The sale of the luxury penthouse acquired by the Community of Madrid has not quelled the controversy; on the contrary, it has fueled it. Every new detail about the purchase process calls into question the official narrative offered so far by Isabel Díaz Ayuso’s Government. The latest revelation places the origin of the operation months before the signing. According to El País, between January and March of this year, Planifica Madrid was tasked with finding an apartment between 250 and 400 square meters with “a large terrace” in Chamberí or its surroundings. At no point in that assignment was it specified that the property had to house offices. The penthouse that the public company would end up buying on April 14 had been listed since January 31 for 6.6 million euros.
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This detail contradicts the version maintained throughout the summer by the Government team. It is worth recalling that the Executive justified the investment of 6.3 million euros by claiming that the apartment would serve as temporary support while works were carried out at the regional headquarters in Puerta del Sol. However, the property on General Martínez Campos boulevard has residential use, and municipal regulations prohibit offices on that floor. Added to this is the choice of intermediary, a real estate agency from La Moraleja focused on the high-end residential market and unrelated to the marketing of corporate headquarters.
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The purchase sequence moves away from the thesis of ordinary asset management. Planifica Madrid not only discarded a first option on Pintor Rosales boulevard, about 350 square meters with a 200-square-meter terrace, offered for four million euros, but ended up opting for a residence two million more expensive. According to El País, the penthouse on General Martínez Campos had 485 square meters and almost 200 of terrace and started at a price of 6.6 million. The negotiation allowed closing the deal at 6.3 million and lasted approximately a month and a half before the signing of the deed on April 14.
The chronology is especially revealing because the search and negotiation preceded the public justification of the purchase as a temporary need for office space for the Government. The public company also operated in an area where Ayuso has usually lived and just meters from her family environment. No one in the regional Government has yet clarified who gave the order or why the search was delegated to a public entity whose activity in recent years has been mainly focused on urban development projects and unique acquisitions.
The fact that the fire is far from being extinguished is largely due to the national dimension it has reached within the Popular Party itself. When the president’s team intended to close the matter with a “case closed” shout, Alberto Núñez Feijóo reopened the breach. In an interview with Europa Press, he admitted knowing since April about the Madrid Government’s temporary relocation needs but voiced a particularly uncomfortable doubt for the management of his own baroness. “Patrimonio will have to explain why it bought a penthouse that cannot be used as an office.”
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Feijóo’s intervention is significant because it keeps open a controversy that Ayuso was trying to close and shifts all the pressure to the Madrid Government itself. The PP leader has accepted the explanations about the need for a temporary move due to the Sol works but has demanded that Patrimonio clarify why a property that cannot be used as an office was acquired.
With an eye on the start of the political session in the Madrid Assembly, the opposition —Más Madrid and PSOE— has demanded the complete file and questions the appearance of the Minister of the Presidency and president of Planifica Madrid, Miguel Ángel García Martín, who has requested it voluntarily. The minister has been pointed out by Ayuso herself as the one who has detailed information about the operation and will have to explain the public company’s asset management before the Assembly.
The argument of the Minister of Economy, Rocío Albert, who has described the explanations offered by the regional Government as “conclusive” and maintained that there is no need to keep discussing the matter, is also unconvincing. The closing strategy coincides, however, with the emergence of new data about an operation that still does not clarify who ordered the search, why those characteristics were set, why a real estate agency specialized in luxury homes was used, and why a residential property was ultimately purchased that the PP leader himself admits cannot be used as an office.
The problem for Ayuso is no longer just explaining why the penthouse was bought. It is explaining why a property with those characteristics was sought and how that search fits with the justification offered afterward.
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