Tag: C&W

C&W: Investment in High Street Premises Soared by 70% in 2018 to €1.7bn

6 March 2019 – Eje Prime

According to the latest edition of Cushman & Wakefield’s Investment Insight report, investment in high street assets in Spain soared by 70% in 2018 to reach €1.7 billion. In total, 52 operations were closed last year, accounting for 38% of all investments in commercial assets. The fashion and banking sectors accounted for the most deals.

Meanwhile, 32 operations were closed in the shopping centre segment, where the total investment amounted to almost €1.9 billion, down by 25% compared to 2017. In addition, 7 retail parks were sold last year for €236 million.

In the office sector, investment rose by 29% YoY in 2018 to reach €3.1 billion, with Madrid accounting for 66% of that total (€2.1 billion) and Barcelona accounting for 31% (€950 million).

In the logistics sector, e-commerce drove a sharp increase in investment to reach €1.2 billion, with 890,000 m2 of logistics space leased in Madrid and 345,000 m2 in Barcelona.

In terms of alternative assets, investment in student halls amounted to €220 million in 2018, whilst investment in nursing homes leapt to €281 million.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Portal de L’Àngel Ratifies is Position as Spain’s Most Expensive Street

14 November 2018 – Eje Prime

Portal de l’Àngel has reaffirmed its position as Spain’s most expensive street in Spain for opening a commercial premise. The busy Barcelona thoroughfare charges an average rent of €3,360/m2 per year, according to the report Main streets across the world 2018, compiled by Cushman&Wakefield. The amount this year has not varied with respect to the previous year.

Meanwhile, Madrid’s Calle Preciados continues in second place in the ranking, with an average rent of €3,240/m2 per year, which represents a 2% increase with respect to prices last year.

Across Europe as a whole, Portal de l’Àngel occupies the 18th position in the ranking of prime high streets in the region, whilst Calle Preciados is positioned at number twenty. In terms of the main commercial thoroughfares around the world, Barcelona’s prime street is placed at number 67 and Madrid’s at number 71.

In the global ranking for 2018, Causeway Bay, in Hong Kong knocked off Fifth Avenue in New York from the top of the podium, with a rental price of €24,606/m2 per year. Retail rents on the New York prime street amount to €20,733/m2 per year. In third place is New Bond Street in London with an average price of €16,071/m2 per year.

Original story: Eje Prime 

Translation: Carmel Drake

C&W: 86 Office Spaces Spanning 101,000 m2 were Leased in 22@ in 2017

2 July 2018 – Mis Oficinas

According to the Marketshot report issued by the real estate consultancy Cushman & Wakefield, Barcelona’s 22@ district closed 2017 with 86 rental operations, spanning a total surface area of 101,000 m2, which represents the highest figure in the last ten years.

The 22@ district is continuing at record levels for another year. According to the Marketshot report from the real estate consultancy firm Cushman & Wakefield, the district closed 2017 with a total of 86 rental operations, spanning a surface area of 101,000 m2, which represents the highest figure in the last ten years and 34% more than in the previous two years. This leasing figure accounted for 30% of the total office space leased in Barcelona and was led by pre-lease operations, such as the case of Amazon in the Luxa Silver building (10,241 m2), Activision (King) in Ciutat de Granada 150 (8,837 m2), Hewlett-Packard in the building located on c/Tanger 62 (8,132 m2) and WeWork in the Luxa Gold building (6,572 m2).

Potential tenants in the district are mainly looking for sustainable, high-quality spaces. In this sense, 78% of the surface area leased belongs to buildings with A or B+ ratings. The district had only 60,000 m2 of space available at the end of the first quarter of 2018, which represented a 15% decrease in the available surface area in one year and an availability rate of 7%. If we take into account high-quality buildings only (those with A and B+ ratings), the percentage of available space in the 22@ district decreases to 5.7%. Leasing levels recorded at the moment and forecast for the next few months support the development of new properties.

The 22@ district currently has 129,000 m2 of space under construction, scheduled to be handed over between the second half of 2018 and 2019. The potential space for offices in the district amounts to more than 800,000 m2, of which 350,000 m2 is located on finalist land.

Investor interest in the district broke all records in 2017. In terms of investment volumes, the 22@ district received total investment of €161 million, which tripled the €51 million recorded in 2016. In square metres, the investment volume amounted to 173,000 m2, well above the figure at the end of 2016, which amounted to 33,000 m2.

