Barcelona reaches 87,000 m2 of investment in offices in the first semester and will account for 47% of the total volume in the State in 2020

● Almost half of the surface (42,000 m2) was contracted between the months of April and June

● 20% of the total contracted office space has been in the 22 @ technological district

According to data recently made public by the real estate consultancy Savills Aguirre Newman, the hiring of office space in Barcelona during the first quarter of 2020 reached a total of 87,000 m2. Even though the figure represents a significant reduction compared to the same period last year (65%), investment activity has not stopped. In fact, almost half of the surface (42,000 m2) was contracted between the months of April and June, in a state of alarm.

In this sense, 20% of the total space contracted has been in the 22@ technology district, which has not stopped generating interest among investors despite the current circumstances, especially among large investment funds and Catalan heritage funds but with a logical slowdown.

The real estate firm affirms that the number of operations has experienced a logical decrease during the first semester, especially, operations related to larger surfaces, despite the fact that three have been signed, in operations of more than 3,000 m2 between January and June , compared to the eighteen operations that took place in the same period of 2019.

Barcelona, ​​in any case, maintains its attractiveness for real estate investment in offices. The data published by Savills Aguirre Newman reflect that the Catalan capital has transacted around 250 million euros in the first six months of the year and 340 million until the end of July, and that it will account for 47% of the total estimated investment volume in offices by the consultant in the Spanish State.

To date, Barcelona has a stock of offices of 6.7 million square meters and it should be noted that 53% of the entry of new office space in the real estate market planned for this year is already pre-rented, while 20% of the space projected for 2021 is also committed. The vacancy rate stands at 4.6% for the city of Barcelona as a whole and 3.8% in the case of the 22 @ district.