Interview: Cat Real Estate's commitment to proptech

This article was written and published in Spanish and has been translated into English via Google Translate. Click here to read the original article.

Real estate professionals love a moment where the digital transformation pressures them to change their work processes. They are called proptech. Not all real estate companies have made the chip change. But this is not the case of Nacho Castella, who has launched Cat Real Proptech the first real estate incubator.

Being a real estate professional in Spain is like being a risky athlete, as if driving a raft in a river of turbulent waters. But there are very long rivers, with wilder sections and others with very gentle waters, though you always have to row hard to stay afloat. Nacho Castella knows this, a real estate professional with more than twenty years of experience in the sector. After offering his talent and work in Busquets Gálvez and in Landscape (real estate subsidiary of Banc Sabadell), Castella decided to start paddling alone and in 2000 he promoted the birth of Cat Real Estate, a real estate company whose objective was to manage family assets of Famillies Offices and Private Investors.

Nowadays Cat Real Estate is a referential real estate in Barcelona and it begins to make its way in Madrid. During these more than fifteen years of activity, Cat Real Estate has been growing and diversifying its product portfolio. Now Cat Real Estate is becoming strong in the market of premises and offices, but without forgetting the market variant of free housing in Barcelona.

Nacho Castella has not lost his entrepreneurial spirit and analyzing the sector has seen a golden opportunity in the thriving sector of the proptech. Thus, Castella has created its own real estate incubator to be able to create small startups that help users in several of the home search processes. This is Cat Real Proptech and there are already three projects born from this incubator: Melibero, which sells homes without commissions; Rentando, dedicated to the management of online rentals at low prices and Yourhoming Apartments, manager of tourist apartments on a seasonal basis.

Yaencontre: You are a real estate group that both manage family assets as you dedicate to the sale of exclusive properties or offices. But really in which you are strong in Cat Real Estate?

Nacho Castella: Our core business is the investment in commercial premises in profitability in the prime areas of Barcelona and Madrid. In the last four years we have bought 50 stores.

YE: So, are you also in Madrid?

NC: We do not have our own offices in Madrid. But that does not mean that we are really active in the capital. We have stores bought in Fuencarral, Lagasca, or Príncipe de Vergara. And right now we are looking for the new headquarters of a training school of 2,000 m2 for rent.

YE: But it is Barcelona where you close the majority of real estate transactions. How do you see the home buying and selling sector in Barcelona?

NC: The sector is active with a prominent presence of local investors. International investors are more slowed down. The prices are reaching their limit so in our opinion they will stabilize and in the non-prime areas can be corrected something downward.

YE: But apparently your strength lies in commercial assets (premises and offices). What time does the office real estate market live?

NC: The office market in Barcelona is experiencing an exceptional moment. The city is a hive of start ups and tech companies that are filling all the buildings. It is a good time to buy offices in Barcelona. Several of the buildings that we manage have the full sign and waiting list.

YE: With 15 years of life of Cat Real Estate you have suffered a crisis, you have grown and you have been changing your goals, right?

NC: No doubt we have suffered, having good times and bad. We have always been clear that this was a long-term career. In the end, our goal has always been the same: to give the best service to customers.

YE: How has the evolution of Cat Real Estate been over the years? When is the company now? What are the forecasts for this 2019?

NC: The evolution of Cat Real Estate has been very good. Since our beginnings in the year 2000 we have closed property purchase and sale operations for 250 million euros and we currently manage private equity worth 650 million euros. These years we have intermediated operations worth 48 million euros and our goal for this 2019 is to exceed 50 million.

A real estate incubator

Nacho Castella is connected to the reality of its environment and a few years ago until now has seen as in the sector have added different platforms offering all kinds of real estate services based on disruptive technologies. They are the revolutionary Proptech. Castella tried to invest in a start up, but the experience was not quite right. But he has not given up.

YE: Now you have decided to take a leap of risk and have created Cat Real Estate Proptech, the incubator of digital startups in the real estate sector. Where does the idea of ​​creating an incubator of this type come from? What is the purpose of this incubator?

NC: Three years ago we invested in a start up and we were quite dissatisfied. The money burned easily. So we decided to create the projects from our office, in the initial phase (seed) and co-invest from the beginning. It's our #proptech incubator.

YE: In the incubator there are already three projects that are being developed: Melibero, Rentando and YourHoming. What are they about? Where did they come from?

NC: Yourhoming, the first startup and the most advanced, is a technological company specializing in the management of medium-stay apartments, or as we announced on the web, "Apartments in Barcelona for monthly stays". Melibero is a new concept of selling a flat with a fixed fee, saving you an average of 6,000 euros in commissions for the sale of your home, and Rentando is a low cost asset manager, which helps you rent your properties saving time and money in an effective way. In all three cases, the entire online service is prioritized.

YE: You are in full round of financing, with the intention of collecting 200,000 euros from new investors, who will take 25% of the company's share capital. How's it going?

NC: We are in negotiations with three groups for the Yourhoming round. We prioritize that the new partner can be from the sector and that he contributes flats to the project.

YE: How is the process to create a start up in your incubator? If I have an idea, do I present it to you and develop it? Or are all start-ups born from you and your team?

NC: Exactly, in fact we are already studying two new projects that have arrived to us. We want to close 2019 with 5 startups in operation.

YE: Is the revolution of the prophech so vaunted based or can it end up being a fad?

NC: They are here to stay, the real estate market should evolve. Who is not inove is dead.

YE: The socimis and large investment funds have set their objectives in Spain. How do you see its emergence in the real estate market? Can you compete?

NC: They are not our competitors, they go to bigger operations. They play in the Champions, and we in a lower division. It's already good for us. We are dedicated to a more local market and the average amount of our operations is over one million euros.

YE: What is the future of Cat Real Estate?

NC: The future is to continue working on what we like, prioritizing our customers. We want to continue growing but always maintaining our values ​​and with prudence.

This article was written and published in Spanish and has been translated into English via Google Translate. Click here to read the original article.

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