There were circa €28.1bn (face value) of closed real estate loan and REO sales recorded in the first six months of 2017 across 36 transactions – up on the first halves of 2015 and 2016 – and there are a further €51.7bn of live transactions, particularly including major portfolios in Spain, Portugal, Italy and the UK. 

Starwood Capital Group, a leading global private investment firm, today announced that its Starwood Global Opportunity Fund X controlled affiliate has sold its interest in a collection of hotels across key leisure markets in Spain.  The assets are owned in a joint venture with Melia Hotels International, a leading Spanish hotel operator, which is retaining interest in the assets in the portfolio.

Italy and Spain are both large euro zone economies — after Germany and France, they rank third and fourth for GDP, respectively — that suffered in the global financial crisis and the euro zone sovereign debt crisis that followed, principally through the danger of contagion from Greece’s debt issues but also from economic recession, falls in business activity and sentiment, the imposition of austerity measures, and horrible rises in unemployment levels, especially among the young.

The similarities largely end there, for Spain took action and pulled itself up while Italy remains mired in relative political turmoil, economic sclerosis and financial inaction, seemingly unwilling or unable to dig itself out of the hole it finds itself in. Spain has seen recent years of 3 percent plus annual GDP growth, reductions in unemployment and a return of investor and consumer confidence, and is recovering. Italy has not. 

Avignon Capital, the European property investment firm, has sold Fontanella 6-8, a prime office and retail asset in Barcelona, for EUR65 million, producing a 135 per cent return on equity.

Redevco Iberian Ventures, the joint venture between pan-European retail real estate specialist Redevco and funds managed by global alternative asset manager Ares Management, has sold a portfolio of nine retail parks located across Spain for EUR193 million. 

Hispania has completed the acquisition of the Fergus Tobago Hotel on the island of Mallorca for a total of EUR20 million. The hotel is located on the front line of the Son Matías beach, Palmanova, an emblematic place on the island which is currently in the process of updating the hotel and the hotel surroundings.

Hispania has sold the 4,700 sq m Aurelio Menéndez office building in Madrid for a total of EUR37.5 million, equivalent to a price of EUR7,800/sq m.

Neinor Homes closed yesterday the acquisition of a fully permitted land plot in Valencia, with a buildable area of over 50,000 m² and suitable for constructing ca. 400 units. It is located in the Malilla neighborhood of Valencia, across the street from La Fe Hospital (the biggest in the city) and where the Company acquired another plot in March.

AXA IM - Real Assets, a global leader in real asset investments and the leading real estate portfolio and asset manager in Europe, announces that it has completed the acquisition, on behalf of AXA Insurance Companies, of a 55% stake in the Hilton Diagonal Mar Hotel in central Barcelona, from Iberdrola Inmobiliaria for €80 million. The hotel is operated by Hilton Hotels on a long term lease. 

Hispania, has acquired the Hotel Selomar in Benidorm with a total of 245 keys for circa EUR16 million. The beachfront hotel on Playa Levante also provides easy access to the popular historic ‘old’ town’ area of the city.

UBS Asset Management's (UBS-AM) Real Estate & Private Markets (REPM) business has completed the acquisition of the PP10 Warehouses, two core logistics assets located in Madrid, Spain. The assets were acquired by REPM’s Iberian team on behalf of a separate account client from Invesco Real Estate for EUR35.15 million.

AXA Investment Managers - Real Assets (“AXA IM - Real Assets”), a global leader in real asset investments and the leading real estate portfolio and asset manager in Europe, announces that it has completed the acquisition, on behalf of AXA CoRE Europe Fund, in an 85/15 joint venture with Sonae Sierra, of Area Sur Shopping Centre (“Area Sur”) in Jerez, Andalusia, Spain, from Union Investment. 

Orion Capital Managers has taken full ownership of Sotogrande Luxco, the major shareholder of a luxury resort developer in Spain. Orion has bought the remaining 50% stake in Sotogrande Luxco from its joint venture partner Cerberus Capital Management.

Blackstone has confirmed the €12.25bn sale of its European logistics arm Logicor to China Investment Corporation. The sale of Logicor, which owns a portfolio of assets totalling 147m sqft in 17 countries, has long been anticipated by the market.

TH Real Estate has agreed to enter into a 50:50 joint venture partnership with Intu Properties Plc, acquiring a 50% stake in the Xanadú Shopping Centre in Madrid, Spain.

Klépierre has acquired Nueva Condomina, a shopping mall in the region of Murcia, Spain, for €233 million ($260 million). Klépierre purchased 100 percent of the shares of the Spanish entity that directly owns Nueva Condomina from a subsidiary of BNP Paribas Fortis SA/NV.

CBRE Global Investors has agreed to acquire a 70 per cent interest in H2O Rivas Shopping Centre in Madrid, Spain for an undisclosed amount.

Generali Real Estate, the real estate asset manager of the Generali Group, has acquired a primary commercial property in Madrid, calle de Preciados 9, from CBRE Global Investment Partners in a joint venture with IBA Capital Partners.

Whilst improving global economic conditions during the first quarter of the year are supporting sentiment in most parts of the world, EU markets continue to lead the way. With respect to occupier demand growth, Madrid, Budapest, Dublin, Munich, Berlin and Lisbon, posted particularly strong results according to the latest RICS Commercial Property Monitor.

The long legacy of the vast books of bad debts accrued by Spanish banks has proven to be good business for US private equity groups, which have emerged as custodians to the country’s real estate woes. TPG, Apollo, Blackstone and Cerberus have become powerful players in the highly profitable Spanish loan-servicing industry, which has emerged from the country’s banking crisis and has been critical to its recovery.