Surpassing 7.7 billion euros, capital with an Iberian “nationality” stood out for the right reasons in 2022, namely with a significant increase (+51%) compared with the 5.1 billion euros traded by Spanish and Portuguese investors in 2021. Consequently, “domestic” investment saw its market share increase 5 p.p. during this period, growing from 37% to 42% over one year.
Under the local name SOCIMI in Spain, and SIGI in Portugal, on December 31st 2022 there were 77 REITs operating in the Iberian market, most of which based in Spain, where this type of vehicle is called SOCIMI. On this date there was just one SIGI (Portuguese REIT) operating on Lisbon’s stock exchange, where two Spanish SOCIMIs are also listed, namely Merlin Properties, in a dual-listing regime, and Ketsios, which entered the Portuguese market in the summer of 2021 through Euronext’s Access market, bringing the capitalisation of REITs in Portugal no further than 0.06 billion euros, while in Spain this figure amounted to more than 20.22 billion euros. These results clearly highlight the discrepancy that still exists between these two countries in terms of the stage of development of their REITs markets, with Spain almost a decade ahead of Portugal.
SPAIN
In Spain, the SOCIMIs are a consolidated reality and an industry with a great impact in Europe, since Spain is the second country in the world with more REITs, surpassed only by the United States, where this regime started six decades ago!
At the closing of September (2022), a total of 89 SOCIMIs were listed on the Spanish market, with a market capitalisation of 24.73 billion euros. Among these, 77 firms are listed on BME Growth (secondary market), with a market capitalisation of 14.711 billion euros, and another four are traded on the continuous market (including two that are part of IBEX35), with a market capitalisation amounting to 7.39 billion euros.
PORTUGAL
The Portuguese REITs regime, which are called SIGIs (Sociedades de Investimento e Gestão Imobiliária), was created more than three and a half years ago in the summer of 2019, but since then, only one SIGI – ORES – was established, by Sonae Sierra and Bankinter. Euronext Lisbon, which is responsible for the Lisbon stock exchange, guarantees that «interest in the SIGI legal regime remains» but admits that «the fact that there is only one SIGI in the current regime suggests that this may not be attractive enough for companies and/or investors».
Acknowledging that it may be necessary to amend this regime to make it more attractive, Euronext Lisbon notes that «some aspects of the current regime have received special attention from stakeholders in the sector, for instance the composition of assets held by SIGIs or the level of dispersion of capital, to make the regime more flexible and attractive». In this institution’s opinion, the threshold of investors’ holdings is one of the aspects that could be altered, in other words, reduced, as the current regime defines that a SIGI must have at least 11 shareholders holding less than 2% of the capital to ensure the minimum of 20% capital. On the other hand, the issue of refinancing loans to purchase real estate assets could also be adjusted, and no longer «considered in the calculation of a SIGI’s assets».
EPRA – European Public Real Estate Association and IBERIAN PROPERTY invite you for the fifth time to be present in Madrid for a debate directed towards the national and international investment community, with focus on the listed real estate sector.
LAST PLACES AVAILABLE HERE
