These assets are already part of the stock of the company, and to which more assets will be added meanwhile.
This decision to invest strongly in the rental market will meet the changes in demand being felt in Spain, especially in the younger generation, who are looking for homes to rent instead of buy, for cultural or work reasons, as sources from the market contacted by El País suggest.
Properties which will form part of the stock of the new socimis are currently managed by the servicer Anticipa Real Estate – another of the enterprises created by Blackstone in Spain as a result of the purchase of 40,000 mortgages from the now extinct Cataluña Caixa for 4,123 million euros in 2015. Meanwhile, the servicer acquired new portfolios of mortgage debt, in an investment of about 7,000 million euros.
Anticipa, led by Eduard Mendiluce, now manages about ten large portfolios from the bank and is owner of 12,000 properties, mostly destined for renting (75%), which will be divided among the socimis, among which is Albirana Properties, which was launched on the MAB last March and which manages 5,000 properties. Shortly, the new Pegarena and Tourmalet will also be listed, already constituted, and will have as their main shareholders various Blackstone funds. The management of the socimis will be the responsibility of Anticipa.
The strategic option of ‘distributing’ its home rental assets among various socimis is precisely one of facilitating their sale, thereby increasing the range of possible interested parties in the future.
This may not happen before 2022, according to a spokesman from Anticipa speaking to El País, as the objective of the firm is to stay in the Spanish market in the short and medium term, not intending to sell their business in the country before a period of 5 – 7 years.