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

Atlético de Madrid will Sell the Calderón Land in Q1 2019

2 February 2019 – Expansión

Following the demolition of the stadium, the club will be able to sell the plots where 600 homes are expected to be built.

The project to urbanise the Mahou-Calderón area, which will convert the surface area currently occupied by Atlético de Madrid’s former stadium into homes and tertiary use, has taken a step forward. Within the next few weeks, work is expected to start on the demolition of the Vicente Calderón, which will enable progress to take place with the reparcelling and subsequent sale of the land.

The Madrilenian club, owner of 50% of the surface area, will then be able to proceed with the sale of the land, which has a surface area of 14,866 m2 and a buildability of more than 63,000 m2. On this plot, between 550 and 600 homes may be built, with prices of around €6,000/m2.

Besides the Madrilenian club, the other owner of the land is Mahou San Miguel. The brewery company has not yet taken a decision regarding the sale of its share.

Candidates

Sources at the club have indicated to Expansión that several parties are interested in these plots, which constitute the last major stock of land left inside the M-30. The potential buyers of the plots include investment funds, property developers, joint ventures between the two and cooperatives. “We are holding very advanced negotiations with three of them with the idea of formalising the operation this quarter”, they state.

In terms of the timings, once work has started on the demolition of the stadium, which is expected to begin in the coming days, the reparceling project will continue, which will last for the months of February and March. Once the plots have been registered in the registry, they will be available for sale. The Project will carry out the urbanisation and building work at the same time in such a way that the homes could be ready within three or four years (…).

Original story: Expansión (by R. Arroyo & E. Santos)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Atlético De Madrid Wants To Sell Operación Calderón Land For €3,300/m2

10 November 2017 – Cinco Días

Atlético de Madrid is looking to shake up the real estate sector with a record-breaking operation. The club is heating up the housing market with an operation to sell the plots on the site of its former Vicente Calderón stadium, through which it wants to achieve much higher prices than are currently being paid for land in the surrounding area.

The club, chaired by Enrique Cerezo and controlled by Miguel Ángel Gil, has engaged the consultancy firm CBRE to sell the plots of land, and the first round of offers have already been received. Atlético has already been sounding out potential buyers regarding a land asking price of €3,300/m2, according to four companies in the real estate sector, which would represent a record in this part of the Spanish capital.

That high land value would mean that the houses built on the site would have to be sold for approximately €6,000/m2, according to the calculations performed by several sources. That figure is equivalent to other more expensive areas in the capital and represents almost twice the current sales price of new build homes in the district of Arganzuela, where the stadium is located. According to the appraisal company Tinsa, new homes in this neighbourhood are currently being sold for prices ranging between €3,000/m2 and €4,000/m2, based on data as at 2017.

Specifically, Atlético is selling three plots of land, which have a total surface area of 63,076 m2, of which 57,094 m2 corresponds to residential use and the remaining 5,892 m2 to commercial use. Around 500 homes are expected to be built on the site. If the club manages to find a buyer willing to pay €3,300/m2, it will receive proceeds of €210 million. If the price ends up being €3,000/m2, the purchaser will have to spend around €190 million.

This urban planning operation is linked to the club’s change of stadium after it moved this season from its former pitch next to the Manzanares River to the new Wanda Metropolitan (…). Moreover, the football team needs to sell these plots to repay Inbursa – owned by the magnate Carlos Slim – for a €160 million loan that it was granted to build its new stadium.

The so-called Operación Mahou-Calderón, which also includes the adjacent plots on the site of the former brewery headquarters- but which are not included in the sale now being undertaken by Atlético – was approved by the municipal plenary in September. The buildability of that environment has decreased from 175,000 m2 to 147,000 m2 with respect to Ana Botella’s plan dated 2014.

Sources in the sector explain that CBRE has already received at least five offers during the first phase of the process, which is expected to close at the beginning of 2018. For the time being, it is not known whether any of these bids exceeds the figure of €3,000/m2 that Atleti is looking for (…).

Sources at the real estate consultancy firm Knight Frank calculate that the price of land in this neighbourhood amounts to a maximum of between €2,400/m2 and €2,800/m2. They explain that recent similar purchases in the district of Arganzuela, in the Méndez Álvaro area, for example, were closed for a price of between €2,000/m2 and €2,220/m2.

However, some experts in the residential market do believe that the €3,000/m2 threshold may be broken due to the high purchase pressure currently in play, primarily due to interest from international funds. They also consider that these plots are very attractive, located as they are in the Madrid Río area, and so they expect the degree of interest in them to be high.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the river, in the Usera area, Neinor Homes is marketing quite an exclusive development called Riverside at prices that exceed €4,000/m2, according to the portal Fotocasa, and the penthouses are going for €6,000/m2.

Original story: Cinco Días (by Alfonso Simón Ruiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Gran Roque Capital Buys 3 Residential Plots Near The Calderón

16 October 2017 – El Confidencial

The Venezuelan Capriles family has closed another real estate operation in Madrid. Gran Roque Capital, the company controlled by Miguel Ángel Capriles and his cousin Áxel Daniel Capriles, has purchased three plots of buildable land from Prosegur just 500m from the site of the future Operación Mahou-Calderón. The Capriles family has paid around €25 million for this land, which does not require any kind of urban planning modifications, given that it is assigned for residential use according to the General Urban Planning Plan (PGOUM) for Madrid dated 1997, according to sources in the market.

The acquired land comprises three plots (measuring 592 m2, 593 m2 and 3,542 m2, respectively) spanning a combined surface area of 4,723 m2 and a buildable surface area of almost 8,800 m2. Two of the plots (the smaller ones) are vacant, but the largest one is currently occupied by a building that Gran Roque will have to demolish before it can build the new homes on the site. The land purchase operation has been advised by Knight Frank, which, nevertheless, declined to comment on the transaction.

The new residential project (…) will involve the construction of around 80 homes of different kinds, which will be sold for between €5,500/m2 and €6,000/m2, according to sources at Gran Roque, although, they emphasise that the project is still at a very embryonic phase. According to data from Idealista, the price of second-hand homes in the area stands at around €3,300/m2, however, some properties are currently on the market for between €4,000/m2 and €5,000/m2, whereby exceeding the peaks of 2007 (€3,980/m2 in the district of Arganzuela).

This operation represents an about-turn in Gran Roque’s investment strategy in the Spanish capital, where to date, it has opted for plots in prime locations and for projects involving super luxury homes. Its most recent project is in El Viso, opposite the bunker that constitutes the residence of the President of ACS, Florentino Pérez.

500m from the Calderón

This transaction is particularly important in the market given that the price paid for the land, around €2,900/m2, and the prices at which the future homes will be sold, will undoubtedly serve as a benchmark for the future sale of land in the so-called Operación Mahou-Calderón (…).

Experts in the sector consider that a price of between €1,500/m2 and €2,000/m2 would be appropriate for the area (…).

New build homes close to the Vicente Calderon are in short supply. One of the few projects underway is being led by Neinor Homes, which is constructing a 72-home residential project: Riverside homes, for €3,500/m2, a price significantly lower than the properties that Gran Roque is planning to build. Like most of the new builds currently being constructed in the capital, these homes are being targeted at middle and middle/upper-class buyers. Of the 51 homes that will comprise the future 20-storey tower, which will be 72 m tall, 49 units have already been sold.

Original story: El Confidencial (by E. Sanz)

Translation: Carmel Drake