Real estate investment resists this year in Barcelona

The Barcelona real estate market is resisting the rise in interest rates and inflation.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
16 December 2022 Friday 23:38
9 Reads
Real estate investment resists this year in Barcelona

The Barcelona real estate market is resisting the rise in interest rates and inflation. According to the CBRE consultancy, investment in property purchases will close the year at 3.6 billion euros, the same level reached in 2021, when the sector set a historical record.

"This is good data, since the market has shown dynamism despite the situation," Xavier Güell, director of CBRE Barcelona, ​​told this newspaper, detailing that a third of the investment took place from January to March, when still macroeconomic turbulence had not reached the sector.

Similarly, the rest of the quarters have shown a good performance. The operations, Güell points out, usually materialize with a lag of three to six months from the closing of the agreement and, as the graph shows, activity has not slowed down significantly in recent months.

Güell explains that the resistance of real estate investment in 2022 is due to the pull of the office market in Barcelona, ​​a city that plays in the first European league. “Since 2019, we have observed great interest from institutional funds in investing in the Catalan capital. This is due to the rise in office rental prices, the interest of foreign companies in opening subsidiaries in the city and, above all, the takeoff of the 22@ technological district. In that area, new and large offices have been built that trigger investment ”, details the manager.

Investment in offices has accounted for 31% of the total, with relevant operations such as the purchase of the Glovo headquarters by GMP from Freo, or the Mediapro headquarters by Starwood from Hines. CBRE data reveals that the residential market – housing, coliving, student and senior residences – has also marked a record year. "The sector has mobilized 970 million euros, 28% of the total, thanks to a macro operation of 600 million led by Patrizia," recalls Güell.

Industrial investment has also recorded a good year thanks to the growth and renewal of the logistics park in the Barcelona metropolitan area. On the other hand, the retail and hotel divisions have not played a major role (see chart). Güell explains that the effects of the pandemic and the transformation that traditional commerce is undergoing due to digitization are holding back investment in these sectors.

Looking ahead to 2023, the consultancy predicts a first semester marked by prudence and a second semester of greater dynamism. “2023 will surely be a worse year than 2022, but we don't want to be catastrophic. There is liquidity in the market, the only thing that happens is that the funds want to be cautious during the following months ”, he concludes.