Budapest Post

Cum Deo pro Patria et Libertate
Budapest, Europe and world news

Secrets to billionaire Zara founder’s US$11 billion property empire … steer clear of housing real estate

Amancio Ortega currently owns property in nine countries: Britain, Canada, France, Italy, Mexico, Portugal, South Korea, Spain and the United States. His portfolio is mostly made up of offices and shops, as well as some hotels

Spanish billionaire Amancio Ortega, the founder of clothing giant Zara, has built up a global real estate empire that includes offices used by Facebook and Amazon in Seattle and large swathes of London’s Oxford Street.

Diversifying his fashion fortune to preserve his sizeable wealth, the value of the real estate portfolio owned by Ortega’s investment holding Pontegadea Inversiones stood at around €10 billion euros ($11 billion) at the end of last year.

Pontegadea collects almost all of the dividends which Ortega earns – €1.6 billion in 2019 – and then reinvests the money in real estate, a spokesman for the holding firm said.

The 83-year-old stepped down as chairman of Inditex, the owner of Zara, in 2011 but he still owns 59 per cent of the world’s biggest fashion retailer, which also owns other popular fashion brands like Massimo Dutti and Bershka.

He is currently the world’s sixth richest person, according to Forbes.

His latest major real estate purchases came earlier this month when Pontegadea bought an office building used by Facebook in Seattle for US$415 million as well as the “Troy Block” complex in the same city which houses part of Amazon’s headquarters for US$740 million.

It is “normal” for entrepreneurs with a lot of capital to set up an investment fund to manage the cash to “diversify and preserve” the fortune by building a “refuge” from stock market fluctuations, Juan Carlos Amaro, a professor of finance at the Esade business school in Barcelona, said.

Ortega, who founded fast-fashion giant Zara with his ex-wife Rosalia in 1975 in Spain’s northwestern region of Galicia, fiercely guards his privacy and is known for being a prudent investor.

Analysts said he was targeting real estate as a long term investment, not to speculate.

“It is a very conservative activity which was chosen, not for its great profitability but because it is sufficiently stable,” a Pontegadea spokesman said.

Ortega steers clear of housing real estate, which is potentially more profitable but has a bad reputation after a property bubble burst in the late 2000s, triggering a prolonged recession.

His portfolio is mostly made up of offices and shops, as well as some hotels.

In addition to owning several buildings in Madrid and Barcelona, Ortega has become the main real estate proprietor of London’s Oxford Street, Europe’s busiest shopping street.

In Paris he owns the building that houses Apple’s flagship store as well as a commercial building on the Champs-Elysee avenue.

Ortega only buys property “in the capitals of major countries that are stable”, preferably in prestigious neighbourhoods, the Pontagadea spokesman said.

He also favours “top category tenants with good solvability”, with a preference for major multinationals, said Rafael Sambola, a professor Barcelona’s Eada business school who has authored several books on finance and accounting.

Ortega has found it easy to meet his criteria in the United States: in recent years he has snapped up properties in Miami, San Francisco, New York and Washington in addition to Seattle.

“I think he wants to have a diversification of exchange rates” to protect himself for possible setbacks with the euro or the pound, said Manuel Romera, the director of the finance department at Madrid’s IE business school.

Ortega currently owns property in nine countries: Britain, Canada, France, Italy, Mexico, Portugal, South Korea, Spain and the United States.

The rent he collects from these buildings – €405 million (US$447,577) in 2018 – are immediately reinvested in Pontegadea, according to the holding.

The Zara owner is not afraid to rent buildings to rival clothing such as Primark, which occupies one of his properties on Madrid’s high street.

Last year Pontegedea made a rare venture outside real estate, snapping up 10 per cent of Telxius, Spanish telecoms giant Telefonica’s subsidiary which provides telephone towers and fibre networks in Europe and Latin America.

