The controversial 485-square-meter penthouse that the Government of Isabel Díaz Ayuso (PP) bought three and a half months ago to use as an “office” was sold by one of the most exclusive and longstanding real estate agencies in La Moraleja, the company itself confirms to El PAÍS. Promora is a company with decades of experience in selling luxury homes in the most exclusive areas of the region and the capital, including the Chamberí district, where the apartment acquired by the Community of Madrid is located. The final sale price is unknown and it was not included in the budgets of Planifica Madrid, the public company dependent on the Presidency Department that bought the apartment. There is no file, no explanatory report, nor budget extension documents, as should be the case in this type of operation involving the Administration.
The sale began “like any other” and was “completely normal,” explain Promora. The previous owner, Astrid Gil-Casares, is a regular client of the agency and contacted them to manage the sale of the luxurious penthouse. The operation was carried out by the company’s team in the capital and was standard, except that they had to sign, at the buyer’s request, a confidentiality agreement. “They asked for privacy,” they comment. “All in a very reasonable way: analysis of the paperwork, some usual technical difficulties in this type of operation…,” they detail.
The agency announced the apartment on their social media at the end of January with a montage video showing the interior of the penthouse at number 35 General Martínez Campos street empty. The price: 6,600,000 euros. “A unique and exclusive penthouse in the heart of Almagro623 square meters of absolute luxury, 5 en-suite bedrooms, 6 bathrooms, and a spectacular 100-square-meter corner terrace. With panoramic views of the skyline of Madrid. Natural light all day, southwest orientation, contemporary design, home automation, two parking spaces, and two storage rooms. Privacy, spaciousness, and a way to live Madrid from the top,” they described it on their social media.
The agency does not confirm whether the final sale price was 6.6 million or slightly less, and they recall that the confidentiality agreement does not allow them to provide more details about the parties involved or the sale conditions. They do admit that Promora participated in the entire operation and that discretion was requested during the process. Sources from the firm add that they do not “fully understand the move” from a political point of view and assure that they never knew if the president visited it.
The promotional video of the property is still posted and includes a message in an aspirational tone: “Baby I’m back in town [Honey, I’m back in town]. And I’m finally at the top. Only a few of us become free like those birds that fly so high. The sky is immense and I see you small from above. Come up, if you want to share this with me.”
Ambiguous explanations
The Community of Madrid bought the penthouse on General Martínez Campos on April 14 through Planifica Madrid, and the operation did not become public until EL PAÍS uncovered it. Then, a spokesperson explained that the property would be used as “offices” for a “minimal team” while works—also unknown until then—were carried out at the presidency headquarters, in the Real Casa de Correos at Puerta del Sol. Hours after the information was published, a source close to the president clarified that the decision about using the penthouse as an office “is not one hundred percent made” and that it will be decided when the renovation of the property is completed, presumably in October or November. The problem is that municipal regulations prohibit setting up offices in a penthouse. In fact, they are not allowed beyond the first floor.
To defend the purchase, Ayuso spoke of a campaign of “discredit” against her and did not answer basic questions, such as the price of the penthouse. She said it would be for “institutional meetings” and assured it would not be “her home.” “It is not my residence. They have not bought anything from Ayuso. I will not have an official residence like so many ministers or so many presidents of other autonomous communities. I know the purchase is recent and I don’t even know how it is bought or how it is reported,” she said to the media.
The Madrid government took less than 48 hours to react to the penthouse crisis since the unusual purchase was discovered, and the spokesperson councilor, Miguel Ángel García Martín, announced its sale. Four days later, the details of the case remain unknown, which should be in a file: the purchase file with data that the Community of Madrid continues to hide, the price paid, the intended use, and the report justifying the decision to set up an office on the ninth floor of a residential building.
The opposition demanded explanations as soon as the acquisition became known. The PSOE requested this Monday to urgently convene the Permanent Deputation Board of the Madrid Assembly so that the regional government and the president provide explanations. And Más Madrid announced last week that it will file a complaint for alleged embezzlement regarding the purchase.
Luxury in La Moraleja
Promora’s history is linked to that of La Moraleja. The company was founded in 1975, when the urbanization was just beginning to develop and many of the homes that now characterize the area did not yet exist. Its founder, Pilar Monsalve, had arrived in La Moraleja a year earlier and started collaborating in the marketing of plots promoted by the development company. When the first resales of land and homes began, she opened a real estate agency in La Moraleja Plaza, an office that remains in the same location half a century later.
With the growth of the urbanization and the transformation of the Madrid residential market, Promora progressively expanded its activity to four branches, including the base in La Moraleja: Aravaca-Valdemarín, the Salamanca neighborhood—the one in charge of the penthouse operation—and northern Madrid. The company remains family-owned and focuses its activity on the sale and rental of exclusive homes in some of the highest-income areas of the region and the capital. One of them was the controversial penthouse.
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