Garbe: Spain’s logistics market offers excellent opportunities
Spain’s logistics market is booming and offering great opportunities for investors, delegates heard at the presentation of Garbe Pyramid 2025, organised by Garbe Industrial Real Estate and Real Asset Media, which took place online this week.
“The Spanish logistics property market has seen dynamic growth in recent years and has become one of the most attractive markets in Europe,” said Sven Schoel, managing director, Garbe Industrial Spain. “This sector is particularly benefiting from strong growth in 3PL logistics, supermarkets, and the technology & IT sector, but there are also new opportunities with light industrial assets and cold storage facilities.”
Spain’s strong and stable economy is driving the success of the logistics sector: GDP growth was 3.1% last year and is forecast to be 2.5% this year, well above the Eurozone and EU average. Inflation is still high but trending down to 2.3%.
Other positives for the market are the combination of geographical location, a good infrastructure and transport network and logistics know-how.
“Spain is key to shortening the supply chain in Europe,” said Schoel. “The country is ideally located as a gateway to the Mediterranean, a hub for overland distribution in the Old Continent and an important air traffic network to South America.”
In 2024, total take-up in Spain was 23% higher than in 2023, the third highest value ever recorded. Rents are growing in the main markets, with Madrid, the biggest market, seeing a 5.4% increase and Catalonia, the strongest market, seeing a 6% rise.
“The Barcelona region is the strongest logistics market in Spain, prime rents are higher and so is demand,” said Schoel. “Its primacy will continue, largely because of its geographical position, big port and demand from France just across the border.”
Investment in logistics assets has shown signs of recovery, with the return to the market of large portfolio above €100 million and big deals in Madrid and Barcelona, as well as a steady trickle of smaller transactions below €20 million.
“Developers always focus on Madrid and Barcelona, but secondary locations are growing in importance every year,” said Schoel. “There are new developments in Murcia, Andalusia and the Basque country and new deals being closed in secondary locations like Murcia and Burgos.”
New investors have spotted the opportunity and entered the market in 2024, including big names like Generali Real Estate, Fidelity International and Mapletree.
“Investors are keen to deploy capital in the logistics sector, it has become a core interest,” Schoel added. “The land acquisition market is less professional than in the UK or Germany, as it’s usually private owners selling.”
Garbe is doing both greenfield and brownfield developments in Madrid and Barcelona. It is the only developer currently active in the metropolitan area of Barcelona, where it has acquired a 90,000 sq m area for a greenfield development in the city’s second ring, which has a potential gross letting area of over 24,000 sq m.
It also has another greenfield development in Illescas, in Madrid’s third ring, for the construction of an XXL warehouse with a potential GLA of over 85,000 sq m.
The Spanish logistics market has another ace up its sleeve. Chinese companies do not have a footprint in Europe, they need warehouses and a service network in place if they want to expand across the continent. Spain could be an obvious choice: “Madrid is already one of the biggest Chinese hubs in Europe,” Schoel said.
