These are mainly individual investors and family offices who have been buying stock in the Stock Exchange. One of them was Manuel Lao, who appeared in the stock market on the 24th of March and bought a 5% share of REIT Merlin Properties. A few days later, he raised his share of the company to 6.27%, investing a total 245.8 million euro, according to the data from the Comisión Nacional de Mercado de Valores (National Securities Market Commission) to which newspaper Cinco Días had access.
Another case concerns the operation carried out by Mexican entrepreneur Carlos Slim, who invested around 18.56 million euro, to reach a 5.49% share of Metrovacesa, real estate developer controlled by bank Santander and BBVA.
In total, around 264 million euro were invested in real estate shares listed at the Madrid Stock Exchange. According to the same newspaper, this amount rises to 400 million euro when we add operations of this type in other sectors, as is the case of Acerinox, Gestamp and Vértice.