The housing market continues to show an intense dynamic. Sales increased 9.7% in September, and drives an accumulated figure of 395,534 operations in the year so far, the largest volume in this period since 2008. Although the vigour is seen in all segments, sales of new houses stand, up 11.5% up to Q318.
Investment in property in Spain by institutional investors rose to 13.385 billion euros at the end of September, according to CB Richard Ellis. That figure exceeds the 12.75 billion euros in the whole of 2017. The total volume of investment for the whole year would exceed 16 billion euros, which would mean the highest level for ten years.
Mari Pinardo | Neinor Homes is the first housing promotor to return to the stock market 10 years after the crisis. Its CEO, Juan Velayos, recognises that many things have improved since then: Four years ago no housing was being built, and now 90,000 units are being built”. But he admits there are deep rooted problems in the sector: “Spain is seriously bad at generating supply, we are paying far more for apartments than we could do if there were transparent criteria.”
Raimundo Poveda | Spanish banks must find somewhere to invest. Their retail credit, for now with a low level bad debts, has been growing at an accelerated rhythm for the last couple of years. But that is where the good news ends. Credit for house purchases, by far the most important component in household credit, and in all private sector credit, continues to fall (2.5% in 2017).
Sacyr did well out of the housing bubble in Spain: its Ebitda was multipled by 2.9 between 2001 and 2007. Now the new Sacyr is building its business around concessions, aiming to mimic the business models of the French companies Vinci and Eiffage.
Private equity fund Blackstone and Banco Santander have injected 300 million euros in the property fund in which both have a stake. The alliance is a mix of societies under the umbrella of parent company Project Quasar Investments 2017, which includes what was previously Banco Popular’s real estate portfolio. Its gross assets are valued at 30 billion euros, with a net value of 10 billion.
Inmobiliaria Colonial announced at the market close on Tuesday that its board and that of the socimi Axiare have approved the merger of both companies. The integration still has to be ratified at the respective shareholder meetings. It will be carried out via a share exchange: 1,8554 shares of Colonial for each share of Axiare.
The volume of property investment in Spain rose 9% to 9.2 billion euros in 2017 from a year earlier. This represents a two percentage points increase on the growth registered in Europe as a whole over the same year, according to Savills Aguirre Newman.
After five years out of the stock market, Metrovacesa returned on February 6 via a public share offering earmarked just for qualified investors. The property company’s shares are currently trading at 14.11 euros each, with a big discount to NAV.
Mario Esteban and Miguel Otero-Iglesias | As in many other European countries, Chinese investments in Spain have increased spectacularly over that past years. Nonetheless, there has not been a public or political debate around the topic, and even less a thorough reflection by the government, the media and the academic community at large about the implications of these investments.