Companies are Invited to Buy Industrial Land in Galicia with Discounts of up to 50%

23 February 2019 – La Voz de Galicia 

Galician companies, as well as those from outside the region interested in moving into Galicia, will have a batch of 1.25 million m2 of subsidised business land available to them. The discounts will range between 30% and 50%, depending on the area. With this plan, the autonomous administration is providing continuity to the strategy it has outlined in recent years, which allowed it to award almost 1.5 million m2 of land across Galicia between 2015 and 2018, mostly under a sale-purchase regime.

The public company Xestur, which is in the hands of the Xunta, has called a new tender this year through which it is making available 929,422 m2 of land: interested companies have until the middle of March to process their applications with the aim of acquiring 281 plots located in 17 business parks across the region.

Specifically, the plots being offered by Xestur are located on six industrial estates in the province of A Coruña (…); four in the province of Pontevedra (…); another four in the province of Lugo (…) and finally three in the province of Ourense (…).

Besides the almost 930,000 m2 being offered by Xestur, the Xunta is going to add another 322,258 m2 of industrial plots, also for a subsidised price, owned by the Galician Institute of Housing and Land (Instituto Galego da Vivenda e Solo (IGVS)), which are available to be awarded at any time (…).

Specifically, the offer from IGVS comprises 153 plots in total, located in 15 business parks across Galicia, including: three in the province of A Coruña (…), five in Lugo (…); six in Ourense (…) and finally one in Pontevedra (…).

The mobilisation of industrial land is one of the objectives outlined by the Xunta to attract companies to the region and avoid them abandoning the area (…).

Original story: La Voz de Galicia

Translation: Carmel Drake

Inditex Caused the Ministry of Development’s Results to Soar in Galicia in 2017

13 November 2018 – Economía Digital

Inditex purchased more square metres of land from the Ministry of Development’s land manager than the Xunta sells in one year. In a single transaction, the company owned by Amancio Ortega acquired 218,000 m2 of land last year spread over 26 plots on the A Laracha industrial estate (A Coruña) from the company Suelo Empresarial del Atlántico, controlled by the department led by José Luis Ábalos.

The implementation of the multinational’s new logistics hub to complement the group’s central complex in Arteixo, multiplied the revenues and profits of the Ministry of Development’s land manager, which has 13 industrial estates up for sale in Galicia, but which faces serious difficulties when it comes to selling the plots unless it offers them  significant discounts.

The Inditex effect: revenues multiplied by six

Last year, Suelo Empresarial del Atlántico multiplied its revenues by six, up from €2.5 million in 2016 to €15.7 million in 2017. Of that amount, €13.4 million proceeded from the plots sold in A Laracha, the industrial estate chosen by Inditex. The remainder (€1.1 million) was invoiced in Rianxo or was received through subsidies to the business parks of Cee, Muros, Vimianzo and Rianxo itself, given that the entity is a recipient of European funds.

The dependence on a single operation in 2017, the one involving Inditex, shows the difficulties faced when it comes to finding companies to set up shop in Galicia, both for the property developer of the Xunta, which in just two years since its creation has sold 200,000 m2, as well as for the Suelo Empresarial del Atlántico, formerly Plan Galicia promoted by José María Aznar in 2003 to compensate the Prestige disaster.

The purchases by the textile giant also caused the profits of the land manager to soar, up from €53,554 to €444,500, an eight-fold rise. Suelo Empresarial del Atlántico is owned by the Xunta (15%) and by Abanca (1.6%), although the bulk of its share capital, more than 83%, is in the hands of the Ministry of Development through the Public Land Management Company (‘Entidad Pública Empresarial de Suelo’ or Sepes) (…).

Original story: Economía Digital (by Rubén Rodríguez)

Translation: Carmel Drake

A Judge Orders the Demolition of 52 Villas in O Grove (Galicia)

8 November 2018 – Inmodiario

Administrative Court number 1 of Pontevedra has confirmed the demolition order for 52 homes in the Raeiros urbanisation, located in San Vicente do Mar (O Grove), as well as of the roads and large movements of earth undertaken in the area, classified as non-buildable land with special coastal protection. An appeal against the ruling may be filed with the TSXG (the Superior Court of Justice of Galicia).

In the ruling, the judge dismissed the appeal presented by one of the owners against the resolution adopted in October 2017 by the Agency for the Protection of Legal Urban Planning (APLU), which requires the owners of the 52 villas to comply with a demolition order dated 2014.

The demolition was decreed by the Xunta for the first time in 2010. The Administrative Court also imposed the payment of the costs on the claimant.

The ruling explains that the legislation prohibits the residential use of that type of land, a woodland area that overlooks the Balea-Raeiros beach.

In 1993, the owner obtained a licence to build an aparthotel for tourist use on the site, but, according to the judgement, constructed 52 terraced villas for residential use and sold them to different owners.

In 2007, the Xunta required them to implement hotel use and to dissolve the parcelation by joining together all of the houses into a single asset, but that order was ignored.

In 2010, the APLU ordered the demolition and ordered it again in 2014. The Administrative Court number 1 of Pontevedra confirms in its ruling that most recent demolition order.

“The construction licence was linked to the activity. Without the hotel use (without parcelation) everything that has been constructed lacks sense”, said the judge in the ruling, in which he also pointed to the possibility that the hotel licence granted in 1993 may have expired.

Original story: Inmodiario

Translation: Carmel Drake