Housing liquidation is underway as Galil Capital, a Real Estate Investment Trust, reports the closure of three property sales in Madrid and Barcelona for a combined 18.29 million euros, disclosed to the regulator BME Growth. The entity, Real Estate Investment Limited, is controlled 59.11% by Gil Avraham Shwed, founder of the Israeli cybersecurity company Check Point. While the buyer and exact capital gain remain undisclosed, the Socimi regime requires Galil Capital to declare an extraordinary dividend of 50%, with formal announcements expected in the near term.
Prensa Ibérica’s El Periódico de España notes that some properties remained uninvested across Spain’s two largest cities. In Madrid, a building at Calle Béjar 23 comprises 21 apartments, four buildings, and a storage unit; this asset was acquired by Galil Capital in December 2017. In Barcelona, two sites, located at Calle Bretón de los Herreros 14-16 and Calle Aulestia i Pijoan 4-6, hold 11 housing units plus four buildings each; both purchases occurred in 2016 or 2017. The papers indicate that the Barcelona City Council and the Generalitat de Catalunya declined to exercise their preferential purchase rights.
Meanwhile, the former listed investment vehicle continues to divest through smaller, unit-by-unit home sales. Eight flats in Madrid at 12 Calle Granada and at 689 Córsega in Barcelona were sold without requiring approval from the Shareholders’ Board. Galil Capital has not disclosed the monetary sums of these transactions, only communicating them to the market.
What is the Galilee Capital?
Galil Capital remains relatively obscure within the Spanish real estate scene. The latest asset valuation, dated 31 December 2021, valued the portfolio at 65.39 million euros, spread across ten residential assets and a logistics-industrial property near Valencia. At year-end, gross debt stood at 22.78 million, representing roughly 34.83 percent loan-to-value. The company was founded in 2015 and joined the Madrid Stock Exchange’s MAB market in early 2018. The 2021 results show revenue of 1.46 million euros, roughly stable versus 2020, while a loss of 132 thousand euros was reported for the year, slightly better than the prior year’s loss around 150 thousand euros.
To date, the listed firm has not completed any major divestitures. Its most recent significant acquisition—an industrial property, a Valencia warehouse bought for 9 million euros in 2021—remains its only industrial asset. Earlier years saw several residential purchases across Barcelona and Madrid. When markets were active, the portfolio included four buildings in Barcelona and two in Madrid. That same year, a capital increase of 8 million euros was arranged to recover an 2 million loan extended to the company by Gil Avraham, supporting ongoing acquisition activity.
Corporate housing market
The corporate housing sector is navigating a period of turbulence. The rapid interest rate hikes by the European Central Bank have accelerated repositioning by owners of rental housing in Spain. Investors like Neinor Homes and Vía Célere have opted to divest their portfolios and pursue a build-to-rent model. Neinor created a dedicated division for this strategy before deciding to pursue sales, while Vía Célere began to solicit offers publicly. The private equity group TPG is also moving to exit its stake in the former Sareb-backed Socimi Témpore Properties. Dutch fund Barcino and partners have authorized Colliers to market half of Barcino Property, another example of sectorwide portfolio reshaping.
The shifts reflect several market realities: rental housing tends to be a low-yield, safer investment; rising financing costs compress returns as loan costs outpace rental income. Policy climate also weighs on sentiment, with rent updates restricted to CPI and annual increases capped at 2% through year-end in many regions.
Between January and September this year, the investment segment spanning traditional housing, student housing, and senior living reached about 3.3 billion euros. Real estate advisory firm JLL notes this is 28% higher than the same period in 2021 and accounts for about one third of all registered real estate purchases in the country. Yet, overall rental housing investment declined sharply in the third quarter versus 2021 and showed a pronounced drop from the second quarter of this year, suggesting deal activity has cooled as investors await clearer economic signals.