Despite the pandemic’s having caused a slowdown in personal property purchases, investors are keen to keep buying and plan to expand their portfolios this year, in both residential and commercial buildings. Although 2020 was a disappointing year for the property industry as a whole, the back end of the year showed strong signs of recovery – new builds, in particular, bounced back, with sales and purchases rising by over 4 percent in the final quarter of 2020, compared with figures from the same three months in 2019.
Recent research shows that 55 percent of property investors across Europe intend to buy in Spain in 2021, which is expected to translate to a growth in this type of home or commercial premises purchase in the country of between 10 and 20 percent based upon 2020 figures.
Investors’ approaches in Spain this year are fairly diversified and the EMEA Investor Survey has asked them about the nature of their buying plans for the first time – around a third are looking at value-added strategies, whilst 26 percent are expecting to opt for core-plus.
The survey says 56 percent are particularly keen to attract and retain solvent tenants, and to work towards growth in income from rent across the board by expanding their portfolio of homes and business premises to let, whilst renovations and resales are of ‘serious interest’ to at least 50 percent.
Multi-family property, such as apartment blocks or complete urbanisations of several villas, are a popular type of investment in Spain for 2021, with 14 percent saying this is their number one option, and the same proportion of investors said they would choose to focus on industrial and logistical property.
Overall, now is said to be a good time to invest in office and residential property, but not so much for retail. There is a sharp rise in interest in ‘build-to-rent’ schemes, particularly among European investors seeking to break into the Spanish market.
The newly-fashionable logistics centre investment market ‘still has room to grow’ and has not peaked yet, since the pandemic has ‘completely transformed’ the sector: Companies now need more space for handling a rising demand in online shopping – storage, delivery and packaging centres – and the growth in ‘e-commerce’ has created new jobs and a need for premises, such as data centre offices.
This is one of the many aspects where the pandemic has ‘totally changed the face’ of the property market, both commercial and residential, says MVGM – the company recalls how last year’s lockdown led to a sudden surge in enquiries about homes with gardens, terraces, pools, and generally more outside space.
As for location, investors who already have a presence in Spain would choose Madrid above any other major city in Europe – 28 percent said the Spanish capital was their first choice – whilst second choice was Amsterdam, with 13 percent saying they were focusing on the largest Dutch metropolitan area.