The controversial real estate operation by the Community of Madrid to acquire a luxury penthouse without operational justification has added a new chapter of opacity. The government led by Isabel Díaz Ayuso has updated the conditions for the disposal of the controversial property in Chamberí – acquired in April through the public company Planifica Madrid – imposing an unusual restriction in the real estate market as potential buyers have not been and will not be able to visit the property before bidding on it.
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The measure, as La Vanguardia has been able to confirm, has been recorded in a clarifying document published on the regional contracting portal just days before the deadline for submitting offers, set for next September 7.
This latest obstacle in the sales process was revealed by El País, a newspaper to which lawyer Javier Flores – promoter of the case before the Court of Auditors – has described the procedure as a genuine “blind purchase.” Bidders, therefore, must commit to acquiring the apartment in its current state, but without the possibility of conducting a prior in-person inspection, a procedural paradox unusual for the sale of a public asset.
According to the bidding clauses, the starting price has also been set at 6.69 million euros, an amount that exceeds by 390,000 euros the sum the regional administration paid for the property just four months ago, and which the opposition has not hesitated to label as a speculative maneuver. “We already know that Ayuso’s government does not want to apply the housing law to control prices, but now it is directly speculating,” sources from the regional opposition have criticized.
The clarifying document has also served to specify the physical reality of a property marked by contradictions. Against the nearly 200 square meters of terrace officially registered, the regional government has certified that the outdoor space has been reduced to 99 square meters due to a covered extension made by the previous owners prior to the public transaction. With 481 square meters built, five bedrooms, and five bathrooms, the apartment on General Martínez Campos street – located in the same district where the regional president’s family environment resides – has gone from being advertised as a temporary office for the Regional Government Headquarters to appearing on the public auction market in an attempt to quell the political scandal.
Beyond the unusual blind sale formula, the file has uncovered a dense web of unanswered questions about the genesis of the operation. The acquisition of the property, formalized on April 14 for 6.3 million euros, remained hidden for months. The public company Planifica Madrid, attached to the Presidency Department headed by Miguel Ángel García Martín, omitted publishing the transaction on the transparency portal and did not include it in its annual accounts. A detailed analysis of the entity’s public agenda revealed that during April, May, June, and July the official activity of the entity came to an unprecedented standstill, with only a retrospective and succinct note “Notary signing” added for the date of the deed granting.
The justifications offered by the regional government have varied as details of the operation have emerged. Initially, Díaz Ayuso’s team argued that the residence would act as a provisional headquarters for the Presidency due to imminent remodeling works at the Royal Post Office. However, this motivation immediately clashed with urban legality, which prohibits administrative and office use in the property, which is strictly residential.
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The subsequent intervention of the Popular Party leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, placed informal talks in Sol in April about the need to find an alternative location for the president, coinciding in time with the notary signing. The use of the public company Planifica Madrid to channel the operation has allowed the regional government to avoid prior administrative controls, the oversight of the Intervention, and the mandatory authorization of the Government Council required by the direct administration’s patrimonial regime. Faced with the legal impossibility of allocating the apartment for institutional use, the Madrid government changed strategy and initiated the express sale justifying that the proceeds will be used to repair damage from forest fires in the Sierra Oeste.
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The inconsistencies of the file have definitively jumped from the political arena to the Madrid Court of Instruction number 8, where the case is already being investigated following initial complaints filed by three individuals, the PSOE, and the party Iustitia Europa. This Tuesday, the Madrid left took a joint step forward: both PSOE-M and Más Madrid have confirmed the submission of respective documents before the Court of Instance to appear as popular prosecution in the Preliminary Proceedings.
In their document, the socialists pointed out the existence of clear “indications of economic harm to public funds” and suggested that the rush to resell the property is nothing but a maneuver that reveals possible irregularities in the original purchase. PSOE senators, led by regional spokesperson Mar Espinar and PSOE-M secretary general Óscar López, have described the transparency gaps as “embarrassing” and pointed to the suspicion that the transaction actually sought to “provide a personal residence” for the regional leader.
For its part, Más Madrid joined the criminal process just one day after filing another independent complaint before the Court of Auditors for possible damage to public funds. The party has labeled the purchase as “opaque, shameful” and executed “without any adherence to the legally established procedure.”
At the doors of the judicial headquarters, both formations have targeted those responsible for Planifica Madrid and its Board of Directors, urging the Justice system to clarify whether senior regional government officials committed crimes of malfeasance and embezzlement by using 6.3 million euros of public money in an inaccessible purchase that the government itself now tries to dispose of blindly.
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