Dubai firm to invest heavily in Spanish property market

There was a time not so long ago that the mere mention of Dubai conjured up images of some futuristic metropolis rising from the desert, bestowing affordable-yet-luxurious property on anybody who could muster up the airfare out to the UAE…

How times have changed. What was once seen as a bona fide rival for Spain’s investment property crown is now a shadow of its former self – at least in would-be-expats terms.

Dubai rode the post-millennium property wave with more recklesss abandon than even Spain, and the crash was even more spectacular, with entire corners of the city left undeveloped as credit drained from the grasp of thousands of customers like sand from a fist.

But Dubai’s undoubted appeal to those with capital remained, and the Emirate is today rediscovering its groove. It has some way to go until it can rival Spain’s own real estate recovery, but where there’s money – and Dubai still has plenty – there is opportunity.

And opportunity, it seems, lies in Spain. Imperio Group, a Dubai-based holding company, has announced this week plans to invest €50 million in Spanish property throughout 2017, with more investments likely to follow next year.

The group specialises in renovating and restructuring old properties, and has found that Spain’s Barcelona is quite the happy hunting ground, spending €6.5 million this month on acquiring the historic Vinçon Building on Pau Claris street.

The building overlooks Gaudi’s La Pedrera, and Imperio Group is planning on creating a series of luxurious dwellings in the building.

The firm will also create 19 new apartments in the Eixample district in what is another, ahem, example of Barcelona’s appeal to foreigners.

Now, investment by Emiratis in northern Spain is not normally news for VIVA readers, but look at the bigger picture: following the news that US heavyweight Lone Star is ploughing money into Spanish property, and the steady stream of good news stories emerging from the sector over the past two years, the fact that wealthy Dubai investors are now putting capital into Spanish property is something to be celebrated – and is something that would have been nigh-on unthinkable less than a decade ago.