Adif will launch its own 'Idealista' to sell 2,100 properties

This article was written and published in Spanish and has been translated into English via Google Translate. Click here to read the original article.

Adif last launched its own real estate portal to sell up to 2,100 non-strategic assets in its portfolio. The Idealista-like service will be integrated in the web page of the railway manager that is being completely renewed to make it more intuitive and attractive.

According to sources close to the company, the inauguration of the new website was scheduled for the second quarter of the year but the plans were stopped after the general elections were called and there is still no new date set for its launch. Currently, the Adif page has a tab that brings together the latest assets that have been put up for sale but the idea of ​​the manager is to give a 180 degree turn and that can show a history of the homes, lots or available premises, and that allow to see at a glance the price, the characteristics and even some image of them, explain sources of the manager. That is, it looks more like real estate portals like Fotocasa or Idealista.

In the last three months, Adif has sold up to 100 properties spread over half of Spain valued at around 26 million euros and it is expected that in the remainder of the year another two lots will be auctioned at the Marina del Prat Vermell, together with to the Zona Franca de Barcelona, ​​another plot in the Ciudad Condal and a plot in the Marina of Badalona.

Looking ahead to the next years, the company will continue to take out assets little by little and for them it has already identified some 2,100 properties, a figure that can be increased as the underground works of the AVE lines and the reforms of the train stations advance. "Adif has about 2,100 properties located outside the railway precinct, in each case and every moment we analyze the possibility of selling these properties for sale," the railway firm told this newspaper. At the moment, the state company does not value the assets that can be auctioned because it only performs this operation when it is going to be sold.

Solares, train stations

Among the 100 assets currently on sale are 23 homes with their respective garages in Jerez de la Frontera (Cádiz) valued, in total, at 2.51 million euros. Thus, you can find houses with up to three rooms for 129,000 euros in the south of Spain. In La Coruña, Adif has auctioned a commercial premises of 1,961 m2 distributed in two floors on Avenida de Oza for a minimum price of about 1.2 million euros. In Barcelona also has for sale a plot valued at 9.9 million euros, in Asturias a plot of land for 5.5 million and in Leon an old train station in a state of abandonment.

In addition to selling or auctioning real estate, the railway manager also leases assets. Thus, it has just opened a term to lease three urban plots of an area of ​​2,875 m2 in Mérida (Badajoz), which are part of the Mérida Station site and which, apparently, are free of facilities. To exploit the land, it is necessary to commit to building accesses that allow the passage of vehicles and people. The minimum bid income required by Adif is 15 percent of gross income and the minimum period is eight years.

Reduce indebtedness

The company chaired by Isabel Pardo de Vera has thus decided to accelerate the sale of the thousands of properties that are located outside the railway precincts to cash and boost the reduction of its high debt, which as of December 2018 reached 15,458 million euros, 2.5% more, and be able to terminate the AVE network without aggravating the financial situation of the high-speed network operator, who is not able to earn money due to high financial costs, among other things. Specifically, in 2018 the high-speed firm registered some red numbers of 223 million euros, 11.7% more than in 2017, after recording financial costs of 358.6 million euros. Revenues reached 572 million euros. The debt figure does not include the issuance of green bonds for 600 million euros that the firm closed in April and which are generally used to meet maturities.

Pardo de Vera has a special concern about the high indebtedness of the company and, in addition to releasing brick and lots, has put a brake on international expansion plans to concentrate available resources in reducing liabilities. At this point, the president of Adif sees in the liberalization of passenger traffic a new income channel to face maturities. "The objective is to achieve an adequate financial consolidation with the extra income that is achieved with the increase in traffic and operators," said the President.

This article was written and published in Spanish and has been translated into English via Google Translate. Click here to read the original article.

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