Although it is listed on the stock exchange and has a history of more than 50 years, Cevasa is a company with a discreet profile, surely unknown to many readers, but it is a leading player in the strained rental housing market in the Barcelona metropolitan area. Its most emblematic asset is the real estate complex where the Hipercor of Avenida Meridiana is located, an entire block made up of three office towers and two residential blocks with 1,180 rental apartments considered as the largest vertically owned residential building in Barcelona.
The company led by Donato Muñoz also operates in other towns such as Sabadell, Santa Coloma de Gramenet, Cornellà, Igualada and Vic and has just exceeded a portfolio of 2,200 rental homes with the delivery of a new development of 41 protected apartments in Cornellà, which has involved an investment of 9 million euros. It also has 48 homes under construction in Sabadell ---in this case intended for sale--- and will now promote 76 apartments in L'Hospitalet. It also has land in Terrassa and Montgat that it plans to develop later.
90% of Cevasa's apartments are officially protected housing (VPO). All of them are intended for habitual residence, with a very low rotation rate and with an average rent of 6 euros per square meter per month. Each year, the company signs between 200 and 400 rental contracts. "We have apartments rented to the same family since 1975," says Muñoz as an example of the stability of their contracts and the "social vision" with which the company has worked since its birth in 1968.
In 2020, the company closed with a portfolio of 2,187 apartments (1,947 VPO), with revenues from rental income of 16.93 million euros, a figure slightly higher than that of 2019. Net profits stood at 9.8 million. For the conservation of this entire portfolio, the company has its own maintenance team of eight people. "It is key to manage with maximum efficiency all those expenses linked to maintenance that are not transferable to the tenant, since profitability is very tight; Cevasa is the most efficient company in the sector in this area," he assures.
The shareholding control of Cevasa is in the hands of the Vaqué family, although Banco Santander, owner of 24% of the capital, is also a stable shareholder of the company. Although it carries out promotions, the company emphasizes that it "has never had the vocation of a developer," but rather of a patrimonial real estate company that obtains profitability based on long-term rent collection. "Our business model is not based on generating capital gains with divestments and rapid asset rotation; the bet is on exploiting a stable portfolio based on rental," explains Muñoz, to differentiate Cevasa from other large companies operating in the rental market that may have a more opportunistic vision.
In this regard, Muñoz also stresses that Cevasa has never been tempted to transform into a Socimi ---the most used model by rental real estate companies listed on the stock exchange--- because "the company does not seek profitability based on tax benefits, but on long-term rents."
"Cevasa has always aimed to develop affordable rental housing; we have our own proven business model that we want to champion," emphasizes the executive regarding the public tender called by the Barcelona Metropolitan Area (AMB) to select a private operator to accelerate the pace of public rental housing construction. Cevasa is one of the companies that has submitted a bid in this procedure, competing with another group, and is hopeful of emerging as the winner. "It is a very important project for us because it would reinforce a business model that we have been carrying out for 50 years," says Muñoz.
The executive stresses that Cevasa already has experience in collaboration and co-investment with public administrations, as since 2005 the company has been a partner of the Sabadell City Council in a mixed company ---where it controls the majority of the capital--- that has built a portfolio of 600 rental homes in the city of Vallesana.
The objective of the AMB is for the new public-private company Habitatge Metròpolis Barcelona (HMB) to become the main instrument for channeling metropolitan affordable housing policy and contributing to curbing the increase in rents. The project consists of the construction of 4,500 VPO homes in six years, all of them destined for the rental market, and which will be built in Barcelona and in other municipalities such as Montgat, Sant Adrià de Besòs, and Sant Boi de Llobregat.
This initiative will require an investment of more than 600 million euros and, for this reason, the AMB wants to select a private partner to whom it will transfer 50% of the shareholding of the new Habitatge Metròpolis Barcelona (HMB). The other 50% will be distributed between the AMB itself (25%) and the Barcelona City Council (25%), which will contribute both money and land to the company, that is, capital in kind.
The procedure is now in the phase of submitting the definitive economic offer, and it is expected that the private partner will have been selected and the company launched this summer. Cevasa has submitted to the tender in alliance with Neinor (50% each), one of the main developers currently operating in Spain. The other two offers received by the AMB have been submitted by the VPO development company Visoren (linked to Mutua de Propietarios); and by the union between Culmia and Sogeviso. However, Culmia has finally opted to withdraw from the tender, so Cevasa's only competitor is now Visoren. Culmia is the former developer of Banco Sabadell (Sdin Residencial) and currently belongs to the investment fund Oaktree. For its part, Sogeviso is a real estate company for social housing management created by the bank chaired by Josep Oliu.
"Due to financial capacity, we could have submitted to the tender alone, but we preferred to join forces with Neinor, because we are talking about the construction of thousands of flats and they are leaders in development, with more than 2,000 home deliveries each year, and they have much more experience in this field, while we contribute the background in affordable rental; we complement each other very well," argues Cevasa's general director, awaiting the resolution of the tender.