DISTRESSED BRIEFING: Weight of capital ‘guarantees’ profits in Spain

The volume of capital coming into Spain makes it a safe bet despite poor market fundamentals, according to Corestate founder Ralph Winter.

Speaking at PropertyEU's Distressed and Opportunistic Investment Briefing in London, Winter told delegates: ‘For me, Spain is a guarantee of making money.’

He highlighted opportunistic overseas investors as a reason for confidence. ‘Because all these guys are there trying to do deals, the market is becoming liquid, there is demand, and after the Lone Star deal we have a guarantee of five or six years of very active trading.’

In May, Lone Star and JP Morgan bought around €4 bn of Spanish property loans from Commerzbank, split roughly 50/50 between performing and non-performing loans.

Winter also highlighted relatively high US prices as a factor driving North American money towards Europe.

Diane Becker, head of international investment at real estate adviser Catella, added: 'We have seen a lot of funds that were active at the end of the '90s and again in 2008 come back again.'

She highlighted the return of opportunistic investors such as Westport, CarVal and others 'who we haven’t seen on the continent for a long time and who have raised a lot of money and are very interested'.