REAL ESTATE
Spain’s real estate sector, despite its previous setbacks, is a now sandbox for world’s best architects and companies to build high-quality, innovative structures and to buy, manage, and rent assets.
Enrique Losantos CEO, JLL
JLL HAS BEEN AN INTERNATIONAL COMPANY for almost 300 years and has been operating in Spain for the past 32, where it currently employs 500 people. In 2018, we took in revenues of more than EUR115 million. We provide consultancy services to all of the key subsectors of the real estate sector. Two of the subsectors that are extremely attractive for us are logistics and buildto-rent, which are gaining as much, if not more, interest than the industrial sector. Digitalization is the primary driver of the JLL Group on a global scale. By 2023, we aim to be a digital provider of real estate services, moving far and beyond the traditional model of a real estate consultancy firm. This project got underway back in 2013, and following a strategy that helps our vision materialize, we have been undergoing a continuous transformation process that is still underway. Our digitalization strategy is to behave like a start-up and find an innovative solution to disrupt the market. Technology and, more importantly, data, are at the core of what we do. Being the number-one company does not mean being the biggest, but the best. We want the market to perceive us as the best consultants out there.
Victor Pérez Arias CEO, ASG HOMES
ASG HOMES WAS INCORPORATED IN 2016.
We are the design developer for Activum SG fund in Europe. The Activum business started in Spain in 2014 and laid the foundation of ASG Homes. We have a strong focus on tourism-related real estate. We do not only focus on cities, but also on towns like Marbella and Estepona in Costa del Sol. We chose Spain because we are a value fund and seek an opportunistic context in our visions. Our company policy focuses on large investments. Therefore, we are looking for investments in suburbs around big cities. We previously invested in shopping centers, offices, and hotels. We still focus on office space as well as upgrading and revamping hotels. We also like to take on projects that involve highend retail. In Spain, nearly 40% of our portfolio is hotels and offices. We have two ongoing projects, one in Salamanca and another in Calle Fuencarral 77 in Madrid, in which we are planning to implement renewable energy sources. All of our developments are BREEAM standard. Consumers are actually demanding these changes for the environment.
Ignacio García Cuenca COUNTRY MANAGER, GOODMAN SPAIN
GOODMAN GROUP WAS FOUNDED by Greg Goodman in Australia in the mid-1980s with the purchase of a single industrial warehouse in South Sydney. Since then, the group has evolved to be a global property group that owns, develops, and manages industrial real estate in 17 countries around the world. Goodman began operating in Spain under its current name in 2007 after acquiring a range of European property services and asset managers with a presence in local markets. Initially, we focused on commercial and logistics real estate. In 2013, we began to focus on logistics properties in gateway cities. Our vision is based on the principles of long-term ownership and active management of the logistics platforms we develop. Advances in technology, changes in consumer behavior, and improving supply chains continue to be drivers of customer demand for industrial space globally, and Spain is no exception. Our customers continue to demand proximity to consumers in urban locations, driven by the structural trends of urbanization, the rapidly changing purchasing behavior of consumers, rising consumerism, and the increasing need for convenience.
Fátima Sáez del Cano MANAGING DIRECTOR, GROSVENOR
THE GROSVENOR GROUP IS ONE OF THE
LARGEST PRIVATELY OWNED international property companies and is part of the Grosvenor Estate. At Grosvenor, we apply our property expertise to cities as opposed to countries. Madrid is one of the cities that is evolving and adapting to the future. We have been active in Madrid since 1996, investing in offices, shopping centers, and industrial parks as part of a joint venture with Grupo Lar. We also focus on residential development opportunities where we can transform underutilized assets into properties that contribute to the growth and character of the neighborhoods in which we are active. We invest in sought-after areas of the capital, namely Chamberí and Salamanca, which are well-connected, feature high-quality architecture, provide access to green spaces, and are in proximity to Madrid’s wide range of cultural amenities. In the last two years we have committed EUR300 million to Madrid real estate, and our immediate plan is to acquire another two or three residential development sites while also investing in more offices to secure a steady income.
