CRE at Urbanitae: How We’ve Diversified Beyond Residential Real Estate
Last Updated on 12 December 2025 by Equipo Urbanitae
For years, talking about commercial real estate – offices, hotels, shopping centers, student housing – meant talking about the big leagues: multi-million-euro operations reserved for funds, REITs, and high-net-worth investors. That scenario is changing, and as we recently explained on our blog, CRE (commercial real estate) is no longer a territory exclusive to large investors.
At Urbanitae, we want to take this transformation one step further: our goal is to be the comprehensive real estate investment platform in Europe. So that, when a saver thinks about investing in real estate – residential, hotels, alternative living, or shopping centers, to name a few – they can do it from a single place, with accessible ticket sizes and a regulated framework.
What We Mean by CRE at Urbanitae
Strictly speaking, CRE is usually associated with offices and retail. But the market reality goes far beyond that. At Urbanitae, we include in this category everything that is not traditional residential: hotels and aparthotels, student housing, coliving and flex living, senior living, storage units and parking, offices, shopping centers, and other alternative assets that generate recurring income.
The logic is simple: in these types of projects, value is not only in the property itself but in the business that the asset can generate over time. Whether through rental contracts, a hotel operator, or an institutional buyer looking for a turnkey asset.
To date, we have financed more than 40 CRE operations, totaling approximately €290 million in assets under management. This critical mass makes this line a key piece of diversification within Urbanitae.
Managed Living: Student Residences and Coliving
A significant part of our CRE activity is in so-called managed living. The clearest example is Residencia Marte, a student residence in Móstoles (Madrid), across from the Rey Juan Carlos University campus, with over 300 beds and full services. The project is structured as a value-add operation with a preferred IRR of 15% per year for investors, who have priority in profit distribution.
In Barcelona, the Sants project is an example of our entry into urban coliving: a completed asset in the process of legal regularization, financed through debt at 10% per year with an initial term of 12 months, secured by first-ranking guarantees and a minimum return equivalent to nine months of interest. The thesis is clear: high demand for flexible short- and medium-term accommodation in one of Europe’s tightest markets.
Both projects show how managed living allows retail investors to access segments traditionally dominated by specialized funds.
Hotels and Tourist Accommodations: From Seville to Valencia
The hotel and tourism segment is another fundamental pillar of our CRE strategy. In Seville, the Hotel Cruz del Campo project relies on a top-tier operator, B&B Hotels, and the transformation of the historic Cruzcampo Factory into one of the city’s new urban hubs. The combination of strategic location, urban renewal, and an operator with over 80 hotels in Spain and Portugal makes this asset particularly attractive to institutional buyers.
In Valencia, the San Jacinto project consists of a turnkey aparthotel in the city center, financed through a loan at 9.75% per year. The project has licenses and a secured final buyer, significantly reducing urban and commercial risk and offering a very robust guarantee structure on the asset and operational cash flows.
These examples illustrate how we use hotel CRE: developing or repositioning assets to later sell to institutional investors seeking stable income in established locations.
Retail and Shopping Centers: Visible Income from Day One
In pure commercial real estate, we have focused on medium-sized shopping centers and neighborhood retail. The Navia project in Vigo is our first operation in Galicia: a 15-month loan at 10.5% annual interest to refinance the land of a medium-sized shopping center near the VG-20, with a very conservative 25.6% LTV and a package of guarantees including first-ranking mortgage and pledge on shares, accounts, and future income.
In Burgos, Parque Comercial Arlanzón is a development of almost 9,000 m² of gross leasable area, 100% pre-let to operators such as Lupa, JYSK, Fitness Park, Popeyes, or TEDi, generating around €1.08 million of net annual rent once operational. Financing is structured through multiple debt tranches with rates around 11% per year and first-ranking mortgage guarantees on the asset.
These projects allow investors to access assets with nearly guaranteed occupancy and medium-term income visibility.
Storage Units and Other Pieces of the Puzzle
Within alternative CRE, storage units have established themselves as one of the fastest-growing verticals at Urbanitae. The Oporto-Franciscanos project, developed with Grupanxon, finances the creation of over 100 storage units in Madrid and Albacete through a 20-month loan at a fixed 11% annual interest rate with first-ranking guarantees on the premises. With this manager, we have financed nearly twenty projects, 14 of which have already been repaid with excellent results for investors.
The rise of self-storage responds to clear trends: smaller homes, increased labor mobility, and the need for extra space in dense urban areas. For investors, these are management-intensive assets but with highly resilient demand.
Prime Offices and International Expansion: The Oporto Case
To conclude our review of recent activity, we must mention the Francos project in Oporto, a milestone in our office line: a complex of over 20,500 m² of offices, coworking, commercial areas, and 180 parking spaces in the Boavista financial district, developed with global manager Osborne+Co. The investment is structured as a value-add project with a preferred IRR of 15% per year for Urbanitae investors and an estimated exit horizon of 46–50 months, once the asset is stabilized and sold to an institutional buyer.
This operation reinforces a key idea: diversification in CRE is not only sectoral but also geographical, with a presence already established in markets such as Portugal in addition to Spain.
Towards a Truly Comprehensive Platform
The balance of recent years in CRE is clear: 44 operations, nearly €290 million in assets under management, and presence in segments ranging from managed living to shopping centers, including hotels, self-storage, and prime offices. All this complements our activity in residential and direct investment and brings us closer to our goal of being the reference platform when a saver thinks about investing in real estate.
For investors, the takeaway is simple: today it is already possible to build a diversified real estate portfolio within Urbanitae, combining countries, types of projects (equity, debt), and segments (residential, CRE, alternative). And in a cyclical sector like real estate, that makes all the difference when managing long-term risk.
