La otra inversión en ladrillo: acciones y plataformas

The soaring price of real estate makes it difficult for many families to buy a home for investment, but there are numerous options for taking positions in all its segments. The most common method is through the Stock Exchange. Savers can buy shares in Socimis or property developers. Socimis specialize in buying, developing, or rehabilitating urban properties for rental.

One of their peculiarities is that they are legally required to distribute most of their profits as dividends to shareholders. Generally, at least 80% of rental income and 50% of asset sales must be distributed. Merlin Properties and Colonial, both present in the IBEX 35, are the two largest Spanish Socimis by stock market capitalization.

Investors share their bet with them on sectors ranging from offices to logistics assets, residences, or hotels.

The rest of the Socimis traded on and outside the Spanish market are authentic specialists in their activities. Promotional businesses in real estate are doing well, as is the case with Neinor Homes and Metrovacesa. A large portion of their activity is in residential development, and they have a significant level of advance orders guaranteeing income in the coming quarters.

Dividends are also an attractive point in promoters, as they usually yield in this area at double-digit levels. This generous return to shareholders provides a significant cushion for investors. Additionally, the saver can access the real estate market without leaving the stock market through listed funds or passive management, which directly replicate indices composed of sector peers or related to the real estate business.

Experts note that possible future decrees on the real estate sector have a very peripheral impact on these listed companies due to the structure of their business. Diversification increases exponentially for the saver because the real estate market goes through cycles that may be different at the global level. The most widespread and popular are offered by iShares (BlackRock), HSBC, State Street, Invesco, and Xtrackers (Deutsche Bank).

Outside the exchanges, the saver has access to real estate crowdfunding and crowdlending platforms, a figure registered with the National Market Commission, in some cases with a long track record, through which investors can support some of the best projects of the moment. Possibilities range from land purchase to development and construction of homes.

They also include the renovation of hotels, residences, logistics, and office assets. These are for patient investors, as projects require medium and long-term maturity periods. The most widespread, with high barriers to entry, are Urbanitae and Wecity, with an initial contribution of 500 euros, and Civislend, which allows participation from 250 euros.

What a saver must clearly understand when opening positions for the first time in the real estate market, outside the asset they choose, is the need to find high-quality assets, both in terms of location and adaptation to the needs of the new times, whether homes, shops, offices, logistics hubs, or parking lots.