New construction in the area has reactivated in recent months, due to the type of demand and, to a large extent, the growth in rents. On the basis that this trend is going to continue, there will be an impact on capital markets, where we will start seeing operations again soon.

Flexible and coworking spaces are enjoying an unprecedented boom in Barcelona at the moment. The rise in coworking spaces in the city is clear and during the first six months of 2018, 52% more space was leased in this segment than during the whole of 2017.

In Barcelona, the 22@ district is still the main hub of innovation in the city, attracting technological companies, startups and the digital eco-system. The main coworking operation this year, amounting to 4,500 m2, was completed in 22@ and these types of spaces already account for 3.5% of the constructed stock in the district (…).

Original story: Mis Oficinas 

Translation: Carmel Drake

C&W: 130,000m2 of Office Space Leased in Sant Cugat since 2015

15 March 2018 – Eje Prime

Sant Cugat del Vallès is growing strong in Barcelona’s slipstream. In addition to being one of the most sought-after cities in the residential market, the office sector is also strongly committed to this location, where 130,000 m2 of office space has been leased since 2015. Those figures place the city as the second location of choice for this segment in the province of Barcelona.

Currently, there are more than 3,100 companies installed in the city, with a financial district containing 49 hectares of business parks and more than 62,000 professionals working in its office buildings, according to the Marketshot report prepared by the consultancy firm Cushman&Wakefield.

According to the research, Sant Cugat del Vallès has played a fundamental role in the expansion of Barcelona’s office stock in recent years, evolving from a dormitory city into a nucleus of activity for the services sector, bringing together workers and residents alike.

Since 2015, the number of office rental operations in the city has soared. During that year, a record volume of office space was leased, with more than 75,000 m2 signed. In 2015 and the following year, 54 transactions were signed in the office market, spanning a leasable surface area of 104,000m2, which represented 27% of all the office space leased in the entire province of Barcelona.

In recent years, large operations have been carried out with the arrival of Stradivarius into an office building that spans 26,400 m2; and the leasing of offices to Echevarne, Mapfre and Natura Bissé Internacional, which contracted 12,000 m2, 10,000 m2 and 9,200 m2 of space, respectively.

In terms of the type of office being demanded, in Sant Cugat, prime products stand out. Quality A-rated offices account for 93% of the total space leased in the city, whilst properties rated Quality A/B+ represent 96% of the leasable surface area. These records have generated a significant decrease in the space available in the city.

In 2017, the shortage of available office space in Sant Cugat became clear with the leasing of just 22,000 m2 of space, a much lower figure than had been recorded in previous years. And, currently, the available surface area has been reduced to just 25,500 m2, which represents an availability rate of 4.9%, when just a few years ago, it stood at 30%.

Sant Cugat is a sought-after enclave for sectors such as pharmaceutical, R&D and technology, due to the services, communications and technical quality of the buildings, according to the report. It also highlights the location in the city of the Esadecréapolis knowledge and innovation centre as a “powerful” magnet for those types of companies to set up shop there.

1,800 m2 on average 

Since 2015, the average rental operation in Sant Cugat has amounted to around 1,800 m2, when between 2010 and 2014, the figure was less than half (750 m2).

Today, in Sant Cugat, there is more than 115,000 m2 of potential office space, of which 100,000 m2 is located on buildable land, without a construction start date. The potential for growth in the stock is significant, and if all the projects were to be completed, the office supply in the city (the capital of the office market on the outskirts of Barcelona) would increase by 22%.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Unibail-Rodamco Puts 4 Shopping Centres Up For Sale

14 March 2018 – Eje Prime

Unibail-Rodamco is getting rid of a package of assets that are non-strategic for the group. The French giant has put the following complexes up for sale: Los Arcos, in Sevilla; Bahía Sur, in Cádiz; Vallsur, in Valladolid, and El Faro, in Badajoz, on the basis that they do not fulfil the group’s needs in the Spanish market, according to sources close to the company speaking to Eje Prime.

According to the same sources, “the assets that the group wants to divest are profitable, but due to their location, size and strategy, the firm has decided to get rid of them”. Unibail-Rodamco has entrusted the sale of these four assets to the real estate consultancy firm Cushman&Wakefield.

