Trends of real estate servicers 2020

The real estate servicers have been gaining more weight in Spain, especially since the 2007 crisis, through which the main Spanish banks accumulated a considerable stock of homes that their clients could not pay for. But you may wonder what the real estate servicers are and what their role is in the economy. We tell you all about it below.

What are real estate servicers and how they work

Essentially, they are companies external to banks that absorb loans associated with real estate. Their purpose was to sell these homes at attractive prices and good financing conditions to get them out of the portfolios of assets from the banks as soon as possible, although their functions have evolved, growing in structure, capabilities and professionalization.To date, the servicers also manage new construction homes, private homes and even land to later build premises, shopping centers or hotels. As of 2018, these companies managed more than 750,000 assets, just under 28% of the total stock at that time.Among the services that real estate servicers provide to financial institutions, the recovery of the property (in case the client cannot face the mortgage), judicial and physical repossession, maintenance, payment of fees and taxes, management of tenants, valuation of the bank's real estate portfolio, marketing of the property and attracting potential customers, conducting reports on the current situation of the portfolio, etc. stand out.They also provide services to investment funds, mainly on research and market studies on possible real estate opportunities and management of the purchase process. The latter is similar to the market studies that are done for Airbnb.

The largest real estate servicers in Spain

In our country there are several real estate servicers, generally one for each financial institution of considerable size, although among the main ones the largest is Altamira and corresponds to Banco Santander. It has assets valued at more than 54 million euros, which represents a market share of 22%. The 41 million euros in assets managed by Servihabitat make it the second largest servicer in the country, 17% of the market. In third position we have Haya, from Bankia, managing 39 million and a share of 16%. Both Aliseda and Anticipa, from Banco Popular, which was later bought by Banco Santander, represent 14% of the market.

Changes and trends for 2020 of real estate servicers

For the year 2020, it is expected that real estate servicers will considerably accelerate the sale of properties, as a market downturn is feared after signs of cooling down in recent months, in addition to the effects of changes in the LAU (Urban Rental Law), which requires 7-year contracts, updating rent only with the CPI. To achieve this, foreclosures are being increased and properties are being sold even before evicting the delinquent owner. Thus, it can be understood that it is the closure of the cycle of funds that arrived in Spain after the crisis and have already achieved the expected return.Servihabitat has increased by 28% its offer of assets ready to sell, like Haya, which offers properties with up to 40% discount, although located in areas with low demand. Discounts, averaging 30% in general, are also recently applied in other servicers like Altamira, Solvia (from Banc Sabadell) and Aliseda.

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