If the real estate transaction facilitated by Sareb materializes in Granadilla de Abonathis municipality will have almost 300 homes this year – 294, specifically – more under an affordable rental regime, thanks to the purchase by a private fund, which intends to adapt them and put them on the market through agreements with the Canary Institute of Housing (Icavi) at a price not exceeding 6.5 euros per square meter.
However, this operation still has a legal path left, such as the approval of the relevant urban planning procedures or the agreements for the apartments to be classified as affordable rentals. That is, the necessary subsidies are received.
However, the reality is that Sareb has sold the homes to this fund. And also that the entity preserves, according to updated data, a rich heritage in the South in terms of land, completed homes and works pending execution, which makes it a key actor in one of the most stressed areas of the Island in regarding rental properties. At least in rent, not affordable, but accessible.
A great owner in the South region
Its role as owner in the South is especially relevant, since it is not a real estate company or a private developer, but is in public hands. That is, it is the property of all citizens.
The Asset Management Company from the Bank Restructuring – full name of Sareb, also known as the bad bank, although it is not – is a public limited company, whose capital is 50.14% owned by the Government of the Interposed status.
The assets of the banks rescued and nationalized or liquidated and closed went to Sareb in 2012, after the real estate crisis of 2008: BFA-Bankia, Catalunya Bank, NGC Banco-Banco Gallego, Banco de Valencia, Banco Mare Nostrum, CEISS Bank, Caja 3 and Liberbank.
In 2012 and 2013 it acquired almost 200,000 toxic assets, which also included loans to the developer and real estate. All this for 50,781 million euros that were recorded as public debt.
Within this package are the 294 homes in Granadilla de Abona, distributed in eight buildings, two of them squatted by those who were going to be their owners, and the rest of the assets that Sareb owns in other municipalities in the region, which add up to a vast patrimony estimated in millions of euros.
Specifically, and according to the latest data updated by this company, it still has 279 homes in seven municipalities: Adeje, Arico, Arona, Granadilla de Abona, Candelaria, Güímar and San Miguel. Beyond the sale made to the private fund Orion Rental for 7.36 million euros, Granadilla continues to be the place where there are the most properties belonging to Sareb, with 109. It is followed by Adeje, with 86 units; Arona, with 40; San Miguel de Abona, with 14; Arico and Güímar, with 11 each, and Candelaria, with eight. In total, it is little less than the operation that was announced last Tuesday.
Heritage on land and works to be completed
Although the assets in housing are rich, the bad bank also owns land and works that were not completed. Many of them because their promoters went bankrupt during the 2008 crisis and they did not finish what they started. There are numerous developments in the South to which this same thing happened, leaving a trail of developments whose developments – sidewalks, lighting, etc. – were never completed.
The updated Sareb catalog indicates that there are up to 41 undeveloped land units in southern municipalities, with Candelaria and Granadilla de Abona as the most prominent places. In the first there are 23 unbuilt spaces owned by the society, while in the second they amount to 15. In San Miguel de Abona there are three.
Regarding unfinished works, Sareb assures that in the latter it has a total of 41, which breaks an absolute record in the region. To these we must add the three in Vilaflor de Chasna, the two in Arona and one in Granadilla de Abona.
