“We are a profitable investment, not a donation” – Idealista/news

Social socimi tuTechô has now officially joined the long list of real estate investment companies listed on the stock market. And this is being done with the aim of combating homelessness in Spain.

The company debuted with a market value of €28.6 million at €1.01 per share. At the first intersection, their securities rose in price by 0.99%.reaching 1.02 euros, after moving 200 shares, reaching a capitalization of 28.96 million.

As Blanca Hernandez, president of the society, explained before the traditional ringing of the bell at the Madrid Stock Exchange Palace, “we were born from the problem of homelessness and we want to provide housing for social actors to fight it.”

After two years of operation, this investment instrument owns 203 houses and several buildings in different parts of Spain, for example, in cities such as Madrid, Seville, Barcelona, ​​Almeria, Zaragoza, Cordoba, Alicante, Murcia and Valladolid, but his goal is to expand his portfolio. “We have 28 million euros that are already practically invested and we are constantly looking to buy more houses. “We are open to investment anywhere in Spain.”,” Hernandez said.

Social activities purchase of “one-time” apartments in accordance with the needs of social entities, who are responsible for paying the rent for the houses. According to Hernández, these are affordable rents that are approximately 30% below market rates, and if necessary, social actors can turn to the Techô Fund for assistance in paying. This prevents defaults that could jeopardize the viability of the project.

“tuTechô is viable, sustainable, profitable and scalable”holds the first sword of this investment instrument.

Before its debut on the stock market, the instrument already had 108 investors of all types, from retail to large investors, including institutional investors. And his president does Appeal to investors, both companies and individuals. “With BME Growth exiting, we hope more retailers and private banks will join us. The more people join, the more apartments we can buy to provide housing for more people,” he said.

According to a study by consulting firm EY, the number of homeless people in Spain is as high as 40,000, a concept that includes homeless people as well as illegal immigrants, foster youth or people forced to leave their home due to circumstances such as domestic violence.

Hernandez insists that this social disaster can be tackled through increased investment. “We have no ceiling on investment. If we continue to attract investors, we can put an end to this problem.“he insisted.

SOCIMI currently works with 54 social organizations of all sizes, from NGOs such as Caritas to other lesser-known and smaller ones. It also cooperates with companies that participate in tuTECHÔ as part of their corporate responsibility, among them managers such as Azora and Abant, developers such as Grupo Insur, financial institutions such as Renta 4 and Nationale-Nederlande or real estate companies, such as Idealista. , Sareb and CBRE. Consulting firm EY and Comillas University are also involved in the project. Their collaboration, Hernandez said, is key to making the project economically viable.

And this is precisely one of the arguments that the investment vehicle uses to encourage investors to participate in the project, be they small investors or professional investors. “With their capital they can change the world, be it one euro or a million. TuTECHÔ combines economic profitability and social utility,” Hernandez emphasized. He also insisted that the donations are not donations, but rather investments subject to profitability, despite this not being his primary purpose.

“This is not a donation. If a person wants to return the money, he can sell the shares. Charity is very good, but we must promote scalable and sustainable initiatives. And this is a safe investment,” the company’s president emphasized. As a listed company, the company is required to publish its accounts, which must be audited, and has Renta 4 as its liquidity provider.

Apartments for individuals or companies

Houses that tuTECHÔ buys They come from individuals or companies such as Sareb and real estate services companies. banks. Most of the properties already in his portfolio belong to individuals who sold them to them, although there are cases where they transferred the house in exchange for receiving a share in Socimi’s share capital.

One of the areas is the fund of empty houses, which, according to the calculations of the Bank of Spain, amounts to about four million units. “We’re trying to recycle all these apartments, revitalize the neighborhoods and rent out the houses so that the most disadvantaged people in society can live,” Hernandez said.

The prototype housing you need in most cases is an apartment of about 70 m², in a working area, with three bedrooms, located on the ground floors of the house, especially if there is no elevator. Sometimes proximity to hospital centers or social facilities themselves is also valued.

Nevertheless, He also built houses in areas where they are needed, such as Nijar (Almeria), where 12 properties have been built. or in Seville, where it also promoted houses on land owned by the development group Insur.

Demand an increase in capital and payment of dividends

SOCIMI has already reserved 30 new homes to add to its portfolio and expects preparing a capital increase to attract resources and continue acquisitions family. According to Hernandez, they are already attracting a lot of interest from the investment community.

Moreover, the President confirmed that Its goal is to pay dividends to investors in the amount of 2% or 3%., although at the moment it cannot guarantee such remuneration to the shareholder. Let’s remember that SOCIMI must distribute at least 80% of its profits through dividends to maintain the tax benefits promoted by its segment.