From plumbing to home automation. From electricity to pool water treatment. The Proinsermant team knows in depth the ins and outs of the main luxury villas on the Costa del Sol. The reason is simple: they are responsible for designing their technical installations, executing them and maintaining them. The Malaga company has participated in the construction of 80% of the most exclusive developments in Marbella, such as La Zagaleta, and has so many projects ahead that it is experiencing a golden age. It has 180 workers and a turnover that in the last two years has been around 20 million euros, a figure that aspires to rise to 25 million in 2024. Artificial intelligence, Internet of Things applications and the leap into new markets are your next challenges.
The company was founded in 1981 by Brígido Sepúlveda from Córdoba. He worked very young as a shepherd in the Pedroches Valley (Córdoba) and later learned on his own until developing his professional career as an installer in Seville. At the age of 40, he traveled to Marbella with the help of the Bolivian architect Melvin Villarroel to supervise the technical installations of the Puente Romano hotel. There he knew luxury and the heyday of petrodollars. He understood that there were business possibilities and decided to move to the city of Malaga to found Proinsermant that same year. He started with hydraulic, electrical and air conditioning installation work. He established himself in the market while demand grew until 2005 when he stepped aside due to a health problem. His son, Carlos Sepúlveda, has since served as CEO and Roque Justicia as managing director. “We have always advanced, but in the last six or seven years is when our work has changed the most due to everything that surrounds smarthome technology,” emphasizes Justicia, who predicts good growth for the company thanks to the extraordinary health it enjoys. the luxury real estate sector. “We don’t remember a better time,” he says, although he acknowledges that the most complicated thing is “finding qualified personnel.”
The business manager explains that if the construction of a villa lasts an average of 16 months, his team enters the work in the fourth or fifth month and remains until the end. His work does not end there, since they also offer maintenance services. “The business lines are engineering, construction and after-sales,” he clarifies. This last case contributes only 15% of the turnover, but is one of the most relevant for the clientele that resides in large villas, with a lot of money, little time to waste and who, sometimes, only spend a few days on the Coast. del Sol. They don’t want even the slightest problem. “In addition, for them it is more important today to have Wi-Fi than hot water,” he adds during a conversation in the company’s office, next to La Fontanilla beach, in Marbella.
Its facilities allow you to see the millimeter work carried out by its designers on projects drawn in three dimensions. Also a testing workshop where the R&D team develops and improves products—its own or in collaboration with its suppliers—and a room called the machine room. It is the place where the heart of every luxury villa beats. It displays the ducts that manage each service that they themselves have installed: plumbing, sanitation, lighting, home automation, cybersecurity and device automation, among others, which represent around 30% of the cost price of each of these homes. Justice says that home automation or internet of things services are similar to those of a common home. “The difference is in the qualities and integration of the elements,” he maintains. Also in magnitude. A villa can easily have 25 air conditioners, as well as a cinema, spa, two swimming pools, professional kitchens and a multitude of other services. They rarely have less than 85 kilowatts of power at their disposal. In Spain, the average home power is around 4.5 kilowatts, according to Endesa.
Projects underway
These machine rooms also allow data to be collected for analysis. The processing allows the company to measure consumption and behavior to improve efficiency client by client, which in properties of these sizes—some are close to 5,000 square meters—represents enormous savings on the bill. Telemetry also helps the company to improve its own work, incorporating the learning into subsequent projects. Advances also come from outside: Proinsermant is already one of the first installers in the area certified by Tesla for its batteries that store energy and detect power outages.
Although the most expensive home they have worked on sold for 33 million euros, Proinsermant currently has several projects in hand. One of them includes 50 luxury apartments and four houses in El Ancón (Marbella) and another nine on Playa del Cristo (Estepona). There they also participate in the construction of an exclusive beach club, although their specialty is villas. 80% of those developed in the history of La Zagaleta – the most exclusive urbanization in Europe – or Sierra Blanca have their facilities, but they also work in high-end residential areas such as Sotogrande and Atlanterra in Cádiz. Sometimes they make the jump to places like La Finca or La Moraleja, in Madrid.
Exploring the territory outside the Costa del Sol is one of your next objectives. “Our work requires a lot of physical presence and it is not easy to do it far away, but it is a path that we are studying to expand the market,” explains Justicia, who highlights that the future lies in the development of smart home tools “that have crossed to the company” and for the influence that artificial intelligence will have on all its work processes.
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