Astrid Gil-Casares, the writer and businesswoman who sold the Chamberí penthouse for 6.3 million euros, has authorized the Community of Madrid through a written statement to reveal details of the real estate transaction that politically targets Isabel Díaz Ayuso, according to two sources confirmed to EL PAÍS. The regional government had asked the seller, a figure of the Spanish jet set, for permission to include her name among the information that Planifica Madrid, the public company through which the property was acquired, must disclose in the coming weeks.
Gil-Casares, according to the same sources, has not objected to her name being disclosed. In fact, she already made it known to this newspaper when it published the exclusive about the purchase in July. The businesswoman has complied with this requirement as a mere formality because, on paper, the only one subject to the confidentiality agreement is her – it is a unilateral clause. What the parties signed at the time silences the seller, but not the administration, so the agreement, in reality, continues as established.
According to the real estate agency, the confidentiality agreement was not a demand from Astrid, but was proposed by the agency itself as a common practice in this type of operation. It was, they assure, a standard Promora model, accepted by both parties, which established the commitment not to disclose information about the operation for certain periods. The real estate agency also points out that the document did not contemplate any economic penalty for breach, although it could lead to legal liability.
The Community of Madrid has delayed as long as possible the disclosure of the file in which the procedure that culminated in the purchase of this property, which cannot be used either as an office or as a presidential residence, must appear. In theory, the penthouse was going to function as Ayuso’s temporary office, according to the explanations given by the president at the time, but it was not then known that a remodeling was going to be done in Sol, the current headquarters.
The president and her circle have been immersed for more than a month in a crisis over this strange real estate operation. The explanations they have offered so far are insufficient and cause concern even within their own party, the PP. Planifica Madrid has received multiple information requests under the transparency law and the Minister of the Presidency, Miguel Ángel García Martín, president of Planifica Madrid, will appear before the Assembly of Madrid. At the same time, the PSOE, a political party, and two individuals have filed complaints with the court that is already processing them in Madrid’s number 8 court.
Astrid Gil-Casares has given her consent after Planifica Madrid gave her a hearing as a third party affected by the transparency requests submitted to access the purchase documentation. Confidentiality, moreover, was not a condition imposed by her. The consent clears up one of the unknowns that remained open since this week. As EL PAÍS reported, Planifica Madrid announced on August 21 that it was suspending the deadline to respond to transparency requests while it gave a hearing to interested third parties. Three days later, on the 24th, it received the response and resumed the procedure. Until now, this newspaper had indicated that the seller had “likely” given her consent to the publication. Sources familiar with the process now confirm that Gil-Casares has accepted that the information be provided.
Planifica Madrid, however, has not yet delivered the documentation. After receiving the seller’s response on August 24, the public company extended the deadline to resolve the requests by another 20 business days, citing the “high number of requests of diverse content” related to the penthouse. Among the requested information are the documents that allow knowing who decided the acquisition, the minutes of the board of directors that endorsed the operation, the feasibility analysis, the appraisal, and the public deed of sale.
The existence of a confidentiality agreement does not by itself allow all the documentation of an operation carried out by a public company to be kept hidden. Planifica Madrid is subject to transparency legislation and can protect those data whose disclosure affects legitimate rights or interests, but must justify those limits. When the protection affects only part of a document, the legislation provides for the rest of the information to be provided, suppressing or anonymizing the affected data.
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