The company is boosting advisory services and management for developers, investors, and homeowners’ associations.
Aliseda changes course and bets on management and rehabilitation
Aliseda has begun a transformation process in light of the changes looming in the real estate sector. The asset manager of Blackstone, which shares teams with Anticipa, started its business by taking over the real estate portfolio of the defunct Banco Popular in 2018. From the initial €10.3 billion in that portfolio, it currently manages around €5.5 billion. This activity will therefore eventually come to an end over time. For this reason, the company led by Eduard Mendiluce is immersed in a process that will ultimately turn it into a very different manager from what it has been until now.
At present, Aliseda’s main asset is land. The giant manages €2.4 billion in a resource currently highly valued in the real estate sector. It is the largest land portfolio in Spain today, far ahead of its competitors. Aliseda’s specialization lies in adding value to these assets through complex urban planning management, ultimately selling them to a developer once the process is complete. “We believe that the value lies in urban planning management,” says Mendiluce, CEO of Aliseda for more than eleven years. He emphasizes that one of the company’s most important strengths is its urban planning management team (30 people) and its commercialization team (60 employees), which drive the business forward.
Last year, the manager sold €420 million in land, and in the current fiscal year the estimate is to reach €400 million in sales. Aliseda’s revenues last year amounted to €2.2 billion. Although housing remains Aliseda’s main focus, the company also rehabilitates shopping centers, offices, hotels, and industrial warehouses, ultimately preparing them for commercialization.
The future of Aliseda, however, points to a new horizon. In the midst of the sector’s transformation, the company has taken a decisive turn to reposition the business and become a true “real estate asset manager.” That is, advisory and management. Its clients fall into three categories: developers, investors, and the rehabilitation sector.
For developers, Aliseda offers to accelerate their projects. For example, a small developer from Burgos who wants to enter the Galician market can turn to Aliseda to help find land, manage the project, and sell the homes. The company provides comprehensive support throughout the process and collaborates in accelerating the business plan. “We have realized that our strength lies in the fact that our teams know more than 1,500 Spanish developers whom they can assist,” explains Mendiluce. Aliseda’s market knowledge is based on a team of 150 professionals in regional offices. The total workforce is composed of 600 people. Complex urban planning procedures are one of the main problems faced by housing developers, with tedious processes that delay projects. Aliseda offers to streamline the process thanks to its activity in 400 municipalities, where it is engaged in urban planning and knows the levers to pull to make it happen, as its CEO also highlights.
For investors, whether family offices or modest individual investors, Aliseda offers asset repositioning and assistance in finding opportunities, both in residential real estate and in the industrial sector.
The rehabilitation sector, clearly on the rise, is also another priority for the company. Awaiting the new housing plan to be presented by the Government to address the country’s accumulated deficit (in Europe, 1% of the residential stock is rehabilitated each year, while in Spain only 0.1% is renewed), the company has launched this line of business dedicated to waterproofing façades, installing insulated windows, and replacing boilers. At present, 80% of Spain’s housing stock has an energy certificate of E or worse. Today, Aliseda has 150 homeowners’ associations as clients and is helping to rehabilitate 5,000 properties. It is a business in which the company sees potential both in residential and in offices, warehouses, and hotels. In these cases, it offers solutions for façades as well as for the interior of the productive system, such as machinery replacement.
Finally, Aliseda has obtained certification from the Ministry for Ecological Transition and can market energy savings certificates. In this way, it offers homeowners’ associations, for example, the possibility of monetizing these certificates by purchasing them from the client and selling them to an energy company.
