In 2018, investment in office space in Catalonia recorded best second semester for the past decade

• The growth of the office market absorption capacity in 2018 was of 11% over the previous year
• Barcelona recorded an investment of €635M and a hiring of 382,360sqm

According to data made public by real estate consultancy firm Savills Aguirre Newman, the office market in Catalonia in general, and Barcelona in particular, registered record figures in 2018, and reached best second semester for the past decade. In particular, the growth of the office market absorptive capacity in 2018 was 11% higher than the previous year, with an increase of operations over 3,000sqm.

Specifically, in 2018 the office market in Barcelona registered an investment figure that ranked best second semester for the past decade, with €635M and a total hiring of 382,360sqm (second highest figure for the past 11 years). In this sense, and thanks to the number of big firms betting on Catalonia, the demand currently surpasses supply, and the phenomenon of pre-hiring is taking place, that is, the hiring of spaces before they are available.

Sources of Savills Aguirre Newman named the case of Everis, one of the most important operations finalised during the second semester of 2018. This company has hired 25,000sqm in a building that will be located at Via Icària but whose construction hasn’t started yet. In fact, for the last 12 months, benefits from office space hiring have increased by 10% as a consequence of the lack of availability, that has been reduced to 5.44% vs. 7.54% in 2017.

The 22@ district and plaça Europa at Hospitalet —the new business areas— lead most of the operations being finalised, as they concentrate the new offer of office space. In particular, the 22@ district registered 54% of all operations with 170,000sqm, a 45% of the total demand and a growth of 2.3% in relation to 2017. On the other hand, in the outskirts of Barcelona, 94,100sqm were hired, figure that represents an increase of 103%.

The real estate consultancy firm foresees for 2019 and 2020 a new office space availability of 168,500sqm, while the offer foreseen for 2021 is of 200,000sqm. The firm highlights that investment funds, which were behaving cautiously these last years, start to finalize operations in Catalonia.

[02/18/2019]