The most high-profile operations in the Spanish real estate market during the month of October included Banco Santander’s repurchase of 381 of its bank branches in Spain; the acquisition of the logistics jewel next to Madrid’s Barajas Airport by the subsidiary of the sovereign wealth fund of Singapore with a commitment of around 168.7 million euros; and numerous transactions involving new urban developments.
Companies
In October, a significant number of real estate companies acquired other firms, in whole or in part. Arcadis bought Ireland’s DPS for 232 million euros to strengthen its position in the market for semiconductor manufacturing and life sciences; GPF Capital bought 80% of Lezama Demoliciones with the aim of entering the battle for energy efficiency; and the proptech Casavo bought the French company Proprioo in order to fully enter the French market.
In addition, the Canadian fund PSP acquired a stake in the proptech Clikalia, whereby joining other large players such as Softbank and Santander, who have also invested in the Spanish firm.
In parallel, a new offsite construction company EBM was created from the merger of Xeito Investments and Grupo Pesudo. And Urbanitae also celebrated some good news: the company has become the first real estate crowdfunding platform authorised to operate in Europe.
Meanwhile, several Spanish real estate companies opened new lines of business. During the month, Alastria created a real estate sector branch with Metrovacesa, KPMG and Datacasas Proptech at the helm; and Grupo Azora announced its debut in the sustainable investment segment, with the acquisition of 33% of the Basque company ISFA.
In terms of collaborations, Aedas Homes and Iberdrola signed the first alliance between a promoter and an electricity company in Spain. The agreement aims to promote sustainability and respect for the environment through new residential projects. On the other hand, Bankinter and EFFIC agreed to finance the renovation of homes through Next Generation funds.
Expansions? Holidu closed another 100 million euro financing round to continue its pan-European expansion; Porcelanosa announced a 3 million euro investment to expand its activity in the Catalan market; and Live4Life, which specialises in rentals for university students, announced its expansion to Miami.
Many companies have published their results over the last few weeks. Metrovacesa stands out, having announced that it is going to distribute its largest dividend in four years, amounting to 159 million euros, which will be paid out in December. The company improved its profits by 64% between January and September and expects to maintain its record rate of new homes going forward.
Other highlights? At The District, the real estate summit held in Barcelona, Brickbro emerged as the best startup to invest in, a category that it shared with Inviertis and Woodea, the other two finalists in this edition.
In addition, there was talk in the sector of a possible sale of ASG Homes (Activum SG), although the company denied the rumours. Although the price for which the promoter would change hands for is unknown, if the operation were to go ahead, it would be one of the most important transactions in the sector.
Residential
In the living sector, Solvia closed the sale of six residential buildings in Cataluña (a total of 191 homes, in addition to 372 garages and storage rooms) and announced the sale of approximately 3,800 homes at low prices throughout Spain. For its part, Culmia delivered the second phase of the ‘Vila Bonaplata’ project (a total of 210 homes) to DWS; it is located in Barcelona and has involved an investment of 80 million euros.
New business projects in the residential segment? Greystar launched Be Casa, comprising 2,500 homes in Valdebebas, Rivas and San Sebastián de los Reyes, debuting a new concept involving hybrid and accessible accommodation; Magno Living (DeA Capital and Harrison Street) has launched itself into the BTR market with 270 million euros to invest; and Aviva Investors and Layetana Living created a joint venture to supply 2,000 homes for rent.
In addition, this month, new negotiations were announced, such as the ones involving Neinor, which is planning to sell its large portfolio of rental housing to the fund CPPIB.
At the end of Q3 2022, several residential developers published their results. Aedas Homes reported that its sales portfolio amounts to almost 1.5 billion euros. The property developer has nearly 6,000 homes under construction and, additionally, 625 completed units. Meanwhile, Hipoges has doubled its assets under management in one year having signed up to a large agreement with Sareb.
New developments also meant more new-build housing. At the regional level, Andalucía stands out as one of the areas with the highest investment in the last month. Highlights include Grupo Insur with the construction of the first residential development in Tomares, the new green neighbourhood of Sevilla, which will comprise more than 450 homes; also in the Andalucían capital, Grupo GS acquired land to develop 35 homes for 14 million euros; in Málaga, Habitat Z1 Collection launched one of the first residential projects in Distrito Zeta, the new district of Málaga; and also in Malaga, Culmia earmarked 81 million euros to build 300 homes in the Limonar neighbourhood.
