SOCIMI’s first homeless company is now listed on the stock market | Madrid News

This Friday morning, the bell rang at the Madrid Stock Exchange Palace to welcome Spain’s first public limited liability real estate investment company (socimi). At 11:59 a.m., Hasan and Clement nervously prepared themselves as the large clock of the imposing building ticked exactly 12:00. Until recently, none of them had a roof over their heads. This Friday, accompanied by the founder of tuTechô Blanca Hernández, they opened the session by officially announcing it: the homeless SOCIMI is listed on the stock market with a value of 28.6 million euros. Shares can be purchased for one euro, and the company assures that this is a secure investment and not a donation.

If only someone had told 34-year-old Clement R. on a trip he made more than 16 years ago from Ghana to Spain, risking his life along with other companions, that today he would be at the Madrid Stock Exchange ringing the bell. I would believe it. “I arrived not knowing anyone, I didn’t speak Spanish, and at first I asked the Red Cross to give me a bed only for the first six months,” he recalls.

A year ago his life changed. “I found out about tuTechô because I was looking for a rental apartment, but didn’t find anything. They offered me and my family an apartment in San Cristobal de los Angeles, where I only had to pay 150 euros a month,” he says. He now also works for SOCIMI as head of the department for the maintenance of houses purchased by the company. “They buy them, and I’m responsible for making sure they’re beautiful so that other people who have gone through homelessness like me can turn that apartment into a home,” he says.

Next to him, still emotional, is 56-year-old Hassan S., who is stateless because although he believes he was born in Morocco, he is not sure. He lived on the streets for many years: “I had a very difficult childhood, I was abandoned,” he says. Two years ago, he met Hernandez and became the first tenant of an apartment in Villaverde. He now coordinates the Mundo Justo day center for the homeless, which has its headquarters in Madrid. Clement and Hassan are just two of the visible faces of the more than 900 people who have passed through the 203 homes owned by SOCIMI and run by the more than 50 social organizations they work with throughout the area.

Working with tuTechô is very simple. There are an estimated 40,000 homeless people in Spain, so SOCIMI has developed a business model in which the company has a portfolio of houses that it restores and rents out to social organizations such as NGOs or associations. Rates are affordable, typically 30% below market rate, so businesses can then sign seven-year leases with homeless people like Clement or Hassan.

The housing stock they acquire consists of properties they buy from real estate agencies. They track them from platforms like Idealista to organizations like Sareb. “There are more than 3,600 empty houses in Spain, and many of them are being used illegally. The owners do not want to rent them out to the homeless. However, administrators and impact investors have the means to support social organizations through rental housing that are succeeding in getting homeless people off the streets. tuTechô’s solution is to acquire these homes from their owners and achieve a double return: returning properties to the social real estate market, especially in the most vulnerable areas of Spain’s main cities, and integrating homeless people into society, they said. during a press conference.

The houses they purchased in different areas of Madrid, such as Usera, Villaverde, Fuenlabrada or Leganes, received financing from investors who trusted the project. “No one here can count on big profits, but this is not a donation either. Charity is very good, but it is a business and its purpose is to enable companies to contribute to the fight against homelessness in Spain,” explains Hernandez. The idea is that these investors, and now shareholders, can receive dividends of 2% to 3%. “At the same time, they will benefit from social activity,” emphasizes the founder of the society.

SOCIMI began more than a year ago when Hernandez began studying the problem of homelessness in Spain. “Suddenly we saw that there could be a business solution to this problem,” says tuTechô director Rocio del Mar. it is not so. Donating is the same as investing.

“Starting today, the stock market sets an innovative milestone by listing the first social enterprise company on the BME Growth list, demonstrating the true potential of the stock market to drive social change,” says Del Mar. To buy tuTechô shares, you need to do the following: Same as with any other listed company: choose a stock broker, open a securities account through them and start issuing buy orders.

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