Independent sales transactions data on the Spanish commercial property investment market

Today (4th December 2014), Expansion, the Spanish financial newspaper has published an article stating that Citibank has recently commenced a joint venture with Mazabi, a Spanish investment company. The stated objective is to invest €400 million in real estate in Spain, with a target return of 15%.

Citibank has identified Spain as an attractive country for investment, and many large international players have already invested heavily in the Spanish market. To profit from this demand, especially for real estate, Citibank has set up the investment club aimed at High Net Worth individuals (HNWI’s) from all around the world.

Fernando López Muñoz, Director of Global markets for Citi Private Bank for Spain, Italy, Portugal, Latin America and EMEA, has explained that “this club intends to invest a minimum of €200 million in Spain, which could be leveraged to €400 million.”

The club has three years to invest the capital with a possible extension of two years. However, Lopez has indicated that most of the investments will be committed during 2015 and the first six month of 2016.

The Investment Club comprises capital from some 15 to 20 families with a minimum net worth of €100 million each. These families have committed to invest €10 million each in opportunities which have already been identified by Mazabi. However, individual investors are not obliged to invest since they join the club on the basis of a soft commitment. Most of the identified investment opportunities are located in Madrid and Barcelona although some are located in Bilbao, Valencia, Seville and other provincial capitals.

Most of the club members are from Latin America and the Middle-East, but there are also investors from the USA and Europe. The vehicle is projected to last for five to seven years with an expected annual return of 15%.

For information on recent Spanish real estate investment transactions, intelligence on Spanish real estate buyers and sellers, office letting transacions in Madrid and Barcelona and more please contact: www.i-comparables.com

Bankia, the rescued Spanish bank, subject to corruption investigations, has announced the sale of the “Lake” property portfolio consisting of 38 Spanish real estate assets including apartment blocks, retail shops and logistics warehouses, to Goldman Sachs, which has paid €355 million for them.

In a statement, Bankia explained the Lake portfolio deal included 27 apartment blocks with a total of 1,336 homes and an area of 125,000 square metres in addition to 1,565 parking spaces, 584 storage rooms and 48 retail units on the ground floor level of the buildings.

Apart from the above 27 residential buildings, Goldman Sachs have acquired nine retail units with an area of 18,000 square metres and two logistics warehouses with an area of 10,521 square metres.

Spanish banks, burdened with as much as €40 billion of repossessed real estate, are under increasing pressure to sell as prices fall and investors return to the market after a property slump. Losses linked to real estate at BFA-Bankia, a banking group forged from a merger of savings banks led by Caja Madrid, pushed Spain into taking a €41 billion European bailout to prop up lenders in 2012.

Firms such as Goldman Sachs and Cerberus Capital Management LP have acquired real estate assets in Spain after house prices dropped by more than 45 percent from their 2007 peak. Last year Goldman Sachs bought apartment blocks and social-housing developments from local authorities in Madrid in a partnership with Spanish private-equity firm Azora Capital SL.

For detailed information about transactions in the Spanish real estate investment market contact i-comparables.com.