We meet Inmaculada Ranera, Christie & Co managing director for Spain and Portugal. According to the British company, the region experienced an increase in hotel real estate activity in the last quarter of 2015 and first months of 2016

-What is the state of art of the Real Estate sector in Spain, in particular for the hotels?

The Spanish hotel industry continues representing a high proportion of our GDP (11.2% in 2015) and has proven to be resilient to a difficult economic environment. Whilst domestic demand was depressed and severely affected some areas highly depending on it, other areas, specially tourist places such as Barcelona or the Balearics, were capable to surf the crisis thanks to being consolidated destinations amongst international travellers (our main feeder markets are United Kingdom, France, Italy, Northern countries, Germany as well as USA). It is foreseen that this tendency will continue during 2016 given the data corresponding to the 1st Q in 2016.

-Is there any sign of recovery as for the Italian sector or still problems? In any case, which are the causes of the trend?

There are signs of recovery in Spain, which are noticeably since the end of 2014, with a remarkable recovery of the national economy as well as a tourism market which, in the case of Spain, has proven to be resilient to the economic crisis. The number of international tourist arrivals is growing YOY and the national demand is also recovering since the Spanish GDP growth is showing positive numbers again.

Thanks to the growth prospects, Spain has become an attractive option for domestic and international investors, who have been attracted by the loan portfolios (both performing and non-performing) on the market, which have been absorbed by international investment funds since 2014. This activity continues being one of the most active in our Real Estate market and new portfolios are being launched to the market, feeding the appetite of those investors.

-What was the performance in the first months of 2016 and what are the prospects for the whole 2016?

According to data from Exceltur in relation to the Tourist industry during the 1st Quarter in 2016, there have been 10 consecutives Quarters of annual growth of GDP above 3% (during the first Q the interannual growth was of 4.3%). This is mainly due to the increase of foreign demand in the sector after the terrorist attacks in Turquey as well as some insecurity in some European urban destinations, such as Paris and Brussels, as well as due to the sustained recovery of the national demand and the business travels. In 2016, our competitors markets on the vacational segment continue recording considerable decreases (Egypt: -46.1% until Feb, Tunisia -17.7% until Jan) which are correlated with the increase of the Spanish tourist destinations fo +12.7% until Feb. In contrast, the tourist incomes have experienced a negative growth (according to Back of Spain and INE (Instituto Nacional de Estadística) of -7.8% until Feb 2016.

-What was the performance of Christie & Co in the first part of 2016? And the forecast for the entire year?

In relation to Christie & Co activities in Spain, we were experiencing an increase in our activity during the last Quarter of 2015 and the first Quarter of 2016, in accordance with the general economy recovery in all the services we do provide (agency, consultancy, advisory and valuation services). However, we are already noticing the effects of the lack of stable government as a result of the last general elections, which will repeat in June this year. We are of the opinion that, once the new government is in place, the activity will come back to the levels of the 1stQ as, in general, the market is on a “wait and see” position. In any case, the interest of local and international investors and operators in our market is high and the areas which are more sought after are: key cities, such as Madrid and Barcelona, and top vacational areas such as the Balearics, the Canaries of Costa del Sol. Other secondary cities in Spain are also generating increased interest and the operators are ready again to offer attractive lease agreements as the operational results have been improving during the last 2 years.

-Which types of project are you mostly working at the moment?

As mentioned above, we have been active in all our service areas, so we are active now in terms of sale of hotel assets as well as in terms of Operator Search for new projects or conversions, but we are also quite active assessing our clients and helping them to study new opportunities on the Spanish market, as well as advising international investment funds in terms of new loan portfolios.

-How was your experience with the Multipartner’ s RE Virtual Data Room?

Our experience with Multipartner’s RE Virtual Data Room was excellent. They were very professional and helpful in relation to creating a Data Room on time and with easy access for those parties interested in the process, which we were carrying out. Multipartner was always available and accessible to sort out all the doubts that our clients were arising and we would be delighted to work with them for future opportunities which might require a Virtual Data Room.

Source: Multipartner

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