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102 // iberian.propery / 2017
dossier// ISSUE: TOP IBERIAN cities
LOGISTICS
At the heart of a heavily industrialised region, Bilbao maintains its
position as one of the core logistics hubs in Spain. And, confirming
this, the logistics sector was the greatest driver of the Basque
property market over the past year
Demand
: displays latent growth, but the logistics
activity associated with E-commerce is expected
to consolidate and become the main driver of this
market in 2017, especially in the metropolitan areas of
Bilbao and San Sebastian.
Supply
: due to the Basque geography itself and the
current stock that exists, at the moment, demand is
not being satisfied.
Stock
: there are 18 main industrial parks in Biscay,
located in seven zones with different characteristics:
Puerto Bilbao, Uribe, Metropolitan Bilbao, Airport,
Busturialdea, Ecartaciones and Duranguesado. The
greatest portion of supply (75%) is concentrated in the
zones of Metropolitan Bilbao and the Airport.
Rents
: after reaching record lows in 2014, rents
maintain the slight upward trend initiated in 2015
in the three Basque capitals and their respective
metropolitan areas. In Bilbao, although the highest
rent may reach 6.40 €/m², the average rent is around
3.50 €/m². We note that the values for buildings
outside the market have been heating up, more a
reflection of the lack of product than of its quality.
OFFICES
The overall building stock is quite old and of poor quality, making
it unable to satisfy current requirements. Therefore, reinforcing
investment to regenerate the building stock is a trend that began in
2016 and should continue to grow over the next months.
Demand
: rising demand and take-up of spaces in
2017.
Supply
: 820.000 m² of stock in the metropolitan
area of Bilbao, 190.000 m² of which are mixed-use
buildings and 630.000 m² are buildings solely for
office use (and, of these, 375.000 m² are located in
the city centre).
Prices
: the movement to adjust rents has ended, and
values are expected to start rising throughout 2017.
The average size of the 25
principal office buildings
in Bilbao’s city centre, and
the average age is 42 years.
The average rent practised
in this sample is 13.5 €/
m² per month, and the
vacancy rate is around 12%.
TheAutonomous Community of the Basque Country
Located in northern Spain, near the border with France, the Basque
Country is an Autonomous Community comprised of the provinc-
es of Álava, Gipuzkoa and Biscay. The official capital is the city of
Vitoria-Gasteiz.