Metrovacesa puts its residential portfolio on the market

Madrid-based property company Metrovacesa said that it is launching the largest campaign of home sales in Spain with discounts of over 50% to the initial asking price.

Spain's largest real estate group is putting around 1,500 residential units on the market with discounts of 25-52% in an effort to boost its revenue amid a stagnant property market. The advertising campaign, called Adiós Pisos, will last until June 2010, the company said.

'Adiós Pisos is a proposal which responds to the new situation in the real estate sector. Metrovacesa is putting its residential stock up for sale: 1,500 apartments for prices that have never been seen before', said Metrovacesa's director Ignacio Ramírez.

The first portfolio already on the market consists of 46 residential buildings located in Elche (Alicante), Roquetas del Mar (Almería), Almería, Barberá del Vallés (Barcelona), Puerto Real, Algeciras y Sotogrande (Cádiz), Almenara (Castellón), Marbella, Benalmádena y Manilva (Málaga), Málaga, Bétera (Valencia) and Valladolid. A second portfolio of properties will be marketed at the end of December, the company added.

The disposals are part of the company's strategy to move away from residential and focus on commercial property. Metrovacesa saw its net loss widen to EUR 788 mln in the first nine months of the year, mostly as a result of heavy devaluations in its property portfolio. The figure compares to a loss of EUR 41.5 mln in the same period a year before. Its portfolio shed 9.2% of its value since December 2008, dropping to some EUR 9.17 bn at end-September 2009. In like-for-like terms, the value of the property assets dropped by 10.7% compared to year-end 2008.

Revenues fell 55% to EUR 509 mln in the year to September 2009, from EUR 1.135 bn in the corresponding period in 2008. The company's net debt stood at EUR 6.2 bn, an increase of EUR 146 mln compared to end-December 2008.