The consultancy adds that the environment of economic growth and employment is sustaining the need for company office space and a distinguishing feature of the new market cycle is the search for efficiency.
The number of new rental contracts has maintained an average of 100 per trimester, a total also observed in 2015 and which surpasses the average of between 60 and 70 per trimester in the crisis years. This demonstrates that companies are buying new space in order to expand after the expiration of their contracts. Added to this are spaces taken up by new enterprises recently arrived in Spain. Last year, 8 out of every 10 contracts for office hire were for reasons of expansion or for new business, the rest for neutral reasons or for space reduction.
In the opinion of Javier Bernades, partner and director of Business Space at Cushman & Wakefield Spain, “in spite of the fact that uptake is similar to that of 2015, in 2016 most transactions were medium-sized (between 500 and 700 m²). This is a sign that the rental market is returning to a solid base in accordance with the business network of Madrid and the need for space for the new cycle ”.
For 2017 new reductions in empty spaces are predicted which will help prime rents to expand between 6% and 8% from 30,5 €/m²/month (at the end of 2016). Throughout 2017, this growth will be particularly notable in the completion of new works (+111.000 m²), a growth which relies on changes in offices located, principally, within the M-30 ring road.