€1 Billion Gov't Properties for Sale

 

In a frantic scramble to reduce escalating debts and a growing budget deficit, a number of Spain's autonomous regions have made significant, if not short-sighted, moves to get their finances back on track.

As Central government is battling to reduce the national deficit from 9.2% of GDP in 2010 to 6% for 2011, it is making demand on the regions to do their bit to curb public spending and cut costs.

As such two of the largest and wealthiest regions – Catalonia and Andalusia – are looking at ways to sell off a number of significant government-owned buildings to private buyers. Redundancies in a number of departments have resulted in an excess of office space, which means that departments can be consolidated. It is proposed that in certain cases any office space that it required can be leased back from the new owners.

This measure is expected to raise just under 1 Billion Euros in revenue across the two regions and result in savings for the maintenance and running costs of the buildings.

Of the 37 individual properties proposed for sale in Catalonia, key properties include the Barcelona stock market on Paseo de Gracia, Spain's fourth-most expensive commercial street, as well as the Catalan Agriculture Ministry on Gran Via.

Andalusia is proposing the sale of 76 properties including the cultural department in Granada and a number of youth centers in Malaga.