The financial business of tourism does not stop in the south of Gran Canaria. The funds continue to focus on Maspalomas due to the investment facilities in the economic capital of the Canary Islands. Bestinver, owned by Acciona, has committed 150 million euros to go shopping in the south of Gran Canaria with a fund called Smart Living Properties for the flexible rental segment without long-term commitments. In the south of Gran Canaria, with the help of SmartRental Group, it hopes to add at least 300 rooms.
Bestinver enters the south of Gran Canaria, adding to the forecasts for purchases of complexes already in the negotiation phase with SmartRental Group, a SOCIMI specialized in the hotel sector. Enrique Sánchez-Rey, director of Real Estate funds at Bestinver, has begun to analyze the purchase proposals that SmartRental Group had in its portfolio in its idea of "new types of accommodation models that seek to create versatile spaces, equipped with services and focused in creating community". The problem of the south of Gran Canaria, however, is twofold: the presence of residents of Las Palmas in complexes to live when the norm says that they must dedicate themselves to regulated tourist exploitation and the disaster of the shopping centers that surround the complexes, which are obsolete and are a commercial failure because the community members do not want to invest. This is being an ordeal for the banks, which cannot find space to finance operations.
SmartRental Group set its goal in 2024 to start a powerful growth plan in the south of Gran Canaria, in accordance with the thesis of Carlos Escoda, CEO of the group, with the idea of growing in the housing sector to "update the offer hotel industry and provide new direction to many of the assets currently managed by independent operators.
In July 2023, Bestinver launched the private equity area by signing a strategic agreement with BlackRock to bring new diversified private equity investment solutions to investors in Spain, as well as in markets such as Portugal and Andorra. The manager then announced the incorporation of Francisco Casal-Ribeiro as a product specialist in Bestinver's new Private Equity area.
