Blackstone will continue to invest in real estate in Spain, where it owns 3% of its portfolio. This was confirmed by the company’s general director, Fernando Bautista, in a meeting organized today by IESE in Madrid. For the American giant, the national market is “more stable” than that of other areas of Europe, hence its interest in continuing to expand its assets.
After a decade of investments in Spain and 8,000 employees on staff (1,200 dedicated to the real estate sector), the Blackstone manager has highlighted his vocation for long-term investments. “We are not a speculative fund, but rather an investor,” he assured. “We owe it to Spain and it is [a country] very important for us,” he added.
The priority for Blackstone is residential (especially student residences and rentals), hotels and warehouses dedicated to logistics, and Bautista has confirmed that this will continue to be the case, Bautista has advanced. Sectors that, for Blackstone, “present greater resilience and cash flow growth.” At this moment the American fund owns Testa, specialized in residential rentals; of the hotel company HIP and the services Anticipa and Aliseda. For Bautista, these investments represent “a lot of imposition,” but there could be more.
At this moment the fund has 65,000 million for investments around the world, as detailed by Fernando Bautista. “We have raised 30,000 million euros to invest in real estate and with a leverage of 50% we have close to 65,000 million to invest in Europe, Asia and America,” he added.
For the company, real estate in Spain is a country that still has a “path” of growth compared to the situation of the sector in other European countries and, specifically, in other cities such as Paris. “Why is Spain going to be so much less cheap than London, for example?” he asked.
Without going into assessing the Housing law in force and the price limitations that will be imposed on large holders in Catalonia, the head of Blackstone has warned that his company seeks “legal certainty”, “stability” and “a stable regulatory framework” .
Regarding monetary policy, Bautista has stated that Bláckstone is “optimistic about the moderation of inflation and this will lead to a normalization of interest rates, but we are cautious about when.”
The giant BlackRock has also confirmed its commitment to real estate in Spain. The general director of the fund, Adolfo Favieres, has assured at the same event organized by IESE that his investment focus includes student residences, homes for sale, the conversion of offices into residential (although he has admitted that there are still not enough available buildings) or data centers. They have also been interested in the logistics sector, but Favieres has admitted that the returns do not convince them to bet on it.
