Catella invests in social housing in Madrid

Catella Asset Management Iberia, acting on behalf of the German fund “Catella European Residential Fund I (CER l)”, has purchased 171 social housing rental units from Aquila Capital’s residential development subsidiary, AQ Acentor.

Located in Madrid’s Parque Central de Ingenieros, in the Villaverde district, the property has traded for €27m and is CER I’s first investment in Spain. The complex includes four newly-built buildings with 171 apartments in one, two and three-bedroom formats with landscaped areas and facilities such as a swimming pool and playground.

Catella AM also plans to purchase, in the first quarter of 2020, a 191-unit complex in Madrid’s southern suburb of Valdemoro, next to the Hospital Universitario Infanta Elena. The manager is also in advanced negotiations with residential property owners and developers to acquire a further 600 flats, which would bring the Spanish portfolio up to a total of 1,600 rental units within six months.

Eduardo Guardiola, Director and Partner of Catella Asset Management Iberia, comments: “Catella is poised for a major expansion in its Spanish residential investment portfolio over the next six months, underpinned by the rental market’s solid fundamentals. Younger people, in particular, are finding it increasingly unaffordable to own their own properties and are generally more flexible and mobile in being prepared to move to different cities for work than the previous generation. We anticipate that this strong demand for rental homes will increasingly attract larger investors and managers and lead to greater consolidation and professionalism in the fragmented Spanish residential investment market.”