• The BFA-Bankia Group disposed of more than 5,600 foreclosed properties and subrogated 9,000 developer assets.
  • Sales topped 1,600 million euros.
  • The campaigns launched by the property subsidiary and the impending end of the tax deduction for home purchases pushed sales up twofold in December.

Bankia Habitat, the BFA-Bankia Group's real estate arm, closed 2012 with sales of more than 5,600 properties from its holdings of foreclosed assets. The pace of disinvestment picked up by 23.6%, with a sharp increase near yearend. These property disposals generated 550 million euros in income for the bank, 18.9% more than in 2011.

Adding this figure to the one for subrogation of developer loans and disinvestments in singular assets, including land and developments, which accounted in all for some 9,000 units, the total property assets disposed of by the group numbered more than 14,600, bringing in over 1,600 million euros.

Sales topped 1,600 million euros.

By region, BFA-Bankia sold off 1,920 properties in Madrid and 1,200 in Valencia, as well as 480 in Castilla-La Mancha, 380 in Catalonia and another 380 in Andalucía. There were a further 320 transactions in Castilla y León and 160 in La Rioja.

The commercial policy pursed by Bankia Habitat injected life into property disposals in a year marked by very sluggish sales in the overall real estate market. Another driver for this activity was the announced end of the home-purchase tax deduction this past 1 January.

In this context, BFA-Bankia more than doubled its sales in December over the averages seen in the preceding months. The last month of the year saw a total of 1,100 property sales, a full 70% higher than in November.

Subrogations of homes held by developers reached 2,300 units, a fivefold increase over the previous months and more than twice the level recorded in July, the second strongest month in the year, when more than 900 property loans were subrogated.

The bank also obtained 22 million euros on its disposals of rented buildings and more than 120 million euros on its disinvestments in land and singular assets.

Over the course of the year Bankia Habitat unfurled several sales campaigns. Both in the summer and autumn the company launched initiatives with price discounts of between 40% and 60%.

Major auction of homes

In November, Bankia Habitat organised an unprecedented auction in which it put more than 1,000 newly constructed dwellings up for sale, including, for the first time, developer properties. The auctions brought in more than 13 million euros. Hundreds of customers bid directly online via http://www.bankiahabitat.es/ and through Reser, the Bankia auction platform subsidiary that gives the bank a competitive advantage in organising initiatives of this kind.

Bankia offers customers interested in foreclosed assets financing that features a mortgage loan for up to 100% of the outlay, with a limit of 80% of the appraised value, at interest of the Euribor plus 0.90 points.

The group will continue to step up its marketing efforts through the branch network and drawing on the support of diverse channels, including real estate brokers and agents, as well as the http://www.bankiahabitat.es/ portal set up last March with the specific aim of boosting the sale of property assets.

Bankia Habitat is the BFA-Bankia Group company that groups together the Bank's real estate assets. It has firmly established itself as a major real estate manager and a key property sales channel in the Spanish market.

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