Enrique López Granados CEO, CALEDONIAN
WE ARE A FAMILY COMPANY that is focused on developments and buildings, a sector we have been involved in for generations. We build homes that are efficient, sensible, and built to last with high-quality materials. We were among the first house developers that were interested in acquiring LEED certifications. In our current project, we have an estimated energy consumption of EUR17 per month, which is fantastic compared to the rest of the market. Efficiency is very important, and we seek to optimize space so that residents have the best experience in our products. At present, we are doing high-end housing in certain areas in Madrid. We have also purchased land on the coast that we intend to develop into a hotel and resort. One of our plans is to build a unique structure for our new headquarters. We will only occupy 25% of the building, and the rest will be for rent. We also have a hotel that is currently ranked amongst the top 10 in Europe. We have plans to internationalize the brand. In particular, we are looking at Ukraine and a number of countries in the Americas.
Eduard Itoiz PRESIDENT & FOUNDER, SHBARCELONA
THE 1992 OLYMPICS PROJECTED the Barcelona brand in a new way. From then on, demand for Barcelona awakened. I noticed the demand in the world of midterm rentals, as tourists began to come and homes for touristic use opened. Now, we offer a comprehensive service to anyone who owns a home. We assign an account manager to each client, who then interacts with all company departments to offer services like interior design, decoration, works, maintenance, housekeeping and insurance. It is a relationship of trust, as we are not a provider but a partner. For this, we need high visibility on Google and the internet in general. Some 95% of mid-term registration services come through our website, but only 5% of tourism arrives through our website. In this sector, there are many others that dominate the market, so our properties must be on those sites instead. Therefore, our website is specifically designed for mid-term rentals. Because this niche is our strength, it is the segment where we are leaders. We want to grow 15% overall while maintaining quality. We cannot grow any other way since quality is our goal.
Oriol Barrachina CEO, SPAIN CUSHMAN AND WAKEFIELD (C&W)
C&W IS A CENTENARIAN COMPANY that went from 20,000 people to 51,000 with our M&A activity since 2016. Our yearly revenue is more than EUR8 billion. The market currently has two main characteristics: It is both global and concentrated. The easiest way to look at our market is to divide our clients into two types. We have renters of buildings, or owners and investors. Both are looking at the world on a more global level and there are less and less service providers like us that can provide consistency from Ho Chi Minh to Buenos Aires. This makes every market important, and Spain is particularly important in the real estate scenario. Both Madrid and Barcelona play an important role for renters and capital, so we could not play in the global market if we were weak in Spain. Our strong presence in Spain allows us to offer a broad spectrum of services. Any player from any asset class will find a top-three company when arriving in Spain. We have had six years of double-digit growth. We have many mandates, deals, and transactions that make me think the year will be fantastic. Therefore, we need to make certain decisions regarding expansion.
Humphrey White PARTNER & CEO, KNIGHT FRANK SPAIN
WE RECENTLY OPENED a residential office simultaneously in Marbella with our commercial office in Madrid. Since then, we have grown exponentially, covering three main sectors: residential, which provides services for land transactions, consultancy, new build sales, and luxury homes; commercial, which runs commercial properties, leasing, acquisitions, office sales, logistics, and retail; and analysis, which does risk evaluations, consultancy, and research. With this diverse service line, we hope to perform well in all parts of the cycle. Because of our strength within the luxury residential sector, our client base spans from high net worth individuals, private equity firms, property funds, sovereign wealth funds, and more. As for asset classes, the two preferred would be private rented sector (PRS), which is the residential rental sector, and logistics. PRS is still in quite an embryonic state in Spain, so we are excited to have major global players moving into Spain to build platforms of newly-built residential rentals. Logistics stems from the growth of e-commerce. There is much interest in retail and offices as companies look for distribution warehouses, not industrial buildings.
Pere Viñolas CEO, COLONIAL IMMOBILIARIA
WE ARE IN THE REAL ESTATE SECTOR, and we own, manage, and lease assets. In our particular case, we focus on one single asset class: offices. Our reputation comes more from our ownership of prime assets in Spain and France, where almost half of our activity occurs. The company has been around for 30 years and has undergone three different cycles. We are the only real estate company that made it through the last cycle because of the quality of our assets, our exposure and credibility, and the quality of our management. At the end of 2013, Spain once again became an investable market, setting an outstanding example of a growing economy. As of now, we own and manage around EUR12 billion worth of properties. Our strategy is to allocate 85% of this to established and well-known assets and the rest to new, interesting projects. Our strategy has always been to create value for new buildings, our strategy for organic growth. We are currently investing more than EUR300 million in different projects in France. We have to properly manage our current assets and, at the same time, focus on assets that suit to new trends, meet the requirements and demands of our clients, and provide good returns.