Students want to come to Barcelona, and investors know it. Whether it's for the educational offer, the climate, leisure, or culture, the Catalan capital is on the radar of university students, which has translated into a growing commitment to student residences, which in 2024 has mobilized an investment that has climbed to a record 276 million euros.
This investment captured by the city throughout 2024 has represented more than double the 130 million of the previous year. According to CBRE data, the Catalan capital has accounted for 28% of the investment at the state level, in a 2024 that started with all investment concentrated in Barcelona: until June, the investment was 219 million, all that occurred in this period throughout Spain.
This investment materializes in beds: currently, the city has 16,000 places in its student residences. This figure has not stopped increasing in recent academic years, adding more than 3,000 new places in the last two years. For this year and 2026, the city expects to gain 3,700 more beds, 36% of the total planned at the state level in the coming years.
"Barcelona is an academic benchmark, and must respond to the number of students who want to come to the city and need accommodation," highlighted Olga Beltran, head of Living Capital Markets in Barcelona at CBRE. The segment, moreover, comes from a stock of old residences that have been giving way to "first-class buildings with quality services and facilities," Beltran emphasizes.
The promotions that have stood out during 2024 fall precisely into this category of residences. The purchase of two residences totaling 624 beds by Morgan Stanley from Grupo Vita and the agreement between DeA Capital, Partner Group, and Camplus to open a residence in 22@ have been some of the operations that have stood out during the year. The largest projects being developed in Barcelona are located in diverse areas: in Meridiana, with a new Micampus residence of 540 beds, and, at the other end, on Riera Blanca street in La Bordeta, with another 540 places from Livensa, as JLL sources review. But the big projects are not staying in Barcelona; they are going further. In Cerdanyola and next to the Sincrotró Alba, Urbania is promoting a 600-bed residence, and in Esplugues de Llobregat, a 520-bed residence from Hines' student platform, Aparto, is being built, as Beltran recalls.
This residence from Hines' subsidiary will be located in one of the two towers that will preside over the entrance to Barcelona via Diagonal, in the Finestrelles neighborhood, as highlighted by Aparto Barcelona's cluster general manager, Beatriz Catoira. The new center, expected to open in 2026, will operate with a hybrid model combining residence with hotel use, mainly linked to conferences and the hospital sector, as it is located next to Sant Joan de Déu. In addition to this project in Esplugues, Hines' platform has two residences in the Catalan capital, both located in the 22@ area and with prices ranging between 1,000 and 1,700 euros per month.
Aparto has 740 beds in its Pallars residence, and 350 in the Cristóbal de Moura street residence, which opened in 2024 with 100% occupancy. Its residences, as Catoira explains, are filled with students who move to Barcelona both to study for the entire academic year and to study in the city for a semester or in summer programs, usually linked to language learning. Among its students, Americans stand out in quantity, arriving in Barcelona attracted by "the good climate, the rich cultural offer, and its connection with other European countries," as they often use the city as a starting point to travel and discover other European destinations.
But the reasons that awaken the interest of international students do not stop there. The network of universities and its innovative ecosystem position Barcelona as an "educational hub" at a global level, according to Diana Filipescu, associate professor at Toulouse Business School (TBS), which has been operating in Barcelona since 1995. The development of educational and technological infrastructures "reinforce the attractiveness of Catalonia as a high-quality educational destination," highlighted the expert from the center, which in 2022 opened a new headquarters in 22@.
The growing interest of university students in studying in Barcelona in turn generates interest from investors, also internationally, which has led to this boom in residences in the city. In addition, accommodation prices have increased in recent years due to high demand and still scarce supply, so this type of asset provides high profitability to investors, above other markets, such as residential and office.
This boom in the sector is not exclusive to Barcelona, but is part of a growing trend in investment in residences internationally. In the coming years, this market will move an investment of 22,000 million in Europe to create 220,000 new beds, according to a report by The Class Foundation and Savills. Barcelona is called to play a prominent role in this forecast, as the United Kingdom and Spain lead investor interest in this area in Europe, according to the study.
However, this investor interest in the educational landscape transcends the segment of residences in Barcelona, where some of the best-rated international schools in national rankings are located. Among them are internationally recognized schools, such as The British School of Barcelona which, with more than 2,000 students of 70 nationalities across three campuses, has just received the highest ratings from the UK inspection that evaluates the quality of British schools located abroad. The interest in these international schools also translates into investment, such as the 2.5 million euros being carried out by Highlands School Barcelona, and which is part of a context in which the Catalan capital is positioned as an educational hub of international scope.