the demand. 
In this situation we find cities like Pamplona, Palencia, Zamora, Leon and Huesca, where prices have not yet finished their fall. However, Tinsa forecasts indicate that the recovery of the “brick” will be consolidated in 2016, bringing these areas to positive territory. Although the landscape is far better among the great capitals, some of these cities also remain in negative. This is the case of Zaragoza, where home prices fell at a rate of 3.1% in January, or Bilbao, shrinking back by 0.2%. Sevilla, however, shows a shy increase of 0.6%.

Original story: Expansion (by P. Cerezal)

Translation: Aura Ree

 

Solvia In Talks To Sell 1,700 Square Meters Of SAREB Offices In Colón 1

12 February 2016 – Expansion

Solvia, the real estate division of Banco Sabadell is negotiating the sale of 1,700 square meters of office space in the building located at number 1 of Valencia´s Colon street, one of the main shopping streets of the capital. The property is part of the 42,900 assets portfolio coming from SAREB whose management was awarded to the company just over a year ago as part of the first phase of Proyecto Íbero. The Real Estate Company has set a price of 2,000 € per square meter, market sources suggest.

The ground floor and first two floors of the building are at present held by El Corte Ingles, while the upper floors have professional offices and several corporate headquarters. The site managed by Solvia has 1,700 square meters on the fourth floor.

Asked about this, Solvia told this newspaper that the property has already drawn the attention of some investors of Asset Management profile, interested in acquiring assets and make them profitable. Since last year, the Real Estate Co. has focused its strategy on the management of these assets. In fact, it notes that 36% of its customers are already investors of this type, which are gradually gaining ground due to completed home sales.

The portfolio awarded to Solvia in which this asset is included is formed by properties coming from Bankia as well as loans and property acquired from Banco Gallego and Banco Ceiss. More than 33,000 of the nearly 43,000 assets in the portfolio are properties.

At the time of transfer to SAREB, assets were valued at EUR 7,000 million, according to the methodology established by the Central Bank of Spain. They are mainly located in Madrid, Valencia, Catalonia, Galicia and Castilla-Leon.

Original story: Valencia Plaza (by Xavi Moret)

Translation: Aura Ree