The pace of investment when compared to the previous quarter also improved slightly.
The sale & leaseback of six Makro shopping centres spread out across Spain for a total of 73 million euro, represented the second largest investment transaction of the second quarter. El Corte Inglés keeps following its asset divestment plan, which is why it sold the Bahía Sur’s El Corte Inglés in Cadiz and the Hipercor de los Arcos in Seville, for a total of 36.8 million euro.
Furthermore, thanks to the assets from Intu Properties en España, valued at around 1.000 million euro, it is expected that during the second semester Spain will reach investment numbers similar to those of the previous years.
According to Knight Frank’s Snapshot Retail, 17 new shopping centres are expected to open until 2021, a very different situation from that of the UK or the EU right now, were there is an oversupply of shopping centres.
The splendour of the flagship stores continues; Italian company Prada will open its third store in Spain, it will have 908 sqm spread across three floors and it will be located in Madrid’s Milla de Oro, specifically at calle Serrano 64. This building, acquired from Bankia for 59 million euro, is the record holder for the most expensive comercial building in Spain.
The Índice de Confianza del Consumidor (Consumer Trust Index) and retail commerce keep increasing yoy thanks to such factors as the number of people benefitting from Social Security, which broke the record during this year’s first quarter, reaching 19.3 million people, according to Knight Frank.