This was explained at a press conference by the President of the Society, Jaime Echegoyen, who recalled that the previous year 330,000 euros of profit was recorded, though the results are not comparable because these accounts have been reformulated after the last accounting changes.
The actual accounting decree approved in December allowed the society to crop some latent less valuable assets which had accumulated in the portfolio and which, at the close of 2016, came to 3,389 million euros. This portfolio included some assets which were acquired at above market prices and with only a weak capacity for gaining value in the future, as is the case with non-guaranteed loans, Sareb explained.
The entity’s income grew by 1%, standing at 3,923 million euros, permitting it to cancel 2,170 million euros of the debt produced when the assets were purchased, which was endorsed by the State, making a total of 10,000 million of debt cancelled since its creation four years ago.
During 2016, the first year of complete operation of the four services allocated the management (Altamira, Haya, Servihabitat and Solvia), the total of properties sold increased by 25% compared to 2015. In all, 14,000 units were sold (residential, land and tertiary).
Regarding the real estate business, Sareb, last year had an income of 1,050 million euros, thanks to the commercial dynamism in the first complete year of operation of the four servers and commercial campaigns for new builds, second hand, holiday homes, land etc. Specifically, the income received from these campaigns grew 85%, to 220 million euros.
In turn, the number of homes for rent increased by 20%, to 4,558 units.