Everything happens at a dizzying speed. The apartment appears in the chat with its sales price, the estimated rent and the expected profitability that the investor will be able to obtain if he decides to purchase it. From there, every minute counts: interested parties send an email and say they want it – usually to rent it – based on the information the company sends them: square meters, rooms, area of the city in which it is located, year of construction, whether it needs any renovation, and the commissions to be paid to the intermediaries. Subsequently, the companies that offer them draw or call the candidates according to the order of requests. A few hours later, the operation is closed: property sold, the rest are informed.
This type of transaction has become popular in recent times on the Telegram application, where several companies operate that offer different weekly opportunities to investors, in groups open to all that reach around 15,000 members. The buyer usually does not see the house before buying it, and usually lives in another city, but here everything is based on numbers: if the profitability is adequate and the location convinces, the money comes quickly. Distance is not a problem: the new owners can delegate the management of the rental and renovation to the same people who sold it to them in exchange for a commission.
In a period of tense prices on the real estate market, this phenomenon fills a void. Thousands of small investors in Madrid, Barcelona or Valencia have seen how high house prices in their cities have reduced rental yields, which tend to be lower the nicer the area, because acquisition costs skyrocket.
The Valencian company Invernomics, created by Sergio Iranzo, was the pioneer. “Can’t find profitable properties in your city? Get instant access to investment opportunities with a minimum net profitability of 6%,” it advertises on its website. At the beginning its area of activity was only the Valencian Community, but now it also occasionally offers properties in Murcia or Jerez de la Frontera, which combine a growing demographic with much lower prices than in other latitudes. However, it is other medium-sized cities, such as Elche and Castellón, on the outskirts of Valencia, that are more actions of accommodation provided in recent months to these companies.
His latest apartment sold is in Grao, Castellón, and closed at 74,840 euros, including an Invernomics commission of 4,000 euros plus VAT. The promised rent was 630 euros, although this is the most conservative figure and is sometimes exceeded. However, if for some reason it falls below, Invernomics covers the difference, thus guaranteeing a profitability to the investor, in this case 8.8%. According to company data, since its inception it has carried out more than 450 operations, with an average rental profitability of 7.8% and over 40 million invested.
The houses sold on Telegram are usually located in popular neighborhoods, avoiding conflict zones, and their prices fluctuate between 50,000 and 100,000 euros, although after recent price increases they are increasingly closer to the latter figure. These are apartments that do not appear on Idealista: companies in the sector enter into agreements with real estate agencies to send them opportunities knowing that the sale will be quick and the volume will be high throughout the year. Furthermore, they did personal shoppers who are looking for properties, or lawyers who are attentive to what is happening: inheritances, divorces or any accident that pushes someone to want to sell the apartment quickly are the best news for bargain hunters.
NexiaProp, founded by the Catalan Germán Jover, joined this trend a little later, but already has more than 3,000 subscribers on Telegram. «On specific occasions we turn to Telegram when an opportunity arises that requires a very agile response, but we consider it more of a support tool than a sales channel», explains Jover, who underlines that his focus is on advising and guiding the customer during the process of purchasing, renovating and renting their home, not in the simple diffusion of advertisements.
Their claim is to support a way of investing that can be 100% passive, in which they take care of everything if the investor wants it, who does not have to answer annoying calls because the boiler has broken or humidity has appeared. Just wait for the income each month, as if it were a stock dividend.
In the midst of the debate on the difficulties in accessing housing, these activities arouse suspicion in a part of society, which considers these practices speculative and a factor influencing the increase in prices. Both Jover and Iranzo, very active on YouTube, instead defend doing what the Administration cannot do: increasing the supply of rental accommodation, and point out that in some cases these are apartments that have been empty for some time, or that need renovation to be habitable, so their return to the market represents a social benefit.
The success of platforms like Invernomics or NexiaProp in an ecosystem like Telegram, with no barriers to entry, has pushed new players to try to get a slice of the pie. And the complaints didn’t take long to arrive. «Paying to receive an apartment in chat is not the same as investing accompanied by a professional team of investors, lawyers and technicians who advise you and defend your interests from start to finish», compares Jover, who has a team of 15 people and this year has closed 170 operations.
A customer who prefers not to reveal his identity and who made the purchase through the company Compra1piso, with 10,500 subscribers, requests a full refund of the 4,840 euros paid in commission for a property purchased in Alzira (Valencia), claiming that it was not in the conditions indicated, with several damages to the kitchen.
Sources from the Compra1piso company limit the case to a commercial dispute, because the house came to them through a collaborator freelancer, and they assure that they cannot check the status of everyone they sell. “If you sign the deposit and you don’t see it, it’s your problem. The investment has a risk. It can go good or bad. We are the ones who sell the most, between 45 and 50 apartments a month, and the more you sell, the more accidents you have.”
The company defends that it returns the booking to those who go to see the apartment and then don’t like it, but this was not the case. And he believes that these are problems of people with no experience in the world of investments. “Many have started investing after watching videos on YouTube, it has become very fashionable, and there are people who do it for the first time without knowing what they are getting into. Some, if they are not happy, will even blackmail you by giving you negative reviews”, they say on the phone. “We have come to refuse those who want to invest with just 10 thousand euros, depending on whether they are granted a mortgage and a personal loan,” they add.
The latest apartment announced on their channel, this Monday, offered a house in Linares (Jaén), one of the cities with the most unemployment in Spain, for 53,600 euros, with an estimated rent of 600 euros per month, or a gross profitability of over 13%. They assure that with the return of Santana Motors to the municipality, rental demand will be high.
