Europa Capital expands Barcelona luxury resi portfolio

Fund manager Europa Capital has joined forces with local partner Bonavista Developments to acquire the historic building of Casa Burés located in the heart of Barcelona for €18.8 mln.

Europa Capital completed the investment on behalf of Europa Fund IV, which closed to investors in 2014 having secured commitments in excess of €600 mln. It completed €300 mln of acquisitions last year.

Casa Burés is a 1905 partially listed building and comprises 7,000 m2 of gross floor area. Although originally developed as a residence and business premises for a wealthy local merchant, it has been unoccupied for the past decade.

Europa Capital and Bonavista plan to refurbish the property to restore it for use as luxury residences.

The Casa Burés acquisition is the second for Europa Capital and Bonavista, following the purchase earlier this year of another historic building located on Casp, also in the centre of Barcelona, and a further property is contracted for completion early next year with further acquisitions expected.

'The Casa Burés acquisition demonstrates Europa's continued confidence in a sector that it considers to offer compelling value in the Spanish market. As prices have fallen significantly, there is almost no competition and investor demand remains very strong and growing,' commented Jason Oram, partner at Europa Capital.

Marcus Donaldson, Europa Capital's country partner for Spain and co-founder of Bonavista, added: 'The refurbishment of Casa Burés will provide the market with a residential product like no other in Barcelona and which will appeal to both domestic and international buyers.'

Europa Capital has concluded transactions totalling close to €1.5 bn during 2014, including disposals worth €1.2 bn. The majority of the disposal activity was by Europa Capital’s Europa Fund III and included its share of one of the largest disposals in Europe, the sale of a BBVA sale and leaseback portfolio in Spain.

Key deals in 2014 included the disposal of a new 58,000 m2 shopping centre in Poznan, Poland, to ECE and a private equity fund; the sale of the BBVA leaseback portfolio to Spanish socimi Merlin Properties, for €740 mln; the acquisition of a 24,428 m2 shopping centre in Workington, UK, for €39 mln and the purchase of a 18,270 m2 shopping centre in Milan, Italy for €81.6 mln.