Ayuso's luxury penthouse receives no purchase offers: the auction remains deserted

MadridNo one wanted to buy Isabel Díaz Ayuso's luxury penthouse. The auction for the property has remained vacant, according to the documentation that Planifica Madrid, the public company responsible for the operation, made public this Thursday. The fact that the attempt to sell the controversial penthouse has been, for the moment, frustrated, was learned 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 this Thursday afternoon's plenary session.

García Martín has defended the operation, under Ayuso's gaze and with the warmth of the entire PP parliamentary group, and argued that it did have utility for the Community of Madrid even though 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 due to the need to "have an institutional property with an area intended for a workplace, a rest area, and occasional accommodation for authorities on an official visit to the region or for the authorities of the Community of Madrid themselves".

The minister's was another of the most anticipated parliamentary appointments, which comes amidst complaints from Més Madrid and the PSOE due to the fact that they had not been provided with this documentation before the appearance. They had been demanding it for days to prepare questions for the minister to whom the Madrid president passed the ball at the worst moment of the crisis. The socialist spokesperson in the autonomous chamber, Mar Espinar, accused him of "pulling their leg". Espinar wondered why the economic report 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 during the works at the Puerta del Sol headquarters.

After Ayuso gave no additional explanation in the state of the region debate at the end of last week—the Madrid PP maintains that enough explanations have already been given—, García Martín faces the unknowns that still remain to be resolved. The official explanation that Ayuso's executive has given so far is that the purchase of the luxury penthouse was not intended to be the residence of the Madrid president but was to temporarily relocate her offices during the renovation works of the Madrid Presidency headquarters at the Puerta del Sol. 6.3 million public euros were spent on the 485-meter property, of which 199 were terrace.

However, why did the Community of Madrid buy a residential penthouse if it was supposedly for offices? For what reason was a property that they already had in their portfolio not chosen? Who ordered the purchase and for what real purpose? Why was no publicity given to the mid-April operation, 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 claims her project for 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 owned by it located on Gran Via in Madrid. The auction was divided into two lots, a first one with the properties on Gran Via 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.