Madrid climbs positions and enters the podium of the most attractive European cities for real estate investors, occupying third place in the ranking, only behind London and Paris. Barcelona, for its part, occupies seventh position, according to data from the latest European Investor Intentions Survey 2024 prepared by CBRE based on a survey carried out in November 2023 among almost 900 investors based in Europe.
According to the report, Spain remains the fourth most attractive European country for investors in 2024, only surpassed by the United Kingdom, Germany and Poland, but ahead of the Netherlands, France, Ireland and Italy.
Spain is also the only one that has two cities on this list. If compared with the 2023 data, Madrid climbs two positions on the list, while Barcelona drops one place.
Respondents predict a recovery in the investment market for the second half of this year, prioritizing value-add strategies (operations that involve more risk, but offer greater profitability) and opportunistic strategies in the search for higher returns in the current interest rate environment .
The market estimates that real estate investment is beginning to gain momentum and indicates that buying and selling expectations are higher in 2024 than in the previous year.
Specifically, more than half of investors surveyed believe that market activity will return to levels seen before the rise in global interest rates in the first half of 2025.
Regarding the challenges facing the sector, the mismatch in buyer and seller expectations, interest rates that will remain high and a tightening of financing conditions stand out.
In this sense, half of those surveyed affirm that the general fall in capital values entails certain difficulties for refinancing.
Despite the geopolitical panorama, only 27% of those surveyed believe that this will be a major obstacle for real estate investment, compared to 42% last year.
“The fundamentals of our sector are solid and the market agrees that investment activity will intensify in the second half of the year. Action on buildings to generate higher returns is going to be key in the coming months,” explains Paloma Relinque, director of Capital Markets in Spain from CBRE.
According to the study, southern Europe is in the focus of investors, highlighting the advances that countries such as Spain or Italy are experiencing in terms of ESG (environmental, social and governance aspects) and digitalization, factors that are increasingly relevant due to the capital.
Of those surveyed who plan to carry out sustainability strategies, 80% contemplate the rehabilitation of buildings not only to comply with ESG criteria, but also to generate greater profitability in the properties.
Furthermore, a fifth are willing to pay more for sustainable assets. Of them, 13% would pay up to 20% above the market price if the assets meet high standards.