A startup celebrates a key event in Barcelona in 2023, which will be attended by employees from different parts of the world. With the litmus test of teleworking successfully passed during confinement, the company decided to leave its rental offices in the city center to telework 100%, so the meeting will take place in the multipurpose room of a hotel. Employees coming from abroad will spend their stay in Barcelona in corporate apartments, cheaper than renting hotel rooms.
This is one of the latest trends in the hotel sector, which, with the pandemic, has adapted to the new reality and its needs like malleable gold before the hammering of a hot iron. This is one of the latest trends in the world of real estate investment, which must be on the lookout for the opportunities offered by the paradigm shift in many sectors of the economy after covid.
At the moment, the first half of 2022 has closed with a real estate investment of 9,870 million euros, 80% above the volumes of the same period of the previous year and the best figure since historical records have been kept. The hotel sector has thus ranked third in terms of investment importance, with 1,650 million, 16.7% of total investment, according to one of the latest CBRE reports.
Meanwhile, also in 2023, a shopping center reopens its doors in Madrid after its remodeling. Open spaces have gained ground; The area of cafes and restaurants has been expanded to make a vermouth, have a snack and even watch a football match, and thanks to the collection of data in real time, customers can know via the app which areas are more saturated and avoid queues . All this, receiving a personalized and close treatment from the shops, which offer the option of sending the product to your home or picking it up in store within 24 hours if there is no stock.
The remodeling of these galleries has been possible thanks to a round of private equity investment (companies already consolidated). Because another of the sectors in which investment is being set is that of commerce. With the explosion of e-commerce and home delivery, a transformation has been required, both in shopping centers and in retailers and local businesses, to focus on the customer experience. Retail has led investment this 2022, above 2,900 million euros, eight times higher than the first half of the previous year.
And there are still more investment trends. According to a recent study by BNP Paribas Real Estate, despite the uncertainty due to the devaluation of the euro, the conflict in Ukraine or the rise in interest rates, alternative investment is one of those that has channeled the most flows in Spain, with a total of 1,176 million euros, 24% of the total investment. Residences for students and the elderly, or “senior housing”, the “build to rent”, are the alternative assets that are raising the most capital.
In this changing scenario full of new investment opportunities, THE DISTRICT has emerged, an annual event that aims to become a real estate "Davos" that will bring together the great leaders of Real Estate in Barcelona, since, until now, there was no a reference meeting point in Europe to analyze the behavior of real estate capital and advance trends. The first edition is being held these days, from October 19 to 21 at Fira Barcelona and expects to bring together 7,000 of the most outstanding professionals in the sector in Europe.
The real estate summit will turn the city into the European epicenter for major industry leaders and all the players in the value chain: from investment funds, sovereign wealth funds, private equity, financing banks or alternative sources of financing, through large land holders, administrations, operators, developers, brokers, marketing agencies, consultants or property managers.
THE DISTRICT will have three main axes: the development of the capital market; the transformation of Residential, Office, Logistics, Hospitality, Retail and Alternative assets, and the added value of ESG criteria and new technologies. The District World Summit 2022 will bring together almost 400 international experts who will discuss economic, environmental and technological challenges. Among them: Michael Swank, Senior Managing Director in Real Estate Acquisitions Europe of Blackstone, Pere Viñolas, President of the European Public Real Estate Association or Beatriz Toribio, Deputy General Director of Masteos in Spain.
The guest city in this first edition is Malaga, which in recent years has been postulated as a new leading agent in the real estate sector in Spain for having carried out large transformative investments. The most innovative projects will have a place at this event, with the participation of more than 250 exhibiting firms that will show their real estate capital programs, their future plans in search of capital or the projects in which to invest or divest. Among the participants are AEDAS Homes, Aliseda real estate, Anticipa, Caixabank, CBRE, Colonial, Deloitte, JLL, Lar España, Masteos, Merlin Properties, Neinor Homes, Santander, Servihabitat or Testa Home.
At The Proptech Startup Forum, the most disruptive startups will have the opportunity to present their innovation projects to investors and leading companies in the sector. And The World-Class District Awards 2022 will serve to recognize those organizations that are transforming the real estate sector and promoting initiatives with impact.