AI Disclaimer: An advanced artificial intelligence (AI) system generated the content of this page on its own. This innovative technology conducts extensive research from a variety of reliable sources, performs rigorous fact-checking and verification, cleans up and balances biased or manipulated content, and presents a minimal factual summary that is just enough yet essential for you to function as an informed and educated citizen. Please keep in mind, however, that this system is an evolving technology, and as a result, the article may contain accidental inaccuracies or errors. We urge you to help us improve our site by reporting any inaccuracies you find using the "Contact Us" link at the bottom of this page. Your helpful feedback helps us improve our system and deliver more precise content. When you find an article of interest here, please look for the full and extensive coverage of this topic in traditional news sources, as they are written by professional journalists that we try to support, not replace. We appreciate your understanding and assistance.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
IMF Upgrades Global Growth Forecast as Weaker Dollar Supports Outlook
House Republicans Move to Defund OECD Over Global Tax Dispute
France Opens Criminal Investigation into X Over Algorithm Manipulation Allegations
Trump Steamrolls EU in Landmark Trade Win: US–EU Trade Deal Imposes 15% Tariff on European Imports
ChatGPT CEO Sam Altman says people share personal info with ChatGPT but don’t know chats can be used as court evidence in legal cases.
Intel Reports Revenue Beats but Sees 81% Rise in Losses
Politics is a good business: Barack Obama’s Reported Net Worth Growth, 1990–2025
UN's Top Court Declares Environmental Protection a Legal Obligation Under International Law
"Crazy Thing": OpenAI's Sam Altman Warns Of AI Voice Fraud Crisis In Banking
The Podcaster Who Accidentally Revealed He Earns Over $10 Million a Year
UK Government Considers Dropping Demand for Apple Encryption Backdoor
Japanese Man Discovers Family Connection Through DNA Testing After Decades of Separation
Russia Signals Openness to Ukraine Peace Talks Amid Escalating Drone Warfare
Switzerland Implements Ban on Mammography Screening
Pogacar Extends Dominance with Stage Fifteen Triumph at Tour de France
President Trump Diagnosed with Chronic Venous Insufficiency After Leg Swelling
CEO Resigns Amid Controversy Over Relationship with HR Executive
NVIDIA Achieves $4 Trillion Valuation Amid AI Demand
Tulsi Gabbard Unveils Evidence Alleging Political Manipulation of Intelligence During Trump Administration
Centrist Criticism of von der Leyen Resurfaces as she Survives EU Confidence Vote
Trump Announces Coca-Cola to Shift to Cane Sugar in U.S. Production
FIFA Pressured to Rethink World Cup Calendar Due to Climate Change
Zelensky Reshuffles Cabinet to Win Support at Home and in Washington
"Can You Hit Moscow?" Trump Asked Zelensky To Make Putin "Feel The Pain"
Church of England Removes 1991 Sexuality Guidelines from Clergy Selection
Superman Franchise Achieves Success with Latest Release
Hungary's Viktor Orban Rejects Agreements on Illegal Migration
Air India Pilot’s Mental Health Records Under Scrutiny
Jamie Dimon Warns Europe Is Losing Global Competitiveness and Flags Market Complacency
Moonshot AI Unveils Kimi K2: A New Open-Source AI Model
Martha Wells Says Humanity Still Far from True Artificial Intelligence
Nvidia Becomes World’s First Four‑Trillion‑Dollar Company Amid AI Boom
EU Delays Retaliatory Tariffs Amid New U.S. Threats on Imports
Trump Proposes Supplying Arms to Ukraine Through NATO Allies
US Opens First Rare Earth Mine in Over 70 Years in Wyoming
Bitcoin Reaches New Milestone of $116,000
Severe Heatwave Claims 2,300 Lives Across Europe
Declining Beer Consumption Signals Cultural Shift in Germany
Emails Leaked: How Passenger Luggage Became a Side Income for Airport Workers
Polish MEP: “Dear Leftists - China is laughing at you, Russia is laughing, India is laughing”
Western Europe Records Hottest June on Record
BRICS Expands Membership with Indonesia and Ten New Partner Countries
Elon Musk Founds a Party Following a Poll on X: "You Wanted It – You Got It!"
China’s Central Bank Consults European Peers on Low-Rate Strategies
France Requests Airlines to Cut Flights at Paris Airports Amid Planned Air Traffic Controller Strike
Poland Implements Border Checks Amid Growing Migration Tensions
Emirates Airline Expands Market Share with New $20 Million Campaign
Amazon Reaches Milestone with Deployment of One Millionth Robot
Yulia Putintseva Calls for Spectator Ejection at Wimbledon Over Safety Concerns
House Oversight Committee Subpoenas Former Jill Biden Aide Amid Investigation into Alleged Concealment of President Biden's Cognitive Health
×