Hundreds of Costa Blanca estate agencies forced to close

Two hundred estate agents on Costa Blanca forced to close due to crisis

Estate agents from Torrevieja, Guardamar del Segura and Orihuela Costa have this week presented their case for strengthening collaboration in the region in the face of the deepening economic crisis. So far 21 businesses have joined the initiative in an attempt to avoid having to close their agency. The idea behind the collaboration is to homogenize the process of sales, to unify contracts and fees and to make the market more transparent.

Five years ago real estate companies along the Costa Blanca expressed their interest in collaborating with rival agencies but, in the middle of the property boom, this never materialized. However, now that the economic panorama has changed drastically the opportunity to strengthen collaboration is more attractive.

The crisis in the property market is clearly demonstrated by some figures. Many properties are selling at as much as 30% below the asking price, and the number of transactions has gone down by 50% and in some areas by as much as 70%. Approximately half of the estate agents in Torrevieja and the surrounding area have been forced to close over the last few months (a reduction of 200).

The new collective announced today in local Costa Blanca newspapers that one of the first measures it will introduce is the creation of a shared group of properties for sale with the objective of making the local market more dynamic. They have also started publishing a monthly magazine with listings of property for sale.

Spanish building promotor sells HQ to save itself

Habitat to sell its headquarters to Caixa Manresa

Caixa Manresa is in the process of completing the purchase of the headquarters of Habitat, a construction company, in Barcelona. According to a spokesperson for Habitat, the company was forced to call in administrators due to debts totalling around 2,300 euros. The price of the operation is believed to be around 10 million euros.

Habitat, has pointed out that their present headquarters are not the property of the company but are part of the assets of the Figueras family which are the majority shareholders in the company together with the Suñol family, Ferrovial and a select group of wealthy individuals all of whom have lost millions (Andic, Castro, Rodés, Ortega and Cuatrecasas).

The money received from the sale of Habitat’s headquarters in the centre of Barcelona, will enable the construction company to remain active. Last Friday the chairman of the company, Bruno Figueras, stressed that Habitat had 250 flats that needed to be handed over and that all of them would be completed. He said that his company was not a ‘Martinsa-Fadesa’, which had not fulfilled many of its promises.

The construction of these flats are being undertaken by Ferrovial-Agroman, a construction group controlled by the Pino family which sold its construction division to Habitat two years ago for 2,200 million euros together with accumulated debts of 600 million. According to Efe, Habitat will gain around 10 million euros in liquidity following paying of mortgage debts on its headquarters. However, this has not been confirmed by the company.

In the long list of Habitat’s creditors are La Caixa, Caja Mandrid, BBVA, Popular, Sabadell and the Instituto Catalán de Finanzas (ICF ) - Caixa Manresa is not one of them and has one of the lowest arrears rates in the sector (1.42%).

Caixa Manresa has plans to convert the former Habitat headquarters into its own headquarters which it does not have at present in Barcelona. A spokesperson for Caixa Manresa Valentí Roqueta said ‘we wish to promote our institutional presence in the city and for this we need an emblematic building which will give us room for meeting clients and holding conferences’.