Construction and property

The British publication has once again recognized BBVA as the bank with the best real estate solutions in the region. Furthermore, Euromoney named the Peru and Argentina franchises as finalists in their respective countries, thanks to their home loans.

BBVA and US venture capital firm Fifth Wall, are joining forces to invest in technologies that address climate change in the real estate and construction industries, which make up 40% of the global total carbon dioxide emissions.Through Fifth Wall’s Climate Fund, BBVA will invest in companies seeking decarbonization solutions that address the entire lifecycle of buildings.

BBVA has reached an agreement to purchase Tree Inversiones Inmobiliarias SOCIMI from Merlin Properties. The company has 665 offices rented to BBVA. These offices that currently belong to Merlin are part of the package that BBVA sold to Tree Inversiones in 2009-2019 under a sale and lease back contract.

In recent years, the term proptech (technology applied to property) has become popular across the various strands of the housing market. The emergence of startups using tech tools like big data and artificial intelligence, as well as the inevitable digitisation of countless traditional companies due to the Coronavirus crisis, has laid the foundations for this sector to be reinvented.

BBVA has signed an agreement to transfer a credit portfolio, which is composed by mortgages credits (mainly non-performing and in default), with an aggregate balance amounting to approximately €1.49 billion to Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB). The transaction is part of BBVA’s strategy to reduce to the fullest its exposure to real estate risks in Spain.

After obtaining all required authorizations, BBVA closed the transaction that will transfer its real estate business in Spain to Cerberus Capital Management, L.P. The deal was announced in November 2017. The closing of the transaction results in the sale of 80 percent of Divarian’s share capital to Cerberus, the company created to transfer the real estate portfolio. BBVA is to retain the remaining 20 percent stake.

BBVA continues making headway in its strategy to cut down its real estate exposure. BBVA has reached an agreement to sell its 25.24 percent stake in Testa to Blackstone for a total of €478 million.

BBVA has agreed to sell a property development loan portfolio worth €1 billion (gross) in a deal that virtually puts the finishing touches to its strategy of reducing its real-estate risk in Spain in half the time initially expected. BBVA estimates that including all the operations announced since December 2016 it has cut its gross exposure to the sector by €20 billion.

BBVA today announced an agreement with a subsidiary of Cerberus Capital Management, L.P. (Cerberus) to create a joint venture (JV) for its real estate business in Spain, reducing almost entirely its exposure to non core real estate assets. On the closing of the operation, BBVA will sell an 80% stake in the JV to Cerberus for about €4 billion. The transaction marks a milestone in BBVA Group’s strategy.

After Tropical Storm Allison drenched Houston and caused billions of dollars in damages in 2001, Harris County spent tens of millions of federal dollars to redraw its floodplain maps to more accurately reflect the risks. Now, 16 years later, after Hurricane Harvey left some homes flooded for the third time in as many years, those same maps are in the crosshairs.

Virtual reality, big data and blockchain technology are changing the norms of the real estate business, as startups seek their place in the housing market.

Urbanization in Latin America began to increase in the second half of the 20th Century, to reach nearly 80% of the population today. In spite of the great expansion in recent decades, BBVA Research predicts that there will be a certain moderation in this growth, until it reaches 86%.

BBVA has sold one of the largest loan portfolios in the Spanish market to an affiliate of Cerberus Capital Management, L.P. The portfolio, which has a gross nominal value of nearly 600 million euros, consists of loans from real estate developments distributed throughout Spain, with the largest number in Andalusia, Madrid and Catalonia.

The agreement reached with Metrovacesa Suelo y Promoción (hereinafter Metrovacesa S.A), in which BBVA holds a stake, represents a significant step forward in the bank’s real estate strategy.  BBVA participated in a non-monetary capital increase, together with the other shareholders, through which the bank will transfer high-potential land holdings intended for housing developments valued at €431 million.

Low- to moderate-income seniors have a new place to call home in Huntsville, Ala., after the grand opening on June 15 of Lenox Park Apartments, a 60-unit development financed by BBVA Compass.

BBVA Compass shored up its commitment to alleviating Colorado’s affordable-housing crisis, closing a $1.8 million equity equivalent investment this month in the Mile High Community Loan Fund so that the organization can continue to give affordable-housing developers access to the capital they need.

One of the first projects BBVA Compass pursued after the bank made its $11 billion commitment to low- to moderate-income communities in late 2014 has come online and put 128 low-income Austin families in green homes zoned to some of the area’s best schools.

Users of the Catalonia-based platform exchange their homes, a service they can access by invitation only, and in which money is not the important thing. The only requirement is to have a creative home.

BBVA Compass’ investment in a newly constructed affordable housing project in Fort Worth was held up as a model of public and private cooperation last week during a VIP tour of the facility.

BBVA Compass is relying on a variety of vehicles -- including $16.3 million in federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credit equity, a $17.2 million construction loan, $5.7 million in permanent debt, $1.2 million from the City of Fort Worth and $700,000 from the City of Fort Worth Housing Finance Corporation -- to finance the 140-unit development known as Columbia at Renaissance Square.

BBVA’s strategy to curb its exposure in the real estate market continues to bear fruit. The Group announced the sale of a 14 office-building portfolio in Spain, codenamed Project Boston.

BBVA’s current strategy to accelerate the sale of the Spanish real estate assets has resulted in the first wholesale transaction of 2017. BBVA’s portfolio consists of almost 3,500 units. The operation had been dubbed Project Buffalo.

From an app to tell stories using fiction formats to a car insurance app to pay per mile traveled, startups are not lowering their guard in order to gain a foothold on the tech grid.

Those visiting his office for the first time will find it hard to believe that the site for the Distrito Castellana Norte project can actually be seen from Antonio Béjar’s desk on a top floor of Plaza Castilla.

The BBVA Group posted a profit of €2.62 billion in 2014, 25.7% more than in 2013, according to the new accounting rules1, driven by the solid net interest income performance, cost control and lower loan-loss and real-estate provisions. Net income from ongoing operations, which does not include results from corporate operations, grew 53.1% to €3.08 billion year-over-year.