Gestilar Buys 15,000 m2 of Residential Land in Barcelona

24 October 2018 – Eje Prime

Gestilar is strengthening its commitment to Cataluña. The Spanish property developer has purchased several buildable plots of land in Badalona (Barcelona) measuring 15,644 m2 in total on which to build two new developments containing 130 homes, according to a statement issued by the company.

The project is located on Illa 3 de Marina Badalona and will be developed in two phases: a first, in which 92 homes will be built, and a second, with 38 units. The first development will be called Islas Sagres and will comprise two-, three- and four-bedroom homes. The real estate company plans to hand over the homes in 2021.

Gestilar’s commitment to Cataluña is expanding with this new development in Barcelona’s metropolitan area, the company’s fourth project in the autonomous region. “Cataluña is a market in continuous flux when it comes to real estate assets and there is still a lot of pent-up demand”, said the Director-General of Gestilar, Marta García-Valcárcel.

Before the end of this year, the property developer is going to hand over 150 new homes in Girona and Barcelona. In recent months, the property developer has also acquired new buildable plots in the Barcelona town of Sabadell, as well as in Madrid and Vigo.

Original story: Eje Prime 

Translation: Carmel Drake

Bankinter’s Socimi Buys 4 Retail Premises from Inditex for €12.5M

15 June 2018 – Eje Prime

The Galician giant Inditex is continuing to divest some of its real estate assets and the main players in the sector are taking advantage to acquire retail premises on some of the country’s main high streets. Ores, the Socimi owned by Bankinter and the Portuguese firm Sonae, has purchased a package of four assets from the owner of Zara for €12.5 million. The establishments, which together span more than 1,930 m2 are currently leased to the female fashion chain Stradivarius.

Ores Socimi has acquired one store measuring 700 m2 at number 28 Rúa de Urzaiz, in Vigo; another measuring 450 m2 at number 23 on Calle de los Fueros, in Vitoria; a third measuring 430 m2 at number 2 Calle Emilio Arriesta, in Pamplona; and a fourth measuring 350 m2 on the corner of Plaza del Olivar and Calle San Miquel, in Mallorca.

“With this acquisition, financed by available cash held by Ores Socimi, the company is continuing to fulfil the investment objectives set out in its business plan and in accordance with the financial parameters committed to the shareholders”, explain sources at the group.

The purchase of these stores, located on the main high streets of the respective cities, follows another acquisition carried out at the beginning of this month in Madrid. That deal involved an establishment located at number 157 Calle Alcalá, with a surface area of 374 m2, as revealed by Eje Prime. Those premises are currently rented out to the restaurant group Tim Hortons (…).

Ores is aimed at private banking clients. Although its asset portfolio is, for the time being, limited, the Socimi made its debut on the stock market with the aim of investing €400 million in commercial premises on the high street, as well as in supermarkets, retail parks (measuring up to 20,000 m2), bank branches and single assets with long-term rental contracts and solvent tenants.

Bankinter and Sonae Sierra launched this new venture in the real estate sector in record time. The two groups constituted the company on 15 December last year and, in just two months, completed the vehicle creation process, raised sufficient capital to get it moving and made the leap onto the stock market.

Original story: Eje Prime (by Custodio Pareja)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Dextra Corporate Launches Residential Fund Focusing on Galicia

2 March 2018 – Eje Prime

The Barcelona-based corporate finance firm has created a fund manager, Swan Real Estate Management, whose first vehicle aims to acquire, renovate and sell on up to ten residential buildings in Galicia.

Dextra Corporate is throwing itself into the housing market. The Barcelona-based finance firm, led by former Deloitte employees Iker Zabalza and Stephan Koen, has created Swan Real Estate Management, a fund manager to invest in the Spanish residential market. Its first investment vehicle, Seagull Real Estate, will get going shortly with €14 million to spend and will travel exclusively to Galicia where it plans to buy up to ten buildings. For this company, Dextra has been supported by Andbank: 90% of the investment is going to proceed from Galician customers of the Andorran bank.

