This Wednesday more than 40 professionals and leaders in the real estate sector in Spain have met at Madrid Re Investment Talks 2021, an event organized by Iberian Property and Kreab to promote debate and reflection on the challenges facing the industry and the role it will play in the economic recovery.
The event, sponsored by Merlin Properties, Azora and Clifford Chance, was attended by Gonzalo García Andrés, recently appointed as Secretary of State for Economy and Business Support, Miguel Ferre, Kreab senior partner and head of Public Affairs, and António Gil Machado, director of Iberian Property.
During his speech, Secretary of State Gonzalo García highlighted the new phase of expansionary cycle that the Spanish economy is entering, thanks to the progress made in the vaccination process and the rapid response given by the European Union with the Next Generation funds. "The economy is picking up the pulse and all the indicators certify this. We have a historic opportunity to underpin a sustainable economic recovery in the medium and long term, combining an investment and reform program."
To address the process of modernizing the economy and tackle the country's structural imbalances, García stressed the deployment of the Government's Recovery Plan, which will achieve a significant mobilization of investments and which, according to his estimates: "will contribute two percentage points on average per year of growth from 2021 and will generate around 800,000 jobs". These investments will make it possible to implement a series of structural reforms that will transform and strengthen the economic and social fabric, including major investments for the real estate market: "The objective is to activate the public and private building rehabilitation sector and encourage the construction of a rental housing stock, which is currently insufficient".
In addition, García emphasized the selection criteria for the projects and the speed with which the Government is initiating the process of calls and tenders for public investment, which will increase substantially in the second half of the year, and which will include the development of public-private collaboration instruments.
The volume of real estate investment in Spain reached 9,000 million euros in 2020
In line with forecasts and the European trend, in 2020 the capital markets in Spain experienced a slowdown which, in terms of real estate investment volume, represented a 24% decrease compared to 2019, from €11.8 billion to €9 billion. Even so, Spain continues to concentrate 76% of the real estate capital allocated to the Iberia region.
These results come from an analysis carried out by Iberian Property, based on public data and in which it has identified up to 225 commercial real estate investment transactions closed in Spain throughout 2020. Reflecting the negative impact of the pandemic, this is the lowest figure in the last three years.