Offices, Market Data - Figures Fourth Quarter 2024 Spain

The leasing of offices in Madrid has definitively recovered the pre-pandemic pace, exceeding 500Km². This increase represents a year-on-year growth of almost 40% and 15% compared to the average of the last five years. At the same time, in Barcelona, after 2 years of slow recovery, it is expected that 2025 will boost office leasing by more than 15%, exceeding the threshold of 300Km². Several major operations have slowed down, affecting the end of the year in the city, which ends 2024 with almost 280Km² contracted, a figure, in any case, 20% higher than 2023.

CBRE expects that the sustained pace of rental will boost the investment market, which has remained active mainly due to smaller volume operations (<50 million euros) and large corporate transactions. Investment in offices reached €1,500 million in 2024, 25% more than the previous year, although still below pre-pandemic levels. Investment in offices in Madrid barely reaches 600 million euros while the acquisition of offices for other uses, especially Living and Hotels, is concentrated in the city and exceeds 700 million euros, with 85% of these investments concentrated in the CBD. In Barcelona, the investment of more than 440 million euros represents a year-on-year increase of 70%, although it is still below the average of 1,000 million euros per year of the last five years.

Before the rise in interest rates, prime yields in Barcelona and Madrid were equivalent; however, since then a spread of 15 basis points has emerged that has been reduced in the last quarter due to the greater activation of the prime market in Barcelona. Currently, the reference value remains at 4.85% for Madrid and stands at 4.95% for Barcelona, with expectations of slight improvements in the coming months for both markets, in line with the compressions observed in other European markets such as Paris, Munich or Zurich.