Cemeteries, gas stations and nightclubs no longer devalue the property: “It doesn’t matter if they put a nuclear power plant next door, the apartment will be sold”

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By TP

The pamphlet, a crumpled, handwritten piece of paper placed between the bars of the door of portal number 11 on Comandante Fontanes street, just 10 metres from the British cemetery near Marqués de Vadillo, reads as follows: “I am looking for a flat for sale, the condition does not matter to me. Up to 300,000 euros. Signed: Almudena.” Despite the homely appearance of the advert, the real interested party is a real estate agency based on the nearby General Ricardos street, in the Carabanchel district. “We do it this way because there is nothing for sale,” they declare when questioned about the method. In the entire Marqués de Vadillo area, according to Samuel Nicolás, a 23-year-old real estate agent in the area and former ice hockey coach, the proliferation of this type of home buying and selling company “is crazy.” “It is savage competition for buyers. In the neighbourhood there are currently 18 flats for sale and around 2,800 applicants,” she confirms after consulting the latest updated data available on the office computer. Almudena’s rigged message denotes, on the one hand, the desperation of real estate agents to find out before anyone else about any small square metre of habitable space that is to be sold, and on the other, that at this moment, the lack of supply is such that even the smallest misery that comes onto the market, however poor it may be, will end up being sold without the price of the property being affected. The real estate evolution is explained by Lucía Aguirre de Carcer, an expert in appraisals and valuations from the consultancy firm in official appraisals and expert reports Aguirre & Baeza, who explains how there are various landmarks or infrastructures, colloquially known as “special neighbours” that have a negative impact on the value of the property. “One of the most important factors would be proximity to a cemetery, associated with death or mourning, which could reduce the price by up to 20%. In Madrid, you have the Almudena, San Isidro, Británico and San Lorenzo cemeteries, embedded in the heart of Carabanchel,” he explains. “In addition, petrol stations, perceived as a risk of fires and explosions, or high-tension lines, are physical factors that could reduce the price by between 5 and 15%. The M-30, for example, has reduced the price of housing facing the ring road by more than 10% for years due to noise,” he adds. “The problem is that right now, especially in gentrified cities like Madrid, there are so few homes for sale on the market that these negative factors, which should be important reasons when choosing a home for your entire life, end up not being taken into account as much due to the desperation to find a home and their impact on price is reduced,” he concludes.
Houses next to the M-30 on Calle Rafael Bergamín. David ExpósitoWhat has the most impact is what happens closest to you. To not miss anything, subscribe.CONTINUE READINGAfter his first 8 months in the business, Samuel boasts, still surprised, of the most bizarre sale he has participated in to date. One hundred meters from Madrid Río, on Calle Jacinto Verdaguer, a first floor of 70 useful square meters without renovation, where all the rooms and part of the living room look out onto an old gas station and the rest onto a children's park taken day and night by people drinking alcohol on the benches. —What do you do to sell when there are such unfavorable conditions? —You tell them the good things first. Then, when they tell you the bad ones, you try to take them to your own land. You tell them that the gas station is hardly used, that these people will only be there two or three months a year… In the end, the house was sold for around 280,000 euros, practically the initial price set by the owner. “Of course, it took more than a hundred visits, whereas the average is usually 15. It was a mess. But the value hardly decreased,” Samuel recalls.A real estate agent works inside an office on General Ricardos Street.
An estate agent works inside an office on General Ricardos Street. David Expósito The noise of the workers, already immersed in the renovation of the building, can be heard behind the entrance door. One floor above, Óscar Jiménez, 45, is surprised from the kitchen by the price that his own home could reach despite the view he has on his doorstep. “Don’t forget to note that there is also a giant high-tension pole. That really scares us because of the proximity of the gas station, that one day sparks will fly and it will explode,” he says before his son interrupts him: “Look, Dad. Some drunks peeing.” “We don’t know which way to go. We are looking for a bigger house, but we don’t want to sell, they say it is better to leave the one you have for rent, in the block they go up to 1,400 euros.” We would like to go to Arganzuela, cross to the other side of the river, but the prices are not only prohibitive, but you can't even find anything affordable here in this same area. The situation forces you to move further and further away from the centre,» says Jiménez, a civil servant like his wife. «We recently looked at some nearby on Calle de la Verdad, opposite the San Lorenzo cemetery. The ones that lead to the tombs don't interest me, I looked at the prices out of curiosity and I was surprised that they hardly changed unless you compare them with some housing estate. I don't understand it,» he says. «My conclusion is that we can hardly decide, you buy whatever there is and the problems around you will see later how they are solved, if they are solved,» he concludes before his eldest son interrupts him again for the gold medal in the mixed relay race.Gas station embedded between blocks of flats on Joaquín Verdaguer Street, near Marqués de Vadillo.
Gas station embedded between blocks of flats on Joaquín Verdaguer street, near Marqués de Vadillo. David Expósito

