The demand for commercial spaces grows by 15% in Barcelona

Demand for the purchase or rental of commercial spaces has grown by around 15% this year in Barcelona, ​​according to the real estate consultancy Laborde Marcet, which points out that this minimal reactivation of the retail sector will consolidate in 2022. It has been in the fourth quarter of the year when a greater increase in interest in renting or investing in new premises has been registered and with "proposals more adjusted to market prices," explains Gerard Marcet, founding partner of Laborde Marcet. Meanwhile, until last August, it was appreciated that many operations responded to investors or real estate operators with a clearly opportunistic profile who "offered well below market price".

By activity areas, the consultancy confirms that throughout this year the fashion sector has consolidated and that there is a generalized tendency to unify stores into flagships, seeking for this type of offer a better location and more square meters of commercial space. Regarding luxury brands, "those that have suffered the most with the pandemic because their main client is the tourist," there has been a lot of renegotiation of rental incomes to adjust them downwards. At this point, practically all available surface area in the streets frequented by luxury brands has already been absorbed because demand reactivated throughout the year seeking a strategic location and focusing on prime arteries such as Paseo de Gràcia or Rambla Catalunya.

It should be noted that, according to data from the consultancy, in the most tourist streets of the city there has been a reduction in prices, with a decrease in rents that has ranged between 5% and 50%, depending on the area. "It is also true that we came from unsustainable rents for operators in certain locations with high commercial demand," says Marcet. Russian and Middle Eastern investors are those who show the most interest in acquiring commercial premises in Barcelona, ​​as is the case in Spain as a whole, he specifies.

Employment has also grown in Avinguda Diagonal, which "has always been an avenue frequented mainly by local people," says Marcet. The founding partner of the consultancy explains that "the widening of sidewalks and the establishment of major brands has given wings to this avenue, which has become a new commercial artery, and now it is to be expected that the Barcelona City Council will continue with the plan to widen sidewalks from Paseo de Gràcia to Paseo de Sant Joan."

The restoration sector has gained ground on the fashion sector in the number of new store openings

However, there are areas of Barcelona that are still dragging the negative impact of the pandemic. This is the case of the Ciutat Vella district, where "streets like Portaferrisa or La Rambla still do not awaken the same interest as in 2019, and I doubt this will change until the tourist flow is reactivated with more force," emphasizes the expert. This has led, in these areas, to a certain readjustment of the design of the commercial and fashion offer. It is noteworthy, for example, that "La Rambla de Barcelona now offers very competitive menus accessible to workers in the area and to the city's residents when, before the pandemic, this type of offer was non-existent on La Rambla and could only be found in the streets near the promenade."

In this regard, Gerard Marcet states that the Barcelona City Council should relax the restriction of activities it established for commercial businesses in Ciutat Vella or, at least, "regulate with greater precision, street by street or section by section, to prevent these limitations from being applied identically throughout the neighborhood." In his opinion, "it would give more flexibility to the opening of food establishments, cafes with tasting, etc., because it is a type of business that brings a lot of life to the neighborhoods."

The commercial reactivation shows, according to Marcet, that omnichannel has prevailed in retail and the pandemic, despite the number of establishments that have been forced to close, has reinforced it as an alternative to guarantee the future of the sector. "We cannot speak of a rebirth of the physical store, but rather that the evolution continues towards direct sales establishment proposals where the user experience part has greater relevance, compared to the traditional format of the point of sale as a showcase," he explains.

In this same sense, Gerard Marcet insists that omnichannel consists of transmitting the same experience to both the online and offline channels and, therefore, will translate into concrete aspects such as simplifying purchase processes in the store to facilitate mobile payment, speeding up the collection of products previously purchased online, and accentuating the control and traceability of products acquired by each client/user to be able to direct precise marketing actions in the future, among others.