65 million euros invested and more than thirty projects: Urbanitae can say goodbye to 2022 with the satisfaction of having reaffirmed its leadership in the market for another year. Real estate crowdfunding is in fashion and at Urbanitae we can attest to that. As last year, 2022 has been an excellent year for proptech and, in our case, for participatory financing. In fact, halfway through the year we had already exceeded the total financing volume of 2021 and, by early December, we had already surpassed 100 million euros in financing for real estate projects, a goal we set ourselves at the end of 2021.
Pending the identification of more investment opportunities in north-west Spain, the 2022 projects have been distributed more heterogeneously than in any other year across our country. Beyond Madrid, where almost a third of the projects have been concentrated — 12 openings — and which is once again a focus of investor appetite, the operations have been distributed across six other regions: Andalusia, Castile and León and the Balearic Islands, which together account for 13 projects.
In line with the boom in residential investment that has taken place this year — Madrid and Barcelona are among the European capitals that have attracted the most investment, according to CBRE — at Urbanitae, new-build residential construction continues to account for the bulk of our investments. That said, without prejudice to our commitment to alternative real estate assets, which are attracting growing interest among investors, such as storage rooms and garages.
Structure of the operations
Most of Urbanitae’s operations this year have been financed under the equity or capital gains format, in line with previous years — 76% of our projects over the last two years have been financed this way. This means that the investor enters as a shareholder in the special purpose vehicle that will develop the project, and that the return, paid via dividends, will vary depending on the final results. However, for 2023 at Urbanitae we expect an increase in projects financed through debt, the other possible investment format.
In addition, we have once again confirmed the capacity of our financing model to develop large-scale projects and make them available to small and medium-sized investors. It happened in 2021 with the Botánico Homes project in Tenerife, with a ticket of 5 million euros — the maximum authorised amount — and it happened again in March this year with the Deltas Madrid project and the La Moraleja project in June. This not only confirms the potential of crowdfunding to drive sizeable projects, but also the consolidation of alternative financing versus bank financing.
Likewise, in 2022 we have once again collaborated in our projects with major developers such as Gestilar, with whom we have already financed three projects in total, the latest of them in Córdoba. We have also strengthened our recurring collaboration with developers such as Grupanxon, with whom, to date, we have already financed eight projects and returned six of them, all with better results than expected in terms of return or execution timelines.
At Urbanitae, we do not stop. We have already been looking ahead to 2023 for some time, with all the challenges and objectives we have yet to meet. Our 2022 figures also consolidate us as the leading platform in the sector, with more than half of the real estate crowdfunding business in our country, as well as an investment alternative to large funds and banks.
And you, do you want to join the participatory financing boom in 2023?
