Care Property Invest enters Spanish property market.

Care Property Invest has entered the Spanish property market with an agreement to purchase a care home development in the Madrid suburb of Mostoles (in Calle Agustín Betancourt 37). The total investment value is estimated to be approximately €12.0 million.

Through a Spanish subsidiary, the Belgian Public Regulated Real Estate Company (RREC) will purchase the care home after delivery of the project. As per the agreement, the RREC buys the land after receipt of the necessary permits and will finance the development to be realized by Alta Real Estate S.L. (part of Habescon Immobiliaria group). The construction works are estimated to commence during the 2nd quarter of 2021 and the project includes 148 rooms with 166 beds. The operator will be a subsidiary of Groupe Emera on the basis of new long-term rental agreement of the ‘triple net’ type with a minimum duration of 15 years (renewable), which will be indexed annually.

The Belgian property fund invests purely within the segment of housing for seniors and people with disabilities and has over 25 years of experience. The listed property fund aims to grow in Spain, a country where the +65 population is expected to grow by as much as 67% until 2040.

According to Peter Van Heukelom, CEO of Care Property Invest: «We are proud to be able to take our first step into our third European target market with the acquisition of this high-quality new-build project, situated at a prime location. This allows us to further expand our geographic reach in a market that offers the prospect of above-average returns compared to the average in the Benelux and also has an even stronger aging curve than the one we face ourselves. The thorough research that we carried out before proceeding to this next step even shows that there is already an actual shortage of housing for people over 65 years of age, as a result of which residential care centres already have long waiting lists. Consequently, residential care centres in Spain have high occupancy rates and will bring stable cash flows for us as an investor.»

The tenant, Groupe Emera, currently manages c. 6,100 beds making it the seventh largest player in the elderly care segment in Europe. The operator is currently active in France (53 nursing homes), Spain (6 nursing homes), Belgium (4 nursing homes), Luxembourg (1 nursing home), Switzerland (1 nursing home) and Italy (2 nursing homes).

In Spain, Group Emera currently manages 6 sites with approximately 760 beds having taken its first steps in the Spanish market in 2017.