2023-06-21 15:20:20
BarcelonaCaixaBank is the private company that accumulates the most flats in Catalonia. It is the second Catalan landlord, with 5,064 flats, only behind the Generalitat, which manages a park – in this case public – of 10,731 properties. This is confirmed by an investigation by the Civio Foundation, with previously unpublished figures provided by the Catalan Soil Institute (Incasòl) through a request on the public Transparency portal. Behind CaixaBank are other well-known players in the real estate sector, such as Cerberus and Blackstone, who complete the podium of private companies with the most apartments in the country.
But these are not the only mega-owners. In total, in Catalonia there are 321 companies that are direct owners of more than 50 rental flats each. Between them all there are 69,910 homes, 9.6% of the entire Catalan rental stock, which is located in 728,142 flats, according to the data of the deposits deposited with Incasòl. However, all these rental apartments are in very few hands. In fact, more than half are owned by just 10 large owners:
The main mega-owners of Catalonia
Owning company, domain, location of headquarters and number of homes it owns
According to the data collected by Civio (see the ranking), the Generalitat remains the entity with the most rental flats, managed through public companies such as the Agència de l’Habitatge de Catalunya (5,435 homes), the Incasòl (5,044) and also, although to a lesser degree, the Consorci del Barri de la Mina (252). But the CaixaBank financial institution (with 5,064 rented flats) is even ahead of the second most important public entity, Barcelona City Council (which controls 4,809). The fourth place on the podium goes to the American company Cerberus, which manages 2,877 rental flats in Catalonia through six subsidiaries. It is followed by the investment fund Blackstone (2,590 flats), the real estate company Cevasa (2,191), BBVA (2,083), Sareb (2,045), Banco Sabadell (2,035) and finally, in tenth position, the real estate consultancy based in the United States CBRE, with 1,046 flats in Catalonia.
Other large owners
According to the data compiled by Civio, 41% of the flats rented by megatenidors are from large Catalan real estate companies, such as Cevasa, controlled by the Vaqué family and with a long tradition in the real estate sector. There is also Renta (chaired by the former manager of Espanyol José Suñer-Humet), Núñez and Navarro and the heir to the Sanahuja group, Indicesa L’Illa SL. There are also companies run by families known in other sectors, such as the Gallardo brothers, founders of the pharmaceutical company Almirall (with 359 flats rented in Catalonia) through the company Alcotas Inmobiliaria; the Tous family of jewelers, with 142 rentals through one of their companies; the Sans Domènec family, heirs of the founder of Abanderado, and the Lao family, founder of Cirsa, with more than 100 apartments under management.
As for financial institutions, they own almost 19,000 of the 70,000 properties rented by large landlords in Catalonia and, of these flats, 6,600 are directly in the hands of investment funds. Almost all are based in the United States, according to data collected by Civio. These are Cerberus and Blackstone, but also Goldman Sachs, TPG and Lone Star, among the most important. These types of entities – investment funds and financial companies – are precisely those that carry out the most evictions in Barcelona, according to the latest data published by the Desc Observatory.
Among the large owners, there are also social and religious entities, such as the Social Housing Foundation (with 426 flats), the Family and Social Welfare Foundation (with 315 flats), the Private Foundation of Sant Pau Hospital and the Santa Creu (300), the Company of Jesus (87), the archbishopric of Barcelona and the bishopric of Vic (with 65 and 70 flats, respectively).
The floors of official protection, in danger
Civio’s research, which they have advanced jump i The Critic, also highlights that the vast majority of sheltered housing (HPO) is in the hands of large private players. The data coincides with those of the Observatori Metropolità de l’Habitatge de Barcelona and the Observatori Desc, which at the beginning of March pointed out that the officially protected flats available in the regions of Barcelona are increasingly scarce and in the coming years the cut will be even more obvious. Of the 72,501 homes with protection in the province of Barcelona in 2021, only 36,031 will remain in 2030 and 18,830 ten years later. In other words, they will have been reduced by 49.7% in seven years and by 74% in a decade, and they will go from being public flats to absolutely private hands and governed by the free market.
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