«Before for some people it was just a Moor, now they see me as an Arab investor,» says Mohamed el Madani (BNI Gorfett, Morocco, 34 years old), sitting next to a blackboard full of unintelligible mathematical formulas for the common mortals. The headquarters of Urbanflip in the Madrid neighborhood of Salamanca smells at Start-Up, with young people stuck to constant screens and references to algorithms, technology and artificial intelligence. Its sector, however, cannot be older. Not only in age: also in their practices. «The real estate is still very local, very archaic and very opaque,» says Madani, aeronautical engineer and founder of the firm, determined to give a layer of modernity. His presence in command is almost a miracle. He did not step on a school until he arrived in Spain, with 10 years, and for a while he combined the books with stealing scrap with his father at dawn. «We were illiterate. Sometimes the police stopped us in an industrial estate in Humanes at three in the morning, and when he saw a father and two children aged 12-13, they wondered what they were doing there if in a while they had to be in school.» From that unstructured atmosphere he found the escape in the classrooms. «I was surprised that other children came crying to class,» he recalls from their first days. After receiving numerous study scholarships – «I am very grateful to Spain,» he says – that allowed him to also pursue a master's degree in aerospace engineering, where he obtained the maximum note, and a fleeting step through the bank, found his place in the real estate sector. Now, the environments that frequente have turned around: rare is the week when it does not meet with investors in search of placing their money in one of the best pieces of the Madrid street. Participate financing the works from 5,000 euros – almost a thousand so far, which on average usually contribute between 60,000 and 80,000 euros – and then obtain a return to that money that sometimes exceeds 30% annualized. To get there there is a previous job: its Machine Learning Barre tool Los Portales and detects the best opportunities. «Not only compares whether the square meter is cheaper than in its area, it also takes into account what plant is, because a first or second is not the same, which street gives the balcony, if you have an elevator …», says the Madani. The price can be very different if an extra room can be taken to the house. «A 100 -meter floor with two rooms and two bathrooms in the Salamanca neighborhood, you sell it for 500,000 euros more if you can get one more room,» he calculates. Or simply crossing the street in front. «In Castilian, the good sidewalk is the one that gives to the Bernabéu, but it depends on how height you are.» Once the machine does its job, the human factor comes into play. “The person does not show you the house, he sells his childhood. You have to have a lot You have to have some psychology to communicate an offer with a 10 or 20% discount on the price at which they want to sell it, ”he says.Mohamed el Madani, founder of Urbanflip. Pablo Mongea competition for the best opportunities is fierce. Those who are on the prowl know, so they are decided to decide purchases that exceed one million euros in a matter of minutes, only watching a video sent by a real estate. «We are behind the same floors. 80% of the opportunities are never published in the portals,» he says. Even so, many acquisitions are made in situ, making a huge screening. The Madani visited between January and July 2024 about 330 floors, many of which come through real estate or other channels that have it in a preferential list. The reformists know what type of qualities to place and that the work cannot extend beyond three or four months. Its product is focused above all to a final buyer profile with high purchasing power that seeks properties in the Barrio de Salamanca, Chamberí, Trafalgar or Almagro. Mexicans, Argentines and Brazilians are among their most common customers. Although the general perception is that prices in the housing market are boiling, Madani believes that his roof will still take to arrive. «The market will continue to go up. At least for the next three or four years I see a very clear climb.» To support his argument he cites the gap, still big, with Paris or London, which makes Madrid a market still affordable for international investors and buyers. «What is happening in Madrid is not a bubble. It is pure common sense. Every year it has more population,» he adds. The Community of Madrid exceeded a few months ago the seven million inhabitants, and there are already experts who believe it will exceed 10 million in the middle of this century. At a time of lack of housing, the debate about whether it is ethical that a basic good is also subject to investment survives the present. The Madani is aware that there are people who consider their activity as speculative, but defends it. “There are buildings in Malasaña, Sol or San Bernardo that fall apart. If a real estate investor and reforms are not taken, it is impossible for those homes to return to the market. There is great ignorance. We have bought homes that they had been without reforming 70 years and needed 200,000 euros of investment. If an individual buy a house without reform Morterate. ”For 2025, Urbanflip plans to invoice 50 million and invest around 80 million in the purchase of 40 homes and three buildings. Well above the 16 million of 2024. Your business, however, is just a leg – the most profitable – of a group, Urbanpath, in full expansion process, sometimes with acquisitions. «The vision is to create an ecosystem on a global scale that covers all the verticals of the real estate. What I ambition is that through that ecosystem any company in the sector has to pass,» says Madani.