The aim of the project, in which the manager AKM, led by Xavier González, is also involved, is to look for assets in second-tier cities in Spain, which are still in the recovery phase. The plan is to renovate the buildings and sell them on on a home by home basis.

Seagull will focus mainly on properties in central areas of A Coruña and Vigo, which may be of interest to customers with a medium-high purchasing power, according to Expansión. The manager’s forecast is to purchase between five and ten residential buildings.

Although it is going to start off with €14.4 million, Swan hopes to increase the investment figure of its Galician vehicle to €25 million. With the addition of bank financing, the spending capacity of the fund could rise to €50 million.

For Project Seagull, Dextra has teamed up with local businessman Manuel Corbal, who has extensive experience in the Galician real estate sector, in the areas of construction and promotion.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Xunta de Galicia to Build 1,600 Social Housing Properties in Vigo

6 February 2018 – Inmodiario

The Councillor for Infrastructure and Housing at the Xunta de Galicia, Ethel Vázquez, has revealed that the Xunta de Galicia is going to finalise the reurbanisation and repair work that it is carrying out in the Vigo neighbourhood of San Paio de Navia before the summer with a regional investment of €750,000.

Today, Vázquez paid a visit to the site to supervise the on-going work, accompanied by the Xunta’s regional delegate in Vigo, Ignacio López-Chaves. Whilst there, Vázquez reported that, in parallel, the Galician Government is pushing ahead with the process to acquire the land needed for the second phase of that estate, which will allow for the construction of 1,600 social housing properties in Vigo.

In comments to the media, Vázquez confirmed that, through an investment of €10 million already made, the Xunta has obtained almost all of the 130,000 m2 of land needed for the second phase of San Paio de Navia.

Once the Town Hall of Vigo has granted the initial approval for the modification of the partial plan for the expansion of San Paio de Navia, the Xunta will immediately begin the land exchange process with the interested owners. The Councillor added that, once definitive approval has been obtained for that partial plan, it will be possible to begin the tender for the urbanisation work.

According to her comments, the planned expansion of San Paio de Navia is an “integrated action” that, as well as facilitating the construction of almost 1,600 social housing properties, will also allow for improvements to be made to access routes, as well as the creation of more parking spaces and increases in public services.

In terms of the reurbanisation and repair works visited today, Ethel Vázquez stressed that they are necessary due to the growth in the population and the activity in this area. They extend to four streets: Poza Cabalo, Limpiño, Lamelas and Pedra Seixa and span a total of 1,300 m2 (…).

Original story: Inmodiario

Translation: Carmel Drake

First 100,000 m2 Of Land at Vigo’s new Logistics Platform Will Be Sold for €50/m2

28 November 2017 – Inmodiario

The councillor for Infrastructure and Housing at the Xunta de Galicia, Ethel Vázquez, has attended a meeting held by the Commission for the Monitoring of the Industrial Logistics Platform in Salvaterra-As Neves (PLISAN), where it was agreed that the tender to sell the plots contained therein should be convened before the end of the year. An incentive will be offered to entice buyers: the first 100,000 m2 of land will be sold at a discounted price of €50/m2.

At the meeting, which was also attended by other representatives from the Xunta, as well as from the Port Authority and the Free Trade Zone Consortium of Vigo, it was also agreed that the companies that sign up to PLISAN will be able to access the land with surface rights equal to the conditions applied to parks by the Xunta. They are awarded for 30 years, extendable for another 30 years, with an annual fee of 1.5% of the sales price during the first 2 years, and the option to request an initial 1-year grace period; then, 2.5% during the next 2 years; and 3.5% from the fifth year onwards.

Moreover, the attendees at the meeting agreed to start the creation of a management company for the future maintenance of the facilities at the logistics platform. Vázquez Mourelle said that in terms of work, the construction of the general systems has now been completed.

