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Icex, Alstom & Cepsa Reign in the Office Rental Market

6/06/2014 – Expansion

Spain´s leading office markets started the year with very promising figures as for the sector. Companies like Vodafone, Alstom, DKV and HP have decided to move their corporate premises in various Spanish cities to find offices that are more spacious, better located and found in more representative buildings.

According to Aguirre Newman, big companies leased jointly 110.000 square meters of new office spaces in Madrid and 65.000 sqm in Barcelona just in the first quarter of 2014.

“The first three months of the year saw certain movement in this segment, however, in opposition to the best quarters of 2013 (i.e. Q1 and Q4), the contract signing shows greater dynamics without large-scale operations that would influence the numbers. This means the demand is based on belief about the market´s bottoming-out“, says Patricio Palomar from CBRE.

There have been three most prominent rental deals since the beginning of the year. “The largest was the one of Icex which relocated to the 15.300 square meter old headquarters of Repsol”, tells JLLS´s office analyst Ignacio Buendía.

Second biggest in terms of volume was replacing Iberia by Alstom on over 6.000 square meter office space in a building of Colonial at 49 Martínez Villergas street. Also, aircraft company ITP has decided to take advantage of the favorable circumstances the market offers and moved onto a 5.500 space at 9 Francisca Delgado street in Alcobendas (Madrid).

Moreover, Vodafone has played a significant role in the office segment by renting 45.000 square meters at 115 America avenue in Madrid. Although the lease contract was signed last year, the employees moved to the new office in February this year.

The last must-mention is Cepsa that has just rented the Torre Foster from Bankia.

Knight Frank forecasts greater office occupancy rate for 2014 than it was in 2013. Yet higher in 2015, when companies start to hire people at normal pace again.

Apart from Madrid, Albertis leased  5.125 square meter office space on the Pedralbes avenue in Barcelona, HP rented 3.300 sqm in Catalana Parc (Sant Cugat), while DKV Seguros moved to a 5.000 sqm office in a huge building in Zaragoza.

 

Original article: Expansión (by R. Ruiz)

Translation: AURA REE