Expelled from Arganzuela

“Here we are freaking out about how the bubble is inflating and how prices are not going down. They say it is going to burst, but it never happens,” says Diego Gómez, 30, who is in charge of the Redpiso office located a hundred metres from Atocha, on Paseo de Santa María de la Cabeza, from the other side of the river. “Last month we sold one next to Repsol, which is opposite. It cost us more, the Chinese buyers who are currently on the rise here did not want it because of the petrol station, but it was sold, for 520,000 euros. There will come a time when it doesn’t matter if they put a nuclear power station next door, the flat will be sold,” he reflects. “It is clear that this is no longer going to be a place for the neighbours here. People will go down and move away from Atocha, from Arganzuela, from the Manzanares river,” he says.The inner courtyard of a block of flats embedded inside a petrol station on the Prague Bridge, on Paseo de Santa María de la Cabeza.
The inner courtyard of a block of flats embedded inside a petrol station on Puente de Praga, on Paseo de Santa María de la Cabeza. David ExpósitoJorge Quintana Villanueva, 35, gets up from his seat annoyed when he hears his Gilmar colleagues discussing the price per square metre in Arganzuela set by the property portal Idealista, which put it at 4,957 euros in July. “It’s not real, they lump together hovels and penthouses. The price of things is what you pay for them,” he explains. And he gives an example. “Look, not long ago a 60-metre flat with a room in the block next door to the Villanos hall (formerly the Caracol hall) was sold for 305,000 euros after an initial price of 310,000. Do you think it’s worth it with concerts next door every week? Well, it’s worth it because they buy it. In a week it was sold. There were about 40 visits and four willing buyers. The mortgage aid feeds the monster,» he says. —So, to live in Madrid, you can't choose how or where, right? —Do you want two rooms, a bathroom and still be 700 meters from the Reina Sofia? Then no.Interior of the British cemetery in the Carabanchel neighborhood where its walls adjoin homes.
Inside the British cemetery in the Carabanchel neighbourhood, where its walls adjoin houses. David ExpósitoBack at the British cemetery, the hum of a neighbour's radio stretching in the kitchen window mixes with the sound of Francisco Eguibar's digital camera, aged 66. The graves of British citizens who have been buried there since 1850 because they could not be buried in Madrid's Catholic cemeteries coexist, wall to wall, with the interior courtyards of low houses or four-storey blocks with privileged views of the deceased. Eguibar, a recently retired administrative official, moves through these narrow paths of the cemetery like a fish in water. A winged clock in one of the corners of the enclosure catches his attention. When he looks up from the symbol that Eguibar considers to be «the breath, the ephemeral nature of life, the demonstration that we are here in passing», he notices the clothes hanging on the wall. “They live so close,” he says. “And you, would you live next door?” “I do because I can’t afford it. I would love to. I wouldn’t mind sleeping inside either, it’s where you’ll be coolest and calmest. The danger is out there. Subscribe here to our newsletter about Madrid, published every Tuesday and Friday.