The councillor specified that the activity, which required investment of €11 million, involved the construction of the roads, lighting and pipework necessary for the supply, sanitation, electricity, gas and telecommunications systems, which will serve all of the companies that set up shop on the plots in the PLISAN area.

In terms of the construction of the sewage treatment plant, the plans and construction were awarded together, for a combined amount of more than €3 million. The plans are now being drawn up and the construction work is expected to begin in 2018.

The councillor said that the administrative procedures for the sewage treatment plant will continue to move ahead in parallel, given that the start of the construction work has now been authorised and the cost will be covered by the Galician Building Institute (Instituto Galego da Vivenda el Solo). In this way, in December, the tender will be published for execution during 2018, with an investment of around €6.3 million.

At the meeting, a decision was also taken to approve the tender for the urbanisation of the logistics-business area that the Free Trade Zone Consortium of Vigo is going to build. Technical approval is currently being processed for the project to develop 400,000 m2 of land, work that will require the investment of more than €12 million. Like in the case of the water purification plant, the plan is for the contract for the construction work in the logistics-business area to begin in December, and for the work itself to be carried out in 2018.

Original story: Inmodiario

Translation: Carmel Drake

Andbank Launches Fund To Invest In Galician Real Estate

13 November 2017 – La Voz de Galicia

(…) The real estate market in Spain is back with a vengeance, above all in the central areas of large cities where, due to a lack of (past) activity in the property development sector, there is now insufficient supply to cover the growing demand (…).

And this business opportunity has not passed unnoticed for the financial sector, which, in an environment of low-interest rates and minimal profitability on the most conservative products, has launched a series of investment vehicle. Their objective is to buy buildings in prime areas, renovate them and then sell the resulting homes on to individuals, whereby generating high returns for investors.

This model, which was first tested, successfully, in Madrid and Barcelona, is now being introduced in Galicia, with the help of Andbank. The entity, specialising in private banking, has launched a real estate investment vehicle, Seagull Real Estate, which is going to acquire residential buildings in the central areas of A Coruña and Vigo, undertake comprehensive renovation work and then sell the homes (individually, in order to maximise prices).

According to Rubén Casales (pictured above), Director of Andbank’s branch in A Coruña, this is the first product that focuses exclusively on the Galician market, and it is being born with the objective of securing investment of €20 million (minimum of €250,000), which it will use to perform between five and ten operations, given that in order to minimise risk, external financing should not exceed 50%.

The appeal of this product for savers is an expected return of 14%, well above the yields they can expect to achieve on fixed income and other conservative products and, which Casales justifies due to the illiquidity of the fund, which obliges investors to maintain their investment for at least five years.

For the execution of this project, Andback has teamed up with two local partners: Ünique Singular Properties and Desarrolla. The first is the only Galician real estate agency specialising in prime residential assets and is the market leader in unique properties; it will help identify investment opportunities and will be responsible for selling the homes once they have been renovated. The second is a construction company known for its renovation work and with a great deal of activity in the autonomous region, which will take care of giving the properties a facelift.

More than 50 properties

According to Andbank, there are lots of investment opportunities: “We have identified some very interesting buildings due to their architectural uniqueness”, says Luis Touriño, territorial director of the entity in Galicia. (…). The bank currently has a team of eight people analysing more than fifty properties, of which between eight and ten will be selected.

Casales explains that the response from investors is proving positive, and so they hope to be able to launch the vehicle before the end of the year (…).

The launch of this fund is another sign of the investor interest in the Galician real estate sector, which, although somewhat lagging behind other parts of Spain, has resumed its upwards path. This news follows the announcement by a group of Galician real estate companies linked to the trade association Fegein that they are going to create a Socimi, which will manage assets in Vigo, Santiago and the north of Lugo, and which seeks to trade on the MAB.

