Central Spain registered 931.000 sqm in contracting, which represents another new record, with the A-2 axis being the main protagonist with 459.000 sqm in contracting. 45% of the whole corresponds to key in hand operations or pre-rental due to the fact that there aren’t quality large warehouses according to the operators’ requirements in the market.
Catalonia reached a contracting of 656.000 sqm, surpassing in 41% the numbers of the previous year, being the second best result since 2008. Similar to what happened in Central Spain, most of the contracting depends on key in hand projects or pre-rental, which represented 47% of the contracted surfaces. The prime rent increased in Central Spain 5% yoy up to 5.50 euro per sqm per month and 8% in Catalonia up to 7.00 euro per sqm per month.
In terms of investment, 2018 reached a volume of around 1.500 million euro. This number was significantly impacted by the purchase of assets belonging to portfolios from Axiare, Neinver and Lar which represented around 50% of the total investment, which shows the importance of these portfolios for the sector..
Among the most important logistic operations carried out this year, besides the portfolios mentioned above, the purchase of the Mango logistic centre in Lliça D´Amunt for 150 millon euro should be highlighted, as well as a risky project located in Villaverde and three key in hand projects located in Getafe whose amounts reached 60 and 80 million euro respectively.
The prime rents kept contracting due to the purchasing activity and are at 5.25% versus 5.85% in 2017 both in Central Spain and Catalonia, with a clear tendency to keep contracting.