Sector sources say that, initially, the Equinocio shopping centre in Madrid was also going to be put on the market alongside the other four assets, however, Unibail-Rodamco must have changed its mind at the last moment. The price that Unibail-Rodamco has set for each asset is unknown.

The sale of these four assets forms part of the operation that the firm carried out last year with Barnasud, the complex acquired by Meridia Capital, a Catalan fund owned by the businessman Javier Faus, which paid Unibail-Rodamco €35 million for the asset.

In recent years, the French group has spent a significant amount on the renovation of some of its shopping centres in Spain. The most ambitious project was the Glòries shopping centre, where the company invested €150 million on its complete transformation. In total, the transformation added 12,500 m2 of public space, spread over 8,500 m2 of new streets, 2,500 m2 of urbanisation and pavements around the site and 1,500 m2 of new green space in the 22@ neighbourhood.

Whilst Unibail-Rodamco waits to receive the green light for the expansion of one of its main shopping centres in Spain, La Maquinista, the group’s portfolio in Spain comprises 12 shopping centres, with Barcelona and Madrid as the cities that are home to the most complexes. Whilst in the Catalan capital, the company operates La Maquinista, Glòries and Splau, in Madrid it manages La Vaguada, Equinoccio and Parquesur shopping centres.

In the rest of the country, Unibail-Rodamco has one complex in Valencia, Bonaire; one in Cádiz, Bahía Sur; one in Sevilla, Los Arcos; Vallsur, in Valladolid; El Faro, in Badajoz, and one in San Sebastián, which operates under the name Garbera.

Currently, the group led by Christophe Cuvillier has a portfolio in Spain worth €3.6 billion, which receives 126.2 million visitors per year. These assets represent 10% of the firm’s global portfolio.

Double-digit growth in Spain

The company ended last year in the Spanish market with a net profit of €161 million, up by 10.3% compared to 2016, when the group earned €146 million.

In this way, Spain has become one of the highest growth countries for Unibail-Rodamco. In all of the markets in which it operates, the French company recorded a net profit of €1.35 billion in 2017, up by 5.8% compared to the previous year, when its earnings amounted to €1.27 billion (…).

Original story: Eje Prime (by Custodio Pareja)

Translation: Carmel Drake

The Value of Lar España’s Asset Portfolio Rises by 29% to €1.5bn

25 January 2018 – Eje Prime

Lar España said goodbye to 2017 with more valuable assets in its portfolio. The Socimi has reported that its property portfolio experienced a 29% increase in value last year, up to €1.538 billion. According to the Socimi, that figure is higher than the sum of the prices at which it purchased its properties (€1.196 billion).

The company specified that the valuation of its real estate portfolio has been prepared by Cushman&Wakefield and JLL Valoraciones, according to Europa Press. This increase in the value of its portfolio is due to the various efforts undertaken in respect of its assets and the investments made during the course of the last twelve months.

As Lar España itself explained, between 2016 and 2017, it invested €74 million in improvements to assets in its portfolio, split between shopping centres (€20 million), office buildings (€11 million) and developments (€43 million).

Moreover, according to the Socimi, from the point of view of management, several actions have been undertaken. Specifically, the company highlights the purchase of properties for numerous rental rotation operations. In total, those types of operations account for 22% of the surface area occupied by the Socimi’s assets to date.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

C&W: 876,000 m2 of Logistics Space was Leased in Madrid in 2017

9 January 2018 -Eje Prime

The logistics sector is starting 2018 with a bang. The industrial sector is soaring, after breaking records last year, with the leasing of 876,000 m2 of space in Madrid, its strongest location. That figure represents an increase of 80% with respect to 2016 and is the highest recorded in the last decade, exceeding even the 800,000 m2 of space that was leased in 2007, according to data from the real estate consultancy Cushman & Wakefield.

Similarly, the number of operations signed in relation to the purchase of warehouses and logistics centres amounted to 66, whereby exceeding the 50 recorded in 2016, and the average size of the surface area leased was 15,000 m2.

The areas bordering the A-2 and the A-4 were the most sought-after, as reflected by the influence that they had on the total volume of space leased in Madrid as a whole: the first area accounted for 60% of all operations, whilst assets located along the road to Valencia accounted for another 26% of transactions.

