Bain Capital Credit, owned by a financial investment group, has acquired the real estate company Habitat Inmobiliaria, specialized in the promotion and sale of residential projects in the main Spanish cities. The move is intended to reinforce its business plan, and to serve as a platform to market the extensive portfolio it has acquired in Spain since 2014.

Habitat Inmobiliaria was founded in 1953, since when it has built and delivered over 60,000 homes. It currently has one of the largest housing portfolios under development in Spain –as many as 1,072 units–, of which it has already sold 80%. The Spanish company also has a ready-to-build landbank of 2.5 million square meters.

For its part, Bain Capital Credit has positioned itself in Spain since 2014 thanks to the purchase of NPL (non-performing loans, also known as "risky" loans), leases and real estate assets valued at over 3.5 billion euros. In October 2017 it announced that it is now the majority owner in a joint venture controlling and managing a portfolio of real estate assets from Liberbank.

Fabio Longo, managing director and head of Bain Capital Credit’s European non-performing loan and real estate business, explains: “We believe Spain is one of the most attractive NPL and real estate markets in Europe. Habitat’s sizable land plots in major cities are a great opportunity to expand our footprint in the residential development sector”. He adds: “We see the potential for continued investment in Spain, particularly in the real estate and non-performing loan market”.

Eduardo Carreño, managing director of Habitat, says: “We are delighted that Bain Capital Credit is partnering with us. Their operational expertise and deep knowledge of Spanish real estate will help us to enhance our business performance. We plan to significantly increase our rate of delivery in the coming years to meet the high level of demand as the Spanish economy continues to recover strongly”.

Brad Palmer, managing director and head of European Portfolio Operations at Bain Capital Credit says “This is an exciting combination of the financial strength of Bain Capital Credit with the substantial expertise of Habitat Inmobiliaria. Our joint experience of sourcing land and development projects will allow us to rebuild a major national developer”.