At Mipim, foreign investors confirm interest in office sector in Barcelona and logistics in Catalonia

The reactivation of the office and logistics market in Barcelona and Catalonia is a fact, and Barcelona Catalonia presented its projects at Mipim 2015 in order to consolidate the interest of foreign investors. This year’s real estate fair welcomed 2,225 exhibitors from 93 countries and 21,000 visitors.

The Barcelona Catalonia booth gave investors a global overview of the main urban-development projects associated with the knowledge economy underway in Barcelona and its surroundings, with 2 million m2 of land for industrial and logistics use and more than 3 million m2 of office space on offer.

Noteworthy among these projects is Parc de l’Alba, with 1.5 million m2 of floor space available for a variety of economic activities like retail, industry, logistics and residential developments. It is one of Catalonia’s strategic projects and one of the most cutting-edge scientific, technological and business platforms in Europe, with the capacity to create 40,000 highly qualified jobs.

Barcelona Catalonia, as in previous years, participated in different forums and events and welcomed European Commissioner Günther H. Oettinger to the booth to discuss issues associated with innovation and new technology applied to urban planning.

The Barcelona Catalonia booth featured many different private partners that are collaborating on urban developments in Catalonia, including Addmeet, Albion Management, Barcelona Urban Cluster, Bricktal, Cornex Capital, Europa Center, Fabregat Perulles Sales, Forcadell, Gina Barcelona, L35, Loan Land, Miete, Renta Corporacion, Roca Junyent, Rosa Gres, Spinnia, TPG and TR Corporación.

The market for office space in the city of Barcelona definitively took off in 2014, closing out the year with investment up 56% from the previous year for a total of 777 million euros. This figure made up more than half of all real estate investment in Barcelona. All these figures are from the consultancy CBRE.

Additionally, leasing of logistics space is up both in total floor space and in number of operations. Specifically, according to data from the Estrada & Partners consultancy, cumulative leasing of logistics space in 2014 totaled 312,056 m², up 15.28% from 2013, confirming the beginning of the recovery of the Catalan logistics sector.