That significant increase in the sale of logistics land also resulted in a rise in prime rents. 2017 closed with an average price per square metre of €5.25/m2.

Meanwhile, in Barcelona, 450,000 m2 of logistics space was leased during 2017, which represents a decrease compared to 2016 when 645,000 m2 of space was leased, primarily because two large operations were registered during that year, with the arrival of Amazon and Mango, which incorporated warehouses with surface areas of 200,000 m2.

In the Catalan capital, by contrast, prime rents rose by 12.5%. The latest data shows an average price per square metre of logistics space of €6.25/m2 in the Mediterranean city. That rate is the highest of any of the capital cities in Southern Europe and is one of the highest on the continent. London is still the most expensive enclave for leasing warehouses and logistics centres with a price per square metre of around €15/m2.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Internos Leases 3,000m2 Of Office Space In Its La Marina Property (Madrid)

30 October 2017 – Cushman & Wakefield

INTERNOS Global Investors (INTERNOS) has leased more than 3,000 m2 of office space to a leading digital and media solutions company in the La Marina Business Park in San Sebastián de los Reyes, Madrid.

The building, which is owned by INTERNOS Spezialfondsgesellschaft Mbh branch in Spain (part of the ICE Balanced fund) is located in a business park that comprises 11 office buildings and which is characterised by the high quality of its facilities. The asset is home to other high-profile tenants such as Telepizza, Kaelis and P&G.

La Marina Business Park has several services in the area and excellent communications, both in terms of public and private transport. The area is also home to the headquarters of Atresmedia.

Cushman & Wakefield, the global leader in real estate services has advised the operation, which takes the occupancy rate of the building to 85%.

Santiago Neira, Senior Asset Manager at INTERNOS, said: “This is a great achievement for INTERNOS. We have managed to sign two important rental agreements for our property in San Sebastián de los Reyes, covering a GLA of almost 9,000 m2. This provides further evidence of the good quality of our assets and our vocation as proactive managers.

Jaime Ibáñez from the Business Space department at Cushman & Wakefield added: “This is an excellent and modern building that has certainly appreciated in value following the recent improvements carried out by Internos”.

Original story: Cushman & Wakefield

Translation: Carmel Drake

Large Retailers Compete For City Centre Premises

14 September 2017 – El País

Retailers that typically occupy out-of-town stores only, brands such Ikea, Decathlon, Media Markt, Leroy Merlin and Kiabi have done an about turn with their strategies. Now, they want to take their products to the heart of cities to reach clients who are not visiting them on the outskirts. They are occupying the few large retail premises that are available close to the major commercial thoroughfares of Madrid and Barcelona. They are not pushing up the rental prices of these properties yet; in fact, they are investing between €1 million and €5 million on renovation work. But they will.

The main retail areas in the centre of Madrid and Barcelona have new tenants. The so-called out-of-town retailers, which, until recently, could only be found in retail parks on the outskirts are undertaking a new urban strategy. They want to approach a new group of customers, those who want to avoid using their cars and it wants to lock them in. This week, Decathlon announced that it will open three stores in the heart of Madrid, where Leroy Merlin will also set up shop in 2018, following in the wake of Ikea (which inaugurated its store on c/Serrano in May), Kiabi (which has just done the same in Barcelona on Paseo de Gracia) and Media Markt, the first to arrive in the centre of both cities (as well as in Valencia).

The trend started two years ago in major European cities and comes in response to a move by the population towards the centre and to the fact that e-commerce is requiring companies to respond rapidly to their clients. That means being close to them, explains Robert Travers, Director at the real estate consultancy Cushman & Wakefield (…).

The strategy of these chains is to open stores on the main commercial thoroughfares of large cities in smaller spaces than those they occupy in the out-of-town retail parks, but of considerable dimensions given that they are in the centre. “They are not looking for prime locations, but rather premises very nearby, because they cannot afford the rents of operators such as Zara, Mango and H&M. Instead they pay around 30% less because their margins are smaller”, says Travers. They need streets with high footfall and premises measuring at least 1,000 m2 or 2,000 m2, with open-plan floors; such features are very few and far between in the best shopping areas.

