One of world’s wealthiest men pours €100 million into Spanish property

In addition to the €490 Cepsa Tower (left), Amancio Ortega owns a further €1.1 billion of Spanish property assets.

Amancio Ortega, the founder of the Inditex fashion empire (which owns, among other high street brands, Zara) and multibillionaire has poured some €100 million into the Spanish arm of Pontegadea España, which is his real estate business…

Having jostled for the title of World’s Richest Man with the likes of Bill Gates and Carlos Slim for years, Spaniard Ortega is well-placed to know exactly where to place his money. According to Spain’s Central Mercantile Register, Ortega recently reorganised his real estate subsidiary to ensure that it had more financial clout to take advantage of Spain’s soaring construction and property sectors.

Thus, a new subsidiary has been created to take responsibility of Ortega’s Spanish real estate assets, which are valued at around €1.6 billion. These include one of the four Quatro Torres towers that dominate Madrid’s skyline, the Torre Picasso tower, building 79 on the capital’s Paseo de la Castellana avenue, as well as a smattering of commercial and residential ventures across the country.

In fact, Ortega is Spain’s largest real estate investor, and has masses of capital invested in property in the UK, France, the USA and Asia. Globally, his property portfolio is thought to be worth €6.72 billion, having grown in value by more than €660 million in 2017.

Spain’s real estate sector has enjoyed a strong couple of years across all segments, and such growth was foreseen by none other than Bill Gates himself, who was one of the first big names to return to the industry following the seismic crash of 2008.

In 2018, things could not look rosier for Spanish property. Last year, sales in most of the country’s strongest regions enjoyed excellent growth, rising above 60% in Madrid and averaging above 28% nationwide in October, according to the National Institute of Statistics (INE).

Data from real estate giants Lucas Fox found that residential home values are now 4.1% higher than they were at this stage last year. However, the average home in Spain is still some 38% cheaper today than it was in 2007, when the market peaked.