The Spanish real estate sector just broke a historic record. In the first half of the year, this fabric received 9,870 million euros of investment, a figure on the way to doubling (+80%) the volume of the same period of 2021. They are, according to the CBRE real estate consultant -responsible for radiography-, “the best data since records were recorded”.
According to this analysis, the most investor interest to wake up is the commercial part. These types of premises capture around 2,900 million euros (nearly 30% of the total), a figure which, in this case, is eight times higher than in the first half of last year. It is thus the real estate segment that has made the most progress, even if it is largely driven by a large-scale operation: Acquisition by BBVA from Merlin of more than 630 of its former branches for almost 2 billion euros.
There is also a considerable increase in housing investment, which is the second sector that receives the most capital (2,400 million euros, or a quarter of the total) and which is still growing by 70% compared to last year. In this case, although the buildings built to rent out their homes and the private property in use remain the assets that generate the most appetite among investors, the real estate consultant detects that operations are starting to pick up around the student residences and the call ‘coliving’.
Thus, together, commercial premises and housing represent more than half of the investments of the Spanish real estate sector. Below are the hotel sector, which recorded the best first-half figure for five years (1,650 million euros); the industrial and logistics sector (1,175 million); the workshops, which maintained their upward trend by increasing their weighting by 27% (1,000 million euros); and, finally, the alternative sector (600 million), where the “large number of operations” in the health sector and especially around residences for the elderly.
“The investment volumes recorded in the first half of the year show that the real estate sector in Spain continues to be attractive to investors, even in a changing macroeconomic context”, analyzes the research director of CBRE in Spain, Miriam Goicoechea, which nevertheless admits that the economic turbulence could alter the trend in the second half. “The existing volatility on the market will lead us to closely monitor the evolution of the investment throughout the second half of the year”, specifies the expert.
The price of real estate is rising
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This same real estate advisor had already warned at the end of May that house prices are expected to rise 3.6% this year. Concretely, this new construction would do so by 4.4% and second-hand construction by 3.4%. Until March, and according to the College of Registrars, the residential sector had already become more expensive by more than 10% compared to the same period of the previous year. According to his analysis, in Spain, the average price of housing was 1,911 euros per square meter at the start of the year. In Cataloniathe fourth most expensive community in this sense, was 2,391 euros per square meter.
In any case, CBRE specifies that these price increases are far from being interpreted as a return to real estate bubble. “The real estate sector is in a great moment, a fantastic year 2021 has been closed in transactions and 2022 is focused on this too,” said the vice president of real estate advice in Spain, in May. Javier Kindelan. “Spain remains a market with little supply compared to demand, hence the great potential for ‘living'”, concluded the manager.