The future of socimis

The socimis (real estate investment companies) will continue to be protagonists in the Spanish real estate sector in the next coming years. However, in order to achieve this, they must adapt, concentrate and specialise in specific sectors such as hotels and residential properties. This is the conclusion reached in the 4th Real Estate Conference, which received the title of 'Growth and profitability in times of change' and was attended by 200 specialists in the sector. This event has been organised by ACI (Association of Real Estate Consultants).

The only way for smaller companies to survive and increase their market share, as well as their relevance in the real estate sector, is to focus on property investment. In fact, these societies have played a key role in recent years and are believed to have been the driving force behind overcoming the economic crisis that has so badly punished the sector in recent years.

Santiago Bau, executive director of the company, Goldman Sachs, has been one of the people in charge of emphasising the need to restructure the companies to guarantee their future in the medium and long term. So much so that he believes this is the only way they can continue to play the role of 'lever' that they have performed so well during the last five years.

In order to gain visibility and efficiency in management, as pointed out by Fatima Sáez del Cano, director of Grovenor Europe for Spain, mergers are matters of first order since the only affordable market for small real estate investments are from socimis.

Fátima Sáez del Cano has also emphasised on the necessity of increasing specialisation of the assets that make available to its clients and other socimis investors, which are subject to the trends that mark those interested in investing their savings in the sector. This opinion had the invaluable support of the Vice President of International Financial Analysts, Ángel Berges.

The same is true of Joe Valente, director of the Real Estate Research department at JP Morgan, who has focused on revealing the excellent investment opportunities offered by the Spanish companies. This is taking into account the difficult times facing the real estate market at international level. 

Source