JLL expands debt advisory business into Spain

JLL has recruited a new national director to establish a debt advisory business in Spain.

Jorge Valenzuela Requena has been recruited from Hill International, the project and construction management business where he was business development director

Requena’s role will be to help investors in the country to get the best possible financing terms and prepare financing proposals as part of sales information as well as to offer deals that JLL is involved with on the transaction advisory side to banks and lenders.

He has previously held roles at Rheinhyp, (now HypothekenBank Frankfurt), Westdeutsche ImmobilienBank and Bank of Scotland (now part of Lloyds Group) and hasparticipated in the origination, structuring and closing on transactions in excess of €2.8bn in Spain and throughout Europe.

Requena told Real Estate Capital: “There is huge investor appetite in Spain, not only from distressed funds, but also institutional investors. The market in Spain has radically changed in the last year. The economy has begun to recover and there is a notable liquidity pressure from funds to invest.

“In Spain the bank debt for real estate is still scarce and selective, but with an improving trend. Some debt funds and insurance platforms have entered the market, most of them looking for short term high yields and there is strong competition between lenders to finance the best deals.There is still no access to debt for new developments, but we expect this will begin to change in 2015.”

He will become part of the 18-strong debt advisory team led from London by Chris Holmes, the former managing director of structured real estate finance at UniCredit who joined the firm in September last year. The team has staff in France, Germany, Poland, Sweden and Russia.