Sareb Sets Itself an Online Sales Challenge: €1.8bn in NPLs

10 July 2018 – El Economista

Sareb has launched a new wave of non-performing loans for sale on its online marketing channel, aimed at investors and professionals, to boost the divestment of €1.8 billion, equivalent to 7.2% of its portfolio of financial assets, according to sources at the company speaking to Europa Press.

Since July 2017, Sareb has had a dedicated loan sales channel for investors and professionals, a pioneering initiative in the European market, which allows it to promote divestment and increase the visibility of these kinds of assets.

The aim of the so-called bad bank is to enhance the transparency of the sales processes of these types of assets, which are now in their fourth wave. At the end of 2017, it had managed to sell loans with a nominal value of €186 million, €35 million through its website and €151 million through its servicers, which also have specific platforms to market these portfolios.

The guarantees associated with these loans mainly constitute mortgages over properties of different kinds: finished residential homes, work in progress buildings and land.

With this channel, Sareb is continuing to push ahead with its divestment process and its commitment to a more dynamic and transparent loan market, according to Expansion.

The channel is aimed at investors and professionals who fulfil a series of minimum eligibility requirements. Sareb’s aim is to expand the number and profile of investors who can participate in its loan sale processes, whereby facilitating divestment in the segment. In this way, the players that may operate on the channel include international and domestic professionals, as well as local operators interested in the loans.

Sareb has a loan volume amounting to more than €25 billion proceeding from almost 14,575 debtors. All of them have a combined debt of €70.4 billion, including associated interest and expenses. In order to recover those amounts, the entity carries out an active management process that allows it to ensure the payment of interest on the loans and, where possible, their repayment or cancellation.

When it was constituted, Sareb received around 200,000 assets worth €50.8 billion, of which 80% were loans and property developer credits and 20% were properties.

After five years of life, Sareb has reduced its portfolio by more than €13.6 billion. Currently, its portfolio of assets comprises 67.3% in loans and 32.6% in properties.

Sareb issued debt backed by the Spanish State to pay the rescued entities for the assets that they transferred to the company. The company is complying with the repayment of that debt, and to date has repaid more than €12.9 billion.

Original story: El Economista 

Translation: Carmel Drake

Sareb Puts Its First 700 Finished Homes Up For Sale

7 October 2016 – Expansión

Sareb has put the first 700 homes on the market that it has now completed after it acquired unfinished properties from various nationalised banking institutions when it was created.

According to a statement published yesterday by the entity, 34 developments are being sold in total, containing 700 homes, whose prices will range from €32,000 for the cheapest to €390,000 for the most expensive.

The homes finished by Sareb are located in nine autonomous regions: Asturias, Cantabria, Castilla-La Mancha, Castilla y León, Cataluña, Comunidad Valenciana, Galicia, La Rioja and La Comunidad de Madrid.

These properties, together with another 1,300 newly built homes, form part of the “Casas de Estreno” campaign launched by Sareb, which explained that the managers that support the company (Altamira Asset Management, Haya Real Estate, Servihabitat and Solvia) will be responsible for marketing all of these assets.

Strategy

Information about the homes can be found on the website www.sarebcasasdeestreno.es. It contains the basic details of each home along with photos.

“The completion of the unfinished construction work, in places where there is demand, forms part of Sareb’s strategy to maximise the value of the assets it received and fulfil its divestment mandate in the most efficient way” said the Director of Direct Management at Sareb, Juan Dios.

The region with the most homes for sale in this new portfolio is Cataluña, which accounts for almost 200 homes. The majority, 114, are located in Barcelona. There are also lots of flats for sale in the Community of Valencia, where Sareb has completed seven developments containing 170 homes, of which 108 are located in the province of Valencia.

In Asturias, the company has completed a development containing 112 homes and in Castilla y León, it will put almost 100 homes up for sale in the province of Cuidad Real.

Original story: Expansión

Translation: Carmel Drake

Barcelona’s Town Hall Closes 615 Illegal Tourist Flats

22 September 2016 – Inmodiario

The first two months of the shock action plan carried out by the Town Hall of Barcelona to fight against the problem of illegal apartments continues to bear fruit, with the cessation of activity at 615 illegal apartments and the opening of 1,290 new files as a result of the inspector’s work.

The objective is to minimise the black market supply of tourist accommodation, which is particularly high in some of the more central districts of the city. The aim is also to restrict such properties from taking up roots in the city, given that they are economically unsustainable and disrespectful of the governing legislation; moreover, critics argue that they lead to the eviction of neighbours from the most affected neighbourhoods.

One of the new features of the plan is the team of twenty people that is responsible for checking in situ whether illegal activity is being undertaken in specific tourist flats. The team also interviews tourists and neighbours with the aim of obtaining the addresses of possible tourist flats operating without a licence. In the last two months, 1,222 online searches have been performed for tourist flats without a licence number, and as a result 1,045 street visits have been undertaken, which have allowed the team to identify 766 illegal homes.

The Town Hall has already issued cessation orders and sanction files (€30,000) to 418 of those apartments operating without a licence, and in terms of the others, the corresponding administrative checks are being performed to be able to open the files.

Meanwhile, the new municipal website, which visitors can use to find out whether a tourist home is legal or not, has received 825 reports.

In the field of inspection, the Town Hall works not only to detect the illegal supply of homes being let out without any kind of licence, but also works with other types of unusual tourist accommodation published online.

In this sense, 32 establishments have been identified to be operating as B&Bs without the corresponding licence. Soon, all of these places will receive the corresponding disciplinary procedures – in the form of an order to cease activity and a sanction file.

Original story: Inmodiario

Translation: Carmel Drake