Photo of Campello, the northern suburb of Alicante.
The economic revival of the two sun-drenched coastal provinces of Malaga & Alicante continues to attract ultra high net worth investors to its shores.
The latest billionaire to invest in the Malaga province has been Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Deputy Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and owner of Manchester City Football Club. According to the ABC newspaper, the Emirati has purchased a 25 hectare estate known as Finca Moratán-Bornoque in the town of Monda in Malaga. The property is close to the town of Ojén, where Julio Iglesias has an estate which is reportedly up for grabs at €145 million.
Finca Moratán-Bornoque was previously owned by property developer Bonifacio Solís who had listed the property at €16 million various years ago. The acquisition has been carried out through the Seikh’s Spanish vehicle, East And West Investment Spain S.L., which paid €55 million in 2016 to purchase the Mora-Figueroa agricultural estate located in the region of Extremadura. The manager of the Seikh’s investment vehicles in Spain is Salem Hasan Alameri Musallam who also is at the helm of Finca Moratan S.L., Boornoque S.L. and Agricolas El Jardin S.A.
The royal families of the UAE have a longstanding love affair with the region of Andalusia and the Emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani has also recently invested in real estate. The Qatari Emir is said to have bought a palace with views of the Alhambra, known as El Carmen de San Agustín, for €17 million.
Meanwhile, in Alicante, Vicente García-Peralta, who owns the Tempe shoe making company along with Amancio Ortega, has purchased the Anara building, on Alicante’s centrally located Plaza de Luceros. The office property on the corner of Alfonso el Sabio Avenue, was conceived as a business center by developer Anara and has traded for c. 15 million euros, significantly higher than the €6 million paid last year by the Alcaraz family (former owners of Goldcar) for Bankia’s headquarters on Alicante’s Esplanade.
The acquisition has been carried out by the García-Peralta family’s property investment arm, Grupo Azarbe, which has also recently purchased Alicante’s Isla Marina leisure & dining complex which is to be relaunched by restaurant experts, Grupo Murri, and rebranded as «Lamarr».
Also in the city of Alicante, Blackstone recently sold the Hispania office building to a Valencian family office. The 8,900m² office is home to PwC, state-owned Geonet and Clínica Baviera.
On the other hand, the Alcaraz brothers, who now own the Aligrupo property group have invested an extra €18 million this month in Alicante’s Playa de San Juan neighbourhood to develop a luxury residential complex less than 300 meters away from the beach. The company has a building license since April and the plot is located between the Maestro José Garberí Serrano Avenue and Glorieta de la Democracia, in one of the last urban plots in this neighbourhood of the city.
The project, designed by Chamizo Arquitectos, includes 2, 3 and 4 bedroom flats as well as 12 exclusive duplex penthouses with terraces. The complex will include various amenities such as a swimming pool, children’s area and parking for residents.
The province is also attracting international capital and Alicante’s northern suburb of Campello has seen the arrival of Dutch property investor, Don van Schaik, who owns the Dormio property development group. His firm has purchased a 127 half built apartment building on the beach of Cala Lanuza which was started by -now bankrupt- Enypesa. The complex remained unfinished for close to a decade and will be home to the future Dormio Resort Costa Blanca Beach & Spa which will have direct access to the beach. Close by, on Cala Mercé, another investor has purchased an unfinished residential block to develop 50 touristic apartments.
Further north, in Finestrat and Javea, dutch millionaire Albert Ten Brinke is developing various luxury homes and apartments. Their Sunrise Bay Finestrat project consists of 12 exclusive villas on the Sierra Cortina mountains close to 2 golf courses whilst their project in Javea, known as Marina Bay, consists of 27 luxury flats ranging from 2 to 4 rooms