The office market in Barcelona recovers the dynamism halted in 2023. The growing contracting has also been perceived in the so-called technological district: in the first six months of 2024, it has not only equaled the contracting registered in all of last year, but has surpassed it. Specifically, from January to June, 53,000 square meters have been contracted in 22@, 29% more than in the entire previous year.
During this first semester, 22@ has consolidated itself as the second office market in terms of contracting in Barcelona, concentrating 34% of the total. According to the international consultancy CBRE, only the city center has surpassed 22@, with 38% of the contracting.
Furthermore, 22@ concentrates 28% of Barcelona's offices. In this context, the availability rate is higher than in Barcelona as a whole: while the average is 14%, in 22@ it stands at 23.8%, a figure that the head of CBRE Barcelona, Xavier Güell, predicts will gradually decrease as the market absorbs available spaces.
In this sense, 22@ continues to stand as a reference area in the office sector. However, the so-called technological district aims to expand its uses and gain residents through the construction of housing. In fact, the office ratio is much higher than in the rest of the city: while in Barcelona there are two square meters of office per inhabitant, in 22@ the figure rises to 15, which highlights a "use imbalance", according to the head of CBRE's Living area in Barcelona, Olga Beltrán.
With this objective, the City Council modified in 2022 the urban plan that foresees the destination of the 22@ land, and which opted for the creation of protected housing. In total, this change in the planned uses in 25 plots has the potential to generate 3,200 new housing units.
Since this modification in 2022, promotions have been activated in three of the 25 plots, totaling 265 homes, according to a CBRE report. These promotions must be linked to the construction of new offices, and have occurred in a context where this creation of offices has slowed down.
CBRE proposes to modify the urban planning again to generate 5,000 free-market homes, or to opt for the flex living model by adapting the PeuatTo accelerate housing creation in 22@, CBRE proposes modifying urban planning again to accommodate not only protected housing, but also market-rate housing. "We have a private sector willing and with capital to enter," guaranteed Güell, who assured that this measure could generate 5,000 more apartments, with a potential population of 21,000 people: "This would allow generating a new neighborhood within the city, something few large cities can say."
In this regard, CBRE advocates for promoting a new Modification of the Metropolitan General Plan (MPGM), a process that involves the City Council, the Generalitat, and the Barcelona Metropolitan Area (AMB). And it proposes an alternative that affects fewer administrations and only depends on the City Council: to bet on flex living, a model based on one-bedroom apartments with common areas.
By opening this possibility, through a relaxation of the tourist accommodation plan known as Peuat, the district's potential population would reach 18,750 people, according to CBRE. The consultancy proposes to focus this option on international professionals residing in Barcelona, and thus "oxygenate" the Barcelona market and facilitate access to housing.
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