Barcelona faces 2025 with good forecasts in real estate investment. The Catalan capital has closed 2024 with a growth of 33% compared to the previous year, reaching 2.5 billion euros invested in real estate assets. But this growth will not stop here: everything indicates that it will add up to 20% more in 2025 and will be around 3 billion euros, which would imply recovering pre-pandemic figures.
These 2.5 billion euros in 2024 represent "the fourth best figure in the last 15 years," highlighted the head of CBRE Barcelona, Xavier Güell. "In 2023 we hit rock bottom as a market at a European, state, and Barcelona level; 2024 will be known as the year of recovery, and 2025 will surely be remembered as the year of the consolidation of the recovery," Güell predicted at the presentation of CBRE's forecasts alongside the company's Head of Research Barcelona, Marta Tarrío.
The 33% growth in 2024 in Barcelona has extended to practically all sectors and has exceeded forecasts, which placed it in a range between 10% and 20%. In addition, it has risen above the growth at a state and European level. In both cases, real estate investment has risen by 20%, a figure that is expected to be repeated this 2025 in both markets.
In Barcelona and Catalonia, hotels have continued to lead real estate investment in 2024. With 627 million euros, the hotel sector concentrates 25% of the total investment, and remains at the forefront despite a slight decrease of 3%, and despite the fact that other assets have grown during the year, including living and office assets. In addition, its weight goes further, and hotel investment in Catalonia represents 19% of the total volume invested at a state level in 2024.
Residences propel living
Despite the leadership of hotels, the living sector is closing the gap, taking into account both housing and flex living and student residences. With an investment of 512 million euros in 2024, it has closed the year with a growth of 65% compared to the previous year, boosted by investment in student residences in the Catalan capital and its surroundings.
In fact, investment in student residences has reached 276 million euros, almost double that linked to traditional housing, which has remained at 145 million euros, the same figure as the previous year. According to Güell, in 2024 affordable housing has had a special weight, while "investment in traditional building purchase and sale operations has been practically nil due to rent limitations." In addition, investment in flex living options has tripled this year: it has gone from 33 million in 2023 to 91 in 2024.
Record in office prime rents
The recently ended 2024 has also been a good year for offices in Barcelona. Investment in this area has climbed to 447 million euros, 71% more than the previous year. Contracting has also increased, in a year in which prime rents have also grown, which for the first time have stood at 30 euros per square meter.
"The forecast is to exceed the levels of 2021 and 2022 and consolidate the recovery of the office market," Tarrío defended. This growth will go hand in hand with large projects that are underway, such as Diagonal Vertical, the Estel Building, the Tres Xemeneies del Paral·lel and the Finestrelles complex in Esplugues de Llobregat.
Within the office sector, 22@ plays a relevant role in the city. The technological district has recovered its rhythm after a slump in 2023, and 31% of the offices contracted in the city were registered in this area in 2024. In addition, it has done so by integrating types of companies: "The success of 22@ is its transversality beyond technology," Güell defended.
However, he insisted on the need to diversify the uses of the area and incorporate more housing: "It is the Achilles' heel of 22@". To do this, he has once again launched CBRE's proposal to generate more housing by modifying the urban planning of the district again to promote free housing. With this measure, 21,000 more people could reside in the area, to which another 18,000 could be added if the plan regulating tourist accommodations were made more flexible to admit other residential formulas.
From industrial and retail to museums and healthcare
For the Catalan logistics sector, 2024 has been an "exceptional year" in which it registered a contracting volume above 710,000 square meters, 33% more than the previous year. Now, "a stabilization is expected" at around 600,000 square meters annually, with a prime rent above nine euros per square meter in the metropolitan area.
The retail sector has also closed a good year, with an investment of 355 million euros. This sector has been influenced by operations linked to shopping centers and the most central streets of Barcelona, among which Paseo de Gràcia continues to stand out.
Consolidated as the most expensive shopping street in Spain, its prime rent has risen in 2024 to 3,180 euros, and it seeks to grow beyond its traditional limits. Upcoming openings such as that of Patek Philippe in Jardinets de Gràcia could extend the promenade beyond Diagonal, expanding its influence and impacting retail.
And real estate investment in Barcelona has gone further: assets from areas other than the traditional ones have added another 284 million euros to the 2024 balance. Among them, the announcement of the future Thyssen museum in the old Comedia stands out, with a planned investment of 100 million euros, and 143 million in projects linked to the healthcare sector, called to be the spearhead of Barcelona's growth.