The concentration of the banking sector in recent years has worried real estate promoters because the fewer the institutions, the greater the theoretical difficulty they encounter in obtaining the so-called development credit, the one granted to undertake construction work. In recent weeks, however, several sources in the real estate sector have revealed that CaixaBank, far from a contraction, is accelerating in granting this type of credit.
From the Catalan entity they confirm CinqueGiorni This year, the granting of this type of loan has so far reached 2.9 billion, or 46% more than the previous year. This figure is even 16% higher than the 2,490 million that the institution granted to real estate companies in the entire year 2024. In the last year, the bank had signed 403 operations, with a growth of 12.2%.
Precisely according to the data collected by this newspaper in 2024, CaixaBank was already, together with Santander, the bank that allocated the most, with a financing forecast of 2.5 billion for both institutions in the last year. They were ahead of Sabadell (1,500 million), BBVA (1,500 million), Ibercaja (800), Unicaja (500) and Kutxabank (400).
“For CaixaBank, supporting this sector is essential to help revive the real estate market in Spain, which currently suffers from a significant supply deficit, especially in the affordable housing sector,” banking sources explain why the entity, which has Gonzalo Gortazar as CEO, has increased its exposure to the brick and mortar.
Regarding this real estate deficit, CaixaBank published a report a few weeks ago in which it calculated that since the net creation of homes is greater than visas for new construction (similar to building permits), a deficit of up to 765,000 homes has accumulated since 2021. This shortage also explains up to 39% of the increase in home prices, according to this study.
The developer mortgage loan is what real estate agencies receive when they have land and need to undertake construction. This house construction business consumes a lot of capital, which is why bank financing is necessary. For example, for each property of 100 houses, the development company would need around 30 million for the works, indicates Jorge Ginés, general director of Asprima, the Madrid developers association. “Since Basel 3, banks are very penalized when they grant loans to developers, because it is considered a risky activity, so the capital consumption of the loan is very high. However, institutions see it favorably because insolvency tends towards zero,” explains Ginés.
What has changed since the times of the real estate bubble is that banks have significantly reduced their exposure to brick and mortar, since much less is being built in Spain (in 2006 there were almost 600,000 houses per year) and, furthermore, institutions have generally stopped financing the purchase of land.
In recent years there has been talk that banking concentration could limit these credits. In fact, alternative financial institutions are being created, which are partially replacing banks or in the early stages of marketing homes. Among these new financiers stand out names such as Terrano Capital, Stronghold, Stoneweg, Xenia, Frux, Engel & Volkers Finance, Incus, Urbanitae or Cheyne.
However, the general director of Asprima believes that, although a greater number of banks would favor greater competitiveness, the real estate sector has no problems in financing itself taking into account the number of houses built every year, which is around 100,000 houses throughout Spain. “The balance sheets of current financial entities are sufficiently solvent that if there was greater scale or production, they would respond,” he believes.
In fact, Ginés believes that, even if production increased significantly, financial institutions would be interested in increasing their budgets for these products. “The feeling I have is that because the risk is very small, with the demand very high, they would put in the necessary amount.”
The head of the real estate association indicates that Caixabank’s growth rate in this sector is probably due to three factors. The first, that in general this sector is building more in 2025 than in previous years. The second is that perhaps the bank is gaining market share compared to other institutions and, finally, that new construction has also become more expensive, so if more expensive houses are built, greater capital consumption is required.