And the pace continues in several other regions: in the País Vasco, Pryconsa won the tender to build 300 homes in Bilbao, next to the San Mamés football stadium, for 52 million euros; in the Community of Valencia, a 550 million euro investment was announced in Turianova, the new smart and sustainable neighbourhood in Valencia where brands such as AQ Acentor and Proalival will act as development agents; in Cataluña, Inbisa bought a plot of land in Castellar del Vallés (Barcelona) where it will build 130 homes in total, with an investment of more than 30 million euros; and in the Community of Madrid, at the beginning of the month, Los Cerros celebrated the laying of the first stone for a project that will involve a global investment of more than 3 billion euros.
Hotels
In the hotel segment, several large operations stand out, such as the acquisition of 99% of Marina d’Or (Oropesa, Castellón) by the fund Farallon and Millenium’s purchase of its fourth hotel in the centre of the Spanish capital, namely the Iberostar Las Letras Gran Vía, for 70 million euros. In addition, new brands joined the European hotel market and launched their own portfolios: specifically, Redevco bought six assets on the Iberian peninsula for 80 million euros.
New hotels under construction? The new Fuenlabrada Retail Park will have a new hotel thanks to a joint project between Equilis and Avintia. Meanwhile, in the Marbella area, Millenium is going to build the future luxury hotel W Marbella, which will be developed on two plots owned by Platinum.
In addition, assets that are not currently hotels are going to become hotels after being converted. The property at number 1 Calle Pez (Malasaña) is going to be transformed from a nursing home to a new hotel, with an approximate investment of 4.5 million euros.
And the most exciting award of the month went to the five-star My Way asset, Las Terrazas de Abama (Canary Islands), which was branded the best luxury hotel in Spain.
Offices
The office segment registered some major operations during the month of October. One of the most notable was Banco Santander’s repurchase of 381 of its bank branches in Spain. The bank currently operates a network of 1,921 branches across the coutrny and has recently announced that it is going to sell some of its assets in the United Kingdom.
In April, Mapfre and MEAG, Munich Re’s asset manager, announced their new European core office real estate fund. This month, the insurers have endowed their real estate alliance with four assets valued at 250 million euros – only one of them is in Spain, the rest are in Germany.
For its part, Redevco Iberian Ventures allocated 200 million euros to the purchase and renovation of an El Corte Inglés building in Barcelona with the aim of turning the property into an asset comprising prime shops and offices.
More changes in the office segment? Rockwell Automation changed its headquarters to the Hexagon Building, located in Barcelona’s 22@ district, and Gewiss became the new tenant of the Ximad building, located in the Madrilenian municipality of Las Rozas.
Industrial & Logistics
The logistics sector did not stop in October either. One of the main operations saw the subsidiary of the sovereign fund of Singapore acquire the logistics jewel next to Madrid’s Barajas Airport, a proposal from P3 Group Sarl, that involves a commitment of around 168.7 million euros.
In addition, Prologis’s portfolio in Spain now spans 1.5 million square metres after it added 26 assets from the Crossbay portfolio, following an operation worth 1.59 billion euros that included various assets across Europe; Mileway acquired seven logistics assets in Barcelona, Valencia, Pamplona, Sevilla and Zaragoza; Oxford also bought seven logistics assets in Barcelona, Bilbao and Tarragona through M7; and Consum announced the purchase of a 400,000 square metre plot in the Valencian town of Aldaia to build a new logistics platform.
In terms of logistics projects in the pipeline, the development of G-Park Sagunto stands out, a logistics centre spanning more than 80,000 square metres that will serve the Mediterranean Corridor area; as does the Newdock development in Cártama (Málaga) spanning 58,000 square meters, which will be used for the creation of logistics warehouses and offices; also the new Mirastar project in Constantí (Tarragona); and the new platform in Burgos, in which Bridgestone and Panattoni are investing 36 million euros.
More news? Valfondo (Montepino) announced that it is looking for new partners to invest 900 million euros into new logistics vehicles. These new projects are expected to reach a target size of 500 million euros.
Meanwhile, Endesa recovered a historic industrial plot in Castilla-La Mancha on which it is going to build two solar plants through its renewable subsidiary Enel Green Power España (EGPE) in Puertollano. That transaction amounted to 40 million euros.
Retail
Retail is the sector that registered the fewest movements during the month of October. However, developments involving several new shopping centre projects were announced in different parts of Spain.
The new El Mayorazgo Shopping Centre is a €12.5 million project located in Málaga, next to two of the most expensive urbanisations with the highest income levels in the province.
Finally, in Tenerife, another new shopping center is going to open its doors in the south of the island, specifically in Abama Resort Tenerife, involving an investment of more than 14 million euros.
Read the original article in Spanish.
