Unlike key office markets in the US and UK that are in deceleration mode, the large majority of Europe’s core office targets are in clear positive rent growth territory. One notable absentee from the party, however, is Barcelona. The Spanish city’s office areas have finished low down in a rental growth forecast list of 18 core submarkets analysed by Green Street Advisors. The research and advisory firm has forecast growth on a revenue per available metre (rev-PAM) basis from 2018 to 2020 to be 2.9 percent for Barcelona’s central property district (CPD), –3.2 percent for its new business areas and –7.6 percent for its city centre.

Green Street’s outlook for the Catalonian capital was more bullish last summer following an extensive due diligence trip conducted by the firm in the spring of 2017. But the tense political situation sparked by Catalonia’s failed declaration of independence in October has dampened its annual office-based employment growth estimate