Real Estate Market Revives in Spain
西班牙房地產市場復甦
By Jenny Anderson

As one of the most depressed housing markets in Europe, Spain has become a magnet for global bargain hunters. With prices still down as much as 50 percent from their peak during a housing bubble, investors from Asia to the United States and Britain are flocking to catch the uptick.
西班牙房市景氣在歐洲排在最後幾名，從全球各地引來撿便宜的人。目前房價仍比泡沫高峰期低50%，來自亞洲、美國乃至英國的投資者紛紛搶進。

The hedge fund Baupost is buying shopping centers, Goldman Sachs and Blackstone are buying apartments in Madrid, and Paulson & Company and George Soros’s fund are anchor investors in a publicly listed Spanish real estate investment vehicle. Kohlberg Kravis Roberts just bought a stake in a Spanish amusement park complex.
鮑波斯特避險基金在收購購物中心，高盛公司與黑石集團在馬德里買公寓，鮑森公司與索羅斯的基金是西班牙一個上市房地產投資工具的主力，KKR集團剛買下西班牙一娛樂公園的股份。

“It’s surreal,” said Dilip Khullar, a 25-year veteran of Spanish real estate investing and director of Cadena, an investment fund. “One day it’s the worst place in the world to buy real estate and the next, it’s the best.”
對西班牙房地產有25年投資經驗的卡迪納投資基金主席庫拉爾說：「真是不可思議。它曾是世上購買房地產的最差地點，下一刻卻變成了第一名。」

The real estate market started to revive in 2013. Government reforms, including a relaxation of labor laws and stricter rules for banks related to accounting for bad real estate, meant that banks could no longer ignore the assets on their balance sheets. Once the banks had to hold more capital – in some cases drastically more – they started to think it was better to sell, analysts and bankers said.
房地產市場2013年開始復甦。政府推動多項改革，包括放寬勞動法規及加強管理銀行的不良不動產會計。這意味銀行再也不能忽視資產負債表中的資產。分析師與銀行界人士說，一旦銀行必須握有更多資本（某些實例須多很多），就會開始認為最好脫手。

Spain’s “bad bank,” called Sareb, formed in 2012 with the real estate assets of the country’s bailed-out banks, started to close deals. Separately, last July, Blackstone bought 1,860 apartments for 125.5 million euros, then about $166 million, and in August, Goldman bought a block of public housing in central Madrid. This combination of deals set a floor price, analysts said.
2012年西班牙以各接受紓困銀行的不動產資產設立的壞帳銀行Sareb，開始達成交易。去年七月，黑石集團以當時合1.66億美元的1.255億歐元買下1860戶公寓。去年八月，高盛買下馬德里市中心一批國宅。分析師說，這些交易創下最低價位。

About €5 billion worth of real estate transactions took place last year, according to the consulting firm CBRE Spain – more than double the amount of the previous year but still small compared with the €166 billion in commercial real estate deals made in Europe last year. But Fitch Ratings recently issued a report saying that real estate prices would continue to fall through 2014, not rebounding until 2015.
據西班牙CBRE顧問公司統計，去年房地產交易總值約50億歐元，是前一年的兩倍多，但與歐洲商業房地產交易的1660億歐元相比仍然極小。而惠譽信評公司最近公布報告指出，房地產價格今年還會一路下跌，2015年才可能反彈。

And Spain’s economy continues to struggle. The unemployment rate is 26 percent, and growth is estimated to be about 1 percent this year.
西班牙的經濟還在掙扎，失業率達26%，今年的成長率預估約僅1%。

But many investors believe the market will truly take off and want to get in before it does.
然而許多投資人認為市場真會有起色，想提前進場。

“It’s crazy the number of investors coming in,” said Fernando Acuña of Aura, a start-up real estate advisory firm in Spain.
西班牙新創房地產顧問公司「奧拉」的艾庫尼亞說：「進場的投資人多到瘋狂的程度。」

Belén Romana, chairwoman of Sareb, said the number of investors – around 50 – who turned up for the first auctions surprised her. They were aggressive, she said. “It was early and they thought they could make a killing.”
Sareb董事長貝琳‧羅曼納指出，參與首次拍賣的投資人多達50人左右，出乎她的意料。她說，他們非常積極，「時候還早，他們自認可以海撈一票」。

Sareb aims to sell nearly 10,500 assets this year, and the top six Spanish banks hold an additional €159 billion worth of real estate and development loans, according to Goldman Sachs.
Sareb打算今年賣出大約10500筆資產。高盛公司說，西班牙前六大銀行合計另外握有總值約1590億歐元的不動產與開發貸款。

Already the deal landscape is changing. While many investors want trophy commercial real estate assets, extremely few are for sale in prime areas of Madrid and Barcelona.
交易的全貌已在改變。許多投資人想撿商業房地產的便宜，馬德里與巴塞隆納黃金地段待售的不動產卻極少。

Investors who hoped for 20 percent internal rates of return are now expecting 12 percent to 15 percent, and shifting their focus to residential properties, analysts said.
分析師說，希望獲得20%內部投資報酬率的投資人如今只能期望12%至15%，同時把焦點轉向住宅。

Many worry that the competition for some assets and excess liquidity is driving prices higher.
許多人擔心，競逐部分資產與過多的流動性可能推升價格。

One private equity executive said a recent auction for a mediocre office building attracted 30 bids. His company’s bid – which he said was fully priced – did not even make it past the first round.
某私募股權投資基金主管說，最近一場中等辦公大樓拍賣會吸引30個投資人競標，該基金出價夠高，卻在第一回合就出局。

Are prices too high? “That’s the million-dollar question,” said Javier Martinez-Piqueras, co-head of equity capital markets at UBS. “Actually, it’s the billion-dollar question.”
價格太高嗎？瑞士銀行股本市場部門主管畢奎拉斯說：「這是百萬元級的問題。事實上，它是10億元級的問題。」

原文參照：
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/05/29/realty-investors-flock-to-spain/

2014-06-17聯合報/G9版/UNITEDDAILYNEWS 陳世欽譯 原文參見紐時週報七版右