22@ district consolidates recovery and doubles office space leasing by the end of 2024

Barcelona’s 22@ district closed 2024 with a total office leasing volume of 80,000 square metres, marking its second-best performance over the past five years. These figures, published by the real estate consultancy CBRE in its latest report, underline the recovery of the city’s technological district.

This recovery has been driven primarily by the strong performance of 22@ Glòries, while availability in 22@ Nord remains high despite a fourfold increase in leasing activity. CBRE’s report also notes that, across Barcelona, the office vacancy rate stands at 14.4%, with an average rent of €20.4 per square metre.

These results signal the district’s regained prominence in Barcelona after challenging years in terms of leasing activity. The rise of remote work due to COVID-19 and the sector’s downturn led to a significant drop just as 22@ had been breaking records in attracting companies, leasing office space and launching new developments.

Notably, most of the leasing activity occurred in 22@ Sud, the district’s largest area, with a stock of 798,000 m², representing 56% of the technological district’s total. Meanwhile, 22@ Glòries currently has a stock of 403,000 m² (28% of the total), and 22@ Nord accounts for 14% with a stock of 220,000 m².

Finally, CBRE highlights that, with Barcelona’s current office vacancy rate, the city’s absorption capacity stands at 4.6%, placing it as the fourth-ranked European city in this metric. It follows London (6.9%), Warsaw (6.3%) and Budapest (6.2%) and ranks ahead of Lisbon (4.5%), Dublin (4.2%) and Frankfurt (3.8%).