Online event: ‘A lot of activity in the Iberian market’

There is plenty of activity in the market in Spain and Portugal despite the crisis, delegates heard at Real Asset Media’s Iberian Market Update briefing, which took place online recently.

‘The main message is that life has carried on,’ said António Gil Machado, Director, Iberian Property. ‘Investors have continued doing acquisitions and so far in 2020 there have been over 100 deals done’.

The market has been active, with 83 deals sealed between January and the end of March and a further 22 since the beginning of April, across all sectors from resi to retail and in different cities from Madrid to Seville and from Lisbon to Santander. 

‘The numbers prove that the market never stopped,’ said Gil Machado. All details of the deals can be found on Iberian Property’s platform, which has a comprehensive data bank as well as market reports and in-depth research.

Investment volumes were €4.9 billion in the first quarter of the year, €1.5 bn of which in Madrid, €1.3 bn in Portugal and the rest in other regions of Spain.

Sources of capital are increasingly diverse, said Gil Machado: ‘We are getting family offices, Chinese institutions, Brasilian private investors, Turkish and Iranian capital and of course US and UK money, which always had a presence and continues to do so’.

On the lending side the situation has changed, as during the state of emergency the banks have had to focus on providing credit to small businesses to cushion the impact of the cororavirus crisis on the economy. ‘There is more caution and rules are more stringent, but real estate finance is not stopping,’ he said.

Even the construction sector has been more active than in other countries. ‘In Portugal construction activity never stopped at all,’ said Gil Machado. ‘In Spain it closed down for a few weeks at the peak but now it has started again. Life carries on.’ 


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