The tourist boom that Barcelona is experiencing has triggered the payment of transfers for commercial premises in the center of Barcelona, ??with amounts that are around one million euros in Barceloneta and Las Ramblas for premises with a restaurant license, according to Ignasi Busquets, director and founder. from the consulting firm Busquets Gálvez. “Barcelona is the most touristic city in Spain and one of the leaders in Europe, and the locals in the areas with the most traffic are what they are. That is why the brands that want to enter have to pay the current tenants to leave,” says Busquets.
The most dynamic brands also look for locations to attract foreign customers, those with more purchasing power, although “some very specific formats are also interested in the upper area.” In these areas of the city center the price of premises with restaurant licenses has also skyrocketed due to the City Council’s decision not to grant new ones. “Owners who rent the premises when their current tenant’s contract expires do not usually charge the transfer fee to the incoming tenant, but they do charge higher rents,” which can reach 20,000 euros per month.
The tenants willing to pay higher rents, in addition to the restaurants, are the bazaars, of the “everything for a hundred” style and the small supermarkets, generally run by immigrants, which in the center complement their offering with the sale of “souvenirs” for tourists.
This situation has meant that premises have become the investment asset most in demand now by local family offices: their profitability is around 5%-5.5%, “higher than housing and with lower risk, because the City Council In some cases it exercises the right of first refusal and takes back buildings or makes their transformation difficult,” Busquets recalls.
“Home purchasing remains strong, but not as an investment but as a residence. Every day we receive requests to buy luxury apartments, for between 500,000 and 1.5 million euros, especially from people outside Barcelona,” he acknowledges.