The Government of Isabel Díaz Ayuso once again finds itself without a buyer for the luxury penthouse it acquired for 6.3 million euros of public money in Chamberí. The second deadline to submit offers ended on Wednesday, October 21, with no one interested in buying it under the required conditions. The property now goes to permanent public offer, a formula that allows it to remain for sale indefinitely without publishing new calls.
The procedure documentation states that no offer has been submitted and that the board has agreed to propose that the process be declared void. The tender already contemplated that, upon the deadline ending without an award, the sale would remain open until a buyer was found or until Planifica Madrid, the public company that owns the property, decided to withdraw it.
The economic conditions remain. The minimum price is still 6,694,201 euros, not including sales taxes, and proposals must match or exceed that amount. The tender establishes reviews of offers in fifteen-day periods and prioritizes the best price; in case of a tie, the proposal submitted earlier will have preference.
The first attempt to sell opened on August 7 and ended on September 7, also without offers. Planifica Madrid published the second call on September 21, with another month to receive proposals. In contrast, the building at Gran Vía 6, which went on the market in the first process along with the penthouse, was awarded to Cartesón, S.L. for 11,850,010 euros.
The versions about the controversial purchase
The operation began in April, when Planifica Madrid, attached to the Ministry of the Presidency, bought the property at Paseo del General Martínez Campos, 35. The penthouse, about 485 square meters, was initially presented as a temporary office for the president during the works of the Real Casa de Correos, headquarters of the regional Executive in Puerta del Sol. However, its urban use was residential, which prevented it from being used as offices in the announced terms.
Afterwards, other explanations arrived. In September, the Minister of the Presidency and Government spokesman, Miguel Ángel García Martín, defended that they were looking for an institutional property with space for work, rest and "occasional accommodation" for authorities visiting Madrid or for the regional authorities themselves. The Community has denied that it was purchased as Ayuso's official residence, who visited the property after its acquisition.
The project also included the regional administration renting the penthouse to its own public company for 3,000 euros a month, 36,000 a year. That contract was eventually annulled to try to sell the property after the purchase became known at the end of July. The Delegated Intervention of the Treasury warned that the file did not sufficiently develop the need and suitability of the operation nor the comparison with other properties, although it issued a favorable report that allowed the processing to continue.
The publication of a dossier of more than 200 pages also did not clarify who promoted the search or why that penthouse was chosen. These are two of the questions that have led the opposition to demand explanations about the acquisition and the controls applied before disbursing the 6.3 million. Now, after two failed attempts to sell, the property remains in the assets of Planifica Madrid.
The complaints and the new office
The second commercial failure is known in the same week in which the Community has asked the Court of Accounts to archive the complaints from the PSOE and Más Madrid. The auditing body had requested the opinion of the Public Prosecutor's Office, the regional Executive and Planifica Madrid before deciding whether to appoint an instructor to examine a possible harm to public funds. The socialists have also demanded an investigation into the actions of the company's CEO, Pedro Corbalán.
The regional government maintains that the purchase "fully complies with legality" and that "it does not entail economic deterioration" for public coffers. It defends that Planifica Madrid acted within its competencies and that the price corresponded to the market valuation. In the criminal sphere, the judge who received the complaints in Madrid asked the Public Prosecutor's Office to report on the court's jurisdiction; separately, the Supreme Prosecutor's Office archived in September the complaints of three individuals against Ayuso, considering the elements provided to attribute crimes to her insufficient.
While trying to sell the home, the Executive has found an alternative for the president's office in dependencies of the Canal de Isabel II. On Tuesday, her entourage linked the search for another location to the security conditions in Sol due to the housing encampment. A day later, García Martín attributed the move to the works and maintenance work at the presidential headquarters.
The availability of these public facilities has led the opposition to ask why a 6.3 million penthouse was bought if other alternatives existed. The counselor responded that a property had been sought for different needs of the ministries and to avoid occupying buildings with installed workers. Regarding the Chamberí home, he ruled out recovering it for that transfer. "That property is for sale and is no longer an alternative to that occasional office for the president and her team," he stated.
