University of Puerto Rico unveils website to sell, lease institutional properties
Looking to identify new external resources destined for the University of Puerto Rico and to promote the development of the real estate industry, the institution unveiled a new real estate and investments website, a public platform to share information about the properties that the university system has for sale or rent.
Since the UPR’s Real Estate and Investments Office began operating in 2019, 25 non-academic properties have been acquired either by inheritance (ab-intestate) wills and donations, this media outlet learned.
Of those non-academic properties, 12 are already in the process of being sold or leased, after getting Governing Board approval.
“One of the priorities in our administration is the digitization of all administrative services and processes to optimize resources and maximize potential for the benefit of the institution, our students, and the Puerto Rican people,” said UPR President Jorge Haddock.
“An example of this is what we have achieved with the real estate and investments website, with which we seek to generate new resources for the institution and make residential and commercial properties available at affordable prices,” he said, adding that as part of the administrative policy, properties with academic use or historical value are included in the catalog for sale.
Those interested in buying residential or commercial properties may access the inventory without physically visiting the space, by clicking on the website’s property catalog.
UPR officials said that 30% of the profits from the sales or leases of the properties, are destined to the institution’s endowment fund, which seeks to support the academic and research activities in the institution. The remaining 70% will go toward maintenance and operations of the real estate.
The UPR’s real estate and investment website has properties for sale or rent and includes houses, apartments, and lots for development in Bayamón, Cabo Rojo, San Juan and Vieques, among others. The inventory is upgraded constantly to add inherited properties it receives through Article 1727 of the new Puerto Rico Civil Code.
In the past year, the UPR saw an increase in opportunities to sell and lease properties due to the alternatives that have emerged as a result of Acts 20 and 22, which were used to create programs to encourage and promote local investment through foreign investors, said the director of the Real Estate and Investments Office, Miriam A. Román-Cruz.
