Bernabéu Real Estate Targeting: “Tired of the Noise? Tired of the People? We Help You Sell” | Madrid News

Residents of the Chamartín district around the Bernabéu, organized into two associations, have been raising their voices for months, complaining about the consequences of regularly hosting concerts with over 60,000 visitors in the heart of a residential area. But these consequences are no longer limited to noise and disruption to traffic in the hours before and after the events or during rehearsals. Now there are two new causes for complaint that they are trying to document: harassment in the real estate sector and health problems for the elderly or those suffering from illness.

Less than two months have passed, and the suffering of the neighbors is summed up in 11 macro-events. After Hurricane Taylor Swift, Argentine rapper Duki arrived on May 29 and 30, taking the stage on June 8. He was followed by Manuel Carrasco, who arrived on June 29, and then the event of Luis Miguel, who sang his rancheras in Madrid on July 6 and 7. On July 13, the stadium hosted the “Evening of the Year,” an amateur boxing evening organized by content creator Ibai Llanos, which every year becomes the most watched broadcast on various platforms. streaming. The culmination was four consecutive concerts by Colombian singer Karol G from July 20 to 23. 11 major events in less than two months, which have caused harm to some residents, such as FO, who suffers every time there is a concert. “In the last one, I preferred to wait an hour for them to clear the street when the concert had already started,” he says. FO, a 66-year-old resident of Rafael Salgado Street, undergoes dialysis treatment, and when he returns from a session, he risks fainting if he has to walk a long distance: the problem is that they close the streets for the concert and you can’t get to the street by car.

But aside from the general irritation, noise and traffic jams, the focus is now on the real estate “harassment” that some neighbors are allegedly suffering. A week ago, the phone rang for Ignacio Navas, a lawyer living in the urbanization on Calle Concha Espina. He was offered the opportunity to have his apartment appraised, on the pretext that one of his neighbors had already sold his house. Navas says that the person he was talking to did not identify himself, relying on data protection. Then he received a second call, in which they said which real estate agency they were calling from and made the same offer. “We are 30 neighbors, we all know each other, and I know that this is a lie, no one has sold and no one will know. They play on people’s desperation, making them believe that everyone is selling and they panic. This situation excites the greed of real estate companies,” says Navas, who has dedicated part of his career to the housing sector. “I’ve never seen a practice like this before,” he says.

This greed is reflected in the flyers that real estate companies leave in mailboxes, on doormen, on car windows, and on street lamps. “Noise and more noise, this is just the beginning,” reads one poster hung on lampposts along the Havana waterfront. “Tired of noise? Tired of the bustle of people? We will help you sell and find another home,” reads another ad collected by neighbors. “Due to high demand, we inform you that our office is closing without the need to publish apartments. Take advantage of the fact that the price is at an all-time high and get rid of this problem,” reads a bulletin from the real estate company Redpiso.

“In such a consolidated area, it is difficult to make a big profit, unless you introduce an element of fear that makes people nervous and sell,” says José Manuel Paredes, a real estate marketing expert, a resident of the area and a member of the association of victims of the new Bernabéu. “It is too early to say how the price will evolve, and these methods border on the ethical,” he notes.

Paredes points out that the association has noticed an increase in the harassment of real estate companies following the publication of two industry reports that estimated a 30% increase in housing prices in the Bernabéu area, and which were supported by several media outlets. One, from Fotocasa, was published on the same day as Taylor Swift’s first concert. The other, from the consultancy firm Gloval, is eight pages long and concludes that no link can be established between the noise of macro-events at the stadium and market value. “It should be noted that historically there have already been high levels of noise in this environment,” he says. The short report contains another clue: “The arrival of new tourist homes seems to reflect an interest in the area that goes beyond possible problems of noise and/or concentration of people.”

The association also documents cases of health problems. This is the case of an 83-year-old woman who has lived in the neighborhood for 60 years. Her case is told by one of her five children, I.J., who also prefers to give her initials out of respect for her mother’s privacy. The old lady suffers from a minor ailment, but she is an independent woman who lives alone in her apartment. Four weeks ago, she had a spike in blood pressure, which led her to go to the emergency room and then to see her family doctor. “He told her that he was not sleeping well, that he was worried and afraid to go out when there were so many people around. She feels sad because she was the woman who lived next door, going out and drinking with friends, and now she wonders if this new situation will last forever, because it condemns her to being locked up at home,” she said. complains.

At that consultation, the doctor half-jokingly, half-seriously recommended that he consider moving. “It’s become a torture center, the lives of the elderly are ruined, the vibration and noise are unbearable. She already has friends who have left the area,” the neighbor explains.

While all this is happening and concerts are being added, the Madrid City Council is taking its time. The delegate of the Urban Planning, Environment and Mobility Department announced this Monday that a “working table” will be set up with Real Madrid to carry out work to minimize noise and disturbance. Carabante also assured that a case has been opened to punish the organizers of the concert, who, in his opinion, are responsible for not complying with the regulations. But these meetings will not begin until after the summer. The White Club has already announced the installation of soundproof curtains covering the entire upper part of the stadium. A decision that the neighbors do not trust.

Faced with the powder keg that this neighborhood has become, the neighbors are becoming stronger. As Ignacio Navas puts it: “If they think we want to leave this neighborhood, they are very wrong, we are right, and in the end it will be proven.”

Subscribe here to our Madrid newsletter, published every Tuesday and Friday.