Sources told Bloomberg that Blackstone Group was making a bid for 1,458 housing units put up for sale by the regional government of Madrid. In July, the world's largest private equity firm agreed to acquire 18 apartment blocks in Madrid worth EUR 125.5 million or USD 173 million. Blackstone would be vying with other investors, including the Goldman Sachs Group Inc which was on the hunt for low-cost apartments in bulk as property prices fell by 40%. Spanish local governments, on the other hand, were looking to divest its assets in order to reduce their deficits.
According to a report by Bloomberg, Blackstone would be using its US experience to set up a similar rental home business in Spain. Blackstone Senior Managing Director of Real Estate Anthony Myers said, "Building a business from scratch without a single employee and buying something like $150 million in homes per week requires a learning process. When we looked at the situation in Spain, we thought we could see something similar, where we could replicate a lot of the systems and technology that we created in the U.S."
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