For the time being, the arrival of these brands has not had any impact on rental prices, given that, according to Sergio Fernandes, the Director of Retail at the consultancy firm JLL, the availability of these kinds of properties on the main commercial thoroughfares is very limited and the operators that demand them are also very few. “Only the leaders of each sector are brave enough to make the move. For the time being, we are seeing only six or seven brands”, he says. Examples include Aki, Bricor, Verdecora, Sport Zone and Kiwoko Mundo Animal. Nevertheless, “they are managing to make use of certain properties that would otherwise go unoccupied as they are not in the right locations for the fashion brands”, says David Barragán, Director of Retail at the real estate firm Aguirre Newman (…).

The search is not easy, according to estate agents and retail chains (…). The negotiations are intense and prolonged because the premises need renovating and the brands demand grace periods whilst the construction work takes place, which tenants typically pay. Rental contracts are being signed for periods of between seven and 20 years.

But it is worth it. The pilot store that the Swedish chain Ikea has opened in Madrid is performing better than expected. In fact, some of the new formulas that it offers have already been extended to its other stores (customisation of fabrics, dressers and doors). Nevertheless, Ikea is still assessing whether or not to open more central stores with this format, which combines sales and entertainment (…).

Original story: El País (by Claudio Álvarez)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Amazon’s Rise Boosts Logistics Leasing In Madrid

12 July 2017 – Cinco Días

Amazon has become the indisputable star of the new wave of expansion being seen in the logistics real estate sector in Spain. By way of example, in the last six months, the US e-commerce giant has starred in two of the largest operations in the sector. The first, involving a warehouse measuring 34,000 m2 in Martorelles (Barcelona) and the second, the largest during H1, in Getafe (Madrid), where it has leased 58,125 m2 of space in total (…).

According to the consultancy firm JLL, the volume of space leased in Madrid, including this deal, has doubled in one year in terms of square metres, to exceed 380,000 m2. Meanwhile, Barcelona continues at the same high rate seen in 2015 and 2016.

“In Madrid, a significant amount of demand has been contained in the market – it was forecast in previous years and has now flourished”, explained Pere Morcillo, Director of Industrial and Logistics at JLL. “All of the large users of logistics space were aware that their warehouses had very high occupancy rates and that the need for new space was imminent”, he added. Another reason is the economic dynamism in the country, after the hard years of crisis, together with the new models of consumption.

“The record level is due to the growth of the Spanish economy, which is based on the growth of exports and domestic consumption, as well as on imports and the growth of online businesses”, said Luis Lázaro, Director of Logistics at the Socimi Merlin Properties.

It is precisely these listed real estate investment companies (Socimi), created from 2014 onwards, and international funds, that have provided the sector with the necessary investment to undertake new projects to construct logistics warehouses. (…). According to the head of JLL: “We have seen Socimis such as Lar and Axiare, and in particular, Merlin, enter the market to buy land. Their logistics investment objectives are so ambitious that they are having to create the stock that didn’t exist before to be able to incorporate it into their portfolios”.

Besides the Socimis, funds such as P3 Logistics Parks, Rockspring, GreenOak, Logicor (sold by Blackstone to China Investment) have starred in the majority of the transactions and new developments seen in Spain in recent months.

Indeed, P3 Logistics will be responsible for Amazon’s macro turn-key project in Illescas (Toledo), a plan that should see the light within the next few weeks with the award of the work tender.

Data from the consultancy firm Cushman & Wakefield (C&W) also reflects the record investment in Madrid. “Logistics operators are responding to a general climate of major activity in consumption and industrial production”, says the report issued by the consultancy. “The new lease contracts are focusing on the first and third rings (around Madrid). Parcel distributors are active in the first ring, primarily in Getafe and San Fernando. Meanwhile, in the third ring, operators are looking for large spaces (spanning more than 20,000 m2) with good locations for high volume logistics. In this segment of the market, the rental price plays a key role”.

This ring contains several key sites, such as Cabanillas del Campo, on the A-2 motorway close to Guadalajara. Similarly, Illescas, on the A-42, which is starting to establish itself through the Amazon project and other warehouses, such as those leased to Toyota and Michelin. In Cataluña, C&W highlights the sites at Camp de Tarragona and Vallès Oriental, which account for two-thirds of the space leased in Barcelona’s area of influence.

In terms of forecasts, the director at Merlin believes that the trend in the logistics sector will continue to be positive. (…).

Original story: Cinco Días (by Alfonso Simón Ruiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake