Ayuso's luxury penthouse receives no purchase offers: the auction remains deserted
The minister responsible for the operation justifies it with the excuse that it had to serve as "occasional accommodation for authorities"
MadridNo one wanted to buy Isabel Díaz Ayuso's luxury penthouse. The auction of the property has remained deserted, according to the documentation from Planifica Madrid, which was made known this Thursday. That the attempt to sell the controversial penthouse has been, for the moment, frustrated, became known a few minutes before the Minister of the Presidency, Miguel Ángel García Martín, who is the president of Planifica Madrid –the public company that acquired the property for 6.3 million euros and subsequently put it up for sale–, appeared at the plenary session of the Madrid Assembly this Thursday afternoon.
García Martín has defended the operation, under the gaze of Ayuso and with the warmth of the entire PP parliamentary group, and argued that it did have utility for the Community of Madrid even if it was a property for residential use. "It is never acquired to be an official residence for the president," he assured. The minister provided a document from July 2, almost a month before the scandal broke, which justifies the acquisition by the need to "have an institutional property with an area intended for a workplace, a rest area and occasional accommodation for authorities on official visits to the region or for the authorities of the Community of Madrid themselves".
The minister's was one of the most awaited parliamentary appointments after Ayuso appeared last week in the state of the region debate without giving additional explanations about the matter. It arrived amidst complaints because for days Més Madrid and the PSOE had been unsuccessfully demanding the documentation that García Martín has wielded to prepare the questions for the minister to whom the Madrid president passed the ball at the worst moment of the crisis. The socialist spokesperson in the regional chamber, Mar Espinar, accused him of "pulling their leg". Espinar wondered why the "report of needs" for the purchase is from July 2 when the operation took place in mid-April and recalled that, initially, the Madrid executive said it was intended exclusively for offices due to the works at the headquarters of the Puerta del Sol.
Use of fires
If the purchase of the property was correct and justified, why did the Community of Madrid decide to sell it without it ever being used just when it came to light that it had been acquired? The version given by García Martín is that they were "forced" to sell it to raise funds for the reconstruction of the areas affected by the fires in the Sierra de Madrid this summer. The opposition has questioned that the regional executive does not have enough budget to face the catastrophe to have to resort to this sale. Both the PSOE and Más Madrid have accused the minister of "using the tragedy to cover up his shame". "And now what, will you no longer rebuild the affected areas?", they have ironized about the fact that the auction has finally remained deserted and the penthouse has not been sold.
According to the Madrid councilor, the left has chased a "ghost" and "only wanted to manufacture a case" to cover up the "quagmire" of Pedro Sánchez's executive's management of the migration crisis in Ceuta. However, the content of the needs report does not fit with the first version given by Ayuso to justify the purchase, which was to temporarily relocate her offices during the renovation works of the Madrid Presidency headquarters at Puerta del Sol. That is to say, office use without mentioning this temporary residential purpose in circumstances such as a pandemic like Covid-19.
García Martín's explanations still leave questions unanswered. Why did the Community of Madrid buy a residential penthouse if it was supposedly for offices? For what reason was no property already in their portfolio chosen? Who ordered the purchase and for what real purpose? Why was the mid-April operation not publicized, which was finally uncovered by El País months later? The opposition to the left of the PP has turned this affair into the main weapon against Ayuso and they predict that this scandal will be her "epitaph". The Madrid president, on the other hand, tries to turn the page and vindicates her project ahead of the May 2027 elections.
The only apartment that is not for sale
Ayuso's government decided to include the penthouse in the sale of four properties it owns located on Madrid's Gran Via. The auction was divided into two lots, a first one with the Gran Via properties and a second one with the Chamberí penthouse. While the second one remained deserted, the Gran Via lot did receive a single valid offer of 11.8 million euros. García Martín has said that the 485-meter penthouse, 199 of which are terrace, will continue to be for sale.