Optimism in the investment market for large real estate assets in Barcelona. According to the consultancy CBRE, during the first quarter of the year, eleven large transactions have been closed, totaling an investment of 441 million euros. This figure represents a 5% growth compared to the same quarter of 2020, just when the pandemic had just begun and the market was not yet aware of the crisis that was coming.
Furthermore, according to CBRE, these 411 million are very much in line with the 458 million recorded in the fourth quarter of 2020, which was the best of the past pandemic year. Everything indicates, adds the consultancy, that this pace will be maintained. "There are several major operations that are brewing; we are optimistic that a high level of activity will be maintained in the Catalan market during the coming months," explains CBRE.
For its part, the consultancy Cushman & Wakefield, in another study, estimates the investment in Catalonia in the first quarter at 578 million, 14% less than at the beginning of 2020.
Of the eleven transactions materialized at the beginning of this year, explains CBRE, 45% correspond to investments in office buildings, both operational and under construction, and 50% in properties intended for student residences or rental housing.
One of the most relevant sales of this first quarter has been the purchase of the One Parc Central office tower, in 22@, by the German asset manager DWS, owned by Deutsche Bank. It paid 128 million euros to the previous owner, Värde Partners, for a complex that will have 23,500 square meters.
For its part, the Barcelona-based investment group Metropolis has bought the Diagonal 123 office building for 55 million euros, which until now was owned by the Bernat family and has more than 10,000 square meters.
In the field of student residences, the fund VStudent has bought a plot in 22@ to build 15,400 square meters intended for the opening of the first residence managed by the American chain LIV Student in Barcelona.
Hines and Henderson Park sell a residence to Commerzbank
Also having just invested in this segment is the German group Commerzbank, which has acquired a turnkey project for 97 million euros from the real estate fund Henderson Park and the American real estate company Hines. It is a student residence with 743 beds also located in 22@, in the Diagonal Mar area, and is expected to open at the beginning of the 2022/23 academic year. The property will have 20,000 square meters above ground and will be part of the Aparto chain, owned by Hines, which also has residences in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The eight-story building has been designed by the architecture firm Batlle y Roig.
This residence acquired by Commerzbank will be located next to the new campus that Toulouse Business School (TBS) is building in Barcelona, with capacity for one thousand students.