Europe -  Barcelona

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Barcelona is one of Europe’s favourite short-break leisure destinations. It has a wealth of cultural attractions, including a well-preserved medieval centre, and a reputation for being a centre of modern and avant-garde art. The city boasts a vast cultural heritage of Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí, as well as other notable Catalan artists such as Joan Miró and Salvador Dalí. Barcelona is also an important banking and financial centre, and its transport links and proximity to France have helped to attract considerable foreign investment. In addition, Barcelona is an established centre for meeting, incentive, conference and exhibition (MICE) business as well as an increasingly important port of call for cruise ships. In 2022, Barcelona was ranked fourth in the ICCA worldwide meetings list, positioning itself behind of Vienna, Lisbon and Paris.

Following years of unrelenting growth in the number of summer by day trippers from nearby beach destinations and cruise ships, residents’ concerns of ‘over-tourism’ in Barcelona resulted, in July 2015, in the mayor placing a moratorium on approving new hotel developments and short-term rentals. In March 2017, the moratorium was substituted with the Special Tourist Accommodation Plan (PEUAT). Because the 2017 PEUAT was declared null in 2019 by various rulings of Catalonia’s Superior Court of Justice, a new PEUAT was approved by the Full Council on 23 December 2021 and came into force on 26 January 2022. The PEUAT regulates the introduction of tourist accommodation establishments, as well as youth hostels, tourist apartments and shared homes, limiting the new hotel supply entering the market, effectively creating high barriers to entry for new hotel developments.

Following years of strong RevPAR growth of between 5% and 10% year-on-year, the civil unrest and demonstrations that followed the 1 October 2017 Catalan Independence Referendum had a direct impact on tourism and resulted in performance declines for 2018. The city’s performance swiftly recovered in 2019. As a result, hotel values in Barcelona increased by around 6.5% in 2019 and surpassed 2017 levels in nominal terms. After the pandemic-impacted years, room nights in Barcelona had recovered to around 90% of 2019 levels in 2022 but, despite strong growth in average rates, the RevPAR level remained just under 20% below the 2019 level in real terms. 2023 saw a full return of Barcelona’s hotel demand to pre-pandemic levels, and average rates grew by more than 10%, which led to RevPAR surpassing the 2019 level by over 5% in real terms.

Barcelona’s current hotel pipeline includes four projects, which are expected to bring more than 900 rooms to the city’s hotel room supply. The 491-room luxury SLS Hotel and the 75-room economy easyHotel are being constructed and are set to open in June 2024 and April 2025, respectively. The other two hotels, a 189-room ibis budget and a 163-room MEININGER, are still in the planning phase. This is a comparatively modest pipeline in such an established hotel, market due to its high barriers to entry.

From the investment landscape perspective, Barcelona recorded ten hotel transactions in 2023, three more than the previous year. The main transactions consisted of the sale of the 465-room Hotel Sofia for €180 million (€387,000 per room) in March; the 30-room Sansi Peralbes for €9 million (€300,000 per room) and the 120-room Mandarin Oriental for €200 million (€1,670,000 per room) in June; and the 110-room Gallery Hotel for €50 million (€455,000 per room) in September.

Overall, our HVI analysis indicates a healthy value increase of 3.8% per key in Barcelona in 2023 compared to the previous year, with values per room being just under the 2019 level.

Change In Value For Market: (€Euro)

Legend
Significant Value Increase: Greater than +10%
Moderate Value Increase: Between +3% and +10%
Stable Values: Between -3% and +3%
Moderate Value Decline: Between -3% and -10%
Significant Value Decline: More than -10%

For more information, please contact:

Sophie Perret, MRICS, MBA
Managing Director
[email protected]
  • +44 0 2078787722 (w)
  • +44 0 7725781037 (m)
Julia Dzerkach
Associate
[email protected]
  • +44 0 2078787742 (w)
  • +44 0 7912240964 (m)
Clemence Sennavoine
Associate
[email protected]
  • ++44 0 7736273439 (m)