Commercial property

Lucas Fox specialises in commercial property for sale and rent in Barcelona, Spain. We can assist private and commercial investors with the purchase and rental of offices, retail units and warehouses.

Located on the northeast coast of Spain facing the Mediterranean Sea, Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain, with a population of 1.6 million (five million in the metropolitan area).  The economy of Barcelona has been steadily expanding during the past decade and although it contains just 4% of the Spanish population, it contributes 14.29% to the country’s GDP and accounts for 22.5% of Spanish exports.

Recent economic expansion in Spain has led to increased demand for commercial real estate and overall vacancy rates have decreased to 4.5%, the lowest rate since 2002.  Rents have grown in the last two years due to undersupply vs. strong demand, with the  forecast for continued but steady rental growth.

Lucas Fox predicts that the recent shortage of liquidity will create an opportunity for both equity and foreign investors to enter the Barcelona commercial market, while starving off much of the development pipeline.  This will maintain or strengthen the demand/supply balance from 2008-2009 onwards.  The sector expects to see many acquisition opportunities representing excellent value for money, as developers seek to maintain their cashflows and liquidate assets, to weather currently tough market conditions caused by the global credit crunch.

In Barcelona there is a transition in the office market from the CBD & City to recently developed areas, including the 22@ district, Cornellà de Llobregat, Castelldefels and Sant Cugat del Vallès.  The transition is significantly complete, with 70% of the new office space ( including grade A space) now being provided in the New Business and Periphery Areas.

Consensus among real estate market professionals is that the supply demand balance will keep the capitalization rates stable with the forecast for steady rental growth - the level of take-up has consistently averaged ca 370k sq m over the last three years. The lack of liquidity in a locally franchised market is likely to see a shortage of supply in 2008-2009. This will at least maintain the demand supply balance in the new investment product.

Please contact us for further information on Barcelona commercial properties for sale and rent.