Original story: La Voz de Galicia (by Gabriel Lemos)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Supreme Court Places Thousands Of Homes In Legal Limbo

1 July 2016 – Expansión

The town plans for Gijón, Vigo and Marbella are the latest to join the long list of projects that the High Court has declared null and void, placing thousands of homes into legal uncertainty.

The real estate bubble is still causing problems years after it burst. In the last five years, the Supreme Court has ratified the annulment of several general town plans (PGOU) all over Spain, decisions that have continued in the last year with the High Court bringing down the plans in three other places, specifically, in Vigo, Marbella and Gijón.

These rulings make thousands of homes illegal, given that they were constructed in accordance with PGOU guidelines that are now considered null and void. What will happen to them now? Although the risk of demolition exists, it is minimal and the next step for the municipal companies is to draft and approve new PGOUs that include a process to normalise these buildings, which currently find themselves in a kind of legal limbo.

However, that is not the only negative consequence of this escalation in litigation, as reflected in the round table organised by two partners at Ontier, Jaime Díaz de Bustamante and Jorge Álvarez, together with Susana Rodríguez, Managing Director at the consultancy firm Aguirre Newman, and Antonio Pleguezuelo, Director of Town Planning at the same firm.

“The cascade of PGOU annulments is generating a considerable lack of legal certainty”, said Díaz de Bustamante, who insisted that this situation “deters international investors, who cannot afford to allocate their capital to an urban development plan that is subject to unstable regulation”.

But, what are the reasons behind all of these rulings from the Supreme Court, which are nullifying PGOUs all over the country? According to the experts consulted, one of the main reasons is the lack of communication and coordination between the different administrations involved in the preparation of the urban plans.

In this sense, Jorge Álvarez and Antonio Pleguezuelo requested greater coordination between autonomous communities and the central Government when it comes to defining the rules that are going to be applied, as that would result in greater certainty, in their view.

Delays in the process

Nevertheless, more concern and unease in the sector is leading to delays in the approval of urban plans, which, in some cases, is even resulting in changes in government.

For this reason, the experts at Ontier and Aguirre Newman insist on the importance of reducing the regulations relating to PGOUs. “The bureaucracy surrounding these plans need to be reduced so that they can be approved more quickly and adapted to the social reality”, explained Díaz de Bustamante.

Not surprisingly, most of the PGOUs that have been declared void by the Supreme Court in recent years had defects relating to the processing of the different reports required or to the sectoral processes, almost all of which are provided for by state law.

Original story: Expansión (by Laura Saiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake

ZFV To Invest €75M In Warehouses For PSA

26 October 2015 – Expansión

The Free Trade Zone Consortium (in Vigo, also known as the ZFV or ‘Zona Franca de Vigo’) is throwing itself behind the PSA-Citroën factory, which is gearing up for the production of a new generation of vans, as part of the industrial project known as K9. The Free Trade Zone will invest €75 million between 2014 and 2017 in the Balaídos industrial estate, where the factory is based.

Most of the investment will go into (the construction of) more warehouses and land (€60 million) to enable PSA to get closer to its suppliers and to encourage those suppliers to substitute their stock systems with “tight flow” supply systems. The Director of the factory, Yann Martin, has insisted that the aim is to reduce production costs at the centre itself and between the auxiliary industry and logistics.

The first supplier to move into the industrial estate was the logistics company Azkar. In July, another warehouse measuring 42,000 m2 will become operational, in which the Free Trade Zone will invest €15.7 million. It will employ 500 people during the construction phase.

The forecast investment for 2016 and 2017 will amount to €11 million and will endow the Balaídos industrial estate with services such as a test track, another warehouse and the renovation of existing warehouses.

The Consortium will also construct an electricity sub-station, which will allow the industrial estate to save around €1 million per year on its electricity bill.

Galician suppliers have already been awarded contracts for the new vans amounting to €370 million and this figure is expected to increase to €600 million. PSA Peugeot-Citroën employs 6,000 people in Vigo.

Original story: Expansión (by A. Chas)

Translation: Carmel Drake