Investment in the office segment will stand at 3.5 billion euros this year, according to the consulting firm Savills. This figure is driven by the good pace of contracting with which the first quarter closed, with growth higher than the pre-pandemic period.
Savills points out that the gross hiring of offices in Madrid until March amounted to 135,000 square meters, the best figure in a first quarter of the last three years and 66% above the same period last year. By area, the increase in the weight of absorption within the M-30 stands out, and in the case of larger operations, the activity registered in MadBit, which has concentrated three of the five main operations of the quarter by surface volume .
The average contracted area in the capital remains around one thousand square meters and theoretical rents are growing again in the prime Central Business District (CBD), standing at 34.50 euros per square meter per month. The availability rate has slightly decreased compared to the last quarter of 2021 and is now 9.2%. According to the consultant, the balance between the entry of new supply and demand is helping to maintain "a healthy level of unemployment."
From Savills they foresee the entry into the Spanish office market of 555,000 sqm of product in the next two years between new construction and rehabilitation of assets and they highlight that rehabilitation accounts for 56% of this new offer.
In Barcelona, the hiring of offices reached 91,000 sqm in the first quarter, which represents an increase of 21% year-on-year. The absorption has been concentrated these months in the periphery (37% of total contracting), the city center (27%) and the new business areas (26%). In the business districts, 10% of the total has been registered.
Although these figures seem to show a change in the usual behavior of the Barcelona office market, Savills justifies it by signing large operations in the outskirts, such as Vueling in Viladecans. The forecast is that the New Business Areas (NBA) zone will once again recover the usual weight of recent years in hiring during the coming quarters.
As for the new offer, Barcelona will host 322,000 new sqm of offices in 2022 and 33% of this area is already committed. The availability rate has grown slightly compared to the last quarter and stands at 8.69%, remaining stable in prime and city center areas. For its part, the theoretical rents in the best buildings in the best areas have begun to register slight increases.
