He rental and sale of office premises in the city of Cordova has plummeted since the pandemic of the coronavirus. There are two significant facts – according to the Córdoba real estate sector – that indicate that the market for office premises is not “at its best.” On the one hand, the great offer of this type of spaces and, on the other, their months on the market real estate. The Idealista real estate portal offered at the beginning of this month of May 112 offices for rent and 73 for sale in the city. For its part, the Fotocasa portal had 157 ads for offices for rent.
«The drop in the rental and sale of office premises has occurred in Córdoba since March 2020 with the pandemic. From that moment, the demand fell and now in the Córdoba real estate market there is not only a lot of supply, but they also remain on the market for a long time, not only months, but some stores have even been there for years,” says the president of the Córdoba Real Estate Association (Asaicor), Jose Vaquero.
Purchase and sale of premises in Córdoba
According to the real estate sector, there are two clear causes that have caused the drop in demand for this type of premises. On the one hand, the increasingly widespread practice by companies in the telecommuting, which makes a common work space unnecessary for workers; and, on the other hand, the greatest profitability of transforming these spaces, previously used for offices, into homes. The trend is “a change in the use of premises to homes, which are more profitable,” explains José Vaquero.
It also highlights that Very few office spaces are rentedthe demand being “very small.” The rental price per square meter is around seven or eight euros.. According to their calculations, the monthly rent for a 40 square meter office, the most common, would currently cost between 400 and 350 euros in the city of Córdoba. «Given these prices, The owners of the premises prefer to change their use to housingbecause they obtain greater profitability,” says José Vaquero.
In his opinion, the most in-demand office locations are in theNorth Road,The victory and the surroundings of the plazaColon. Outside of “that belt” there are practically no clients interested in this type of real estate offer.
The market is so weak In relation to the offices, José Vaquero recognizes that the offer of this type of premises does not exceed 5% in real estate.
However, one of the real estate agencies consulted by this newspaper, Great Captainconsiders that the supply of offices reaches 15% in its advertisements and that the market rent “is going much better than sale».
In the opinion of this real estate agency, the rental market for office premises is maintaining itself in the city of Córdoba, with most demanded areas for this type of business Cruz Conde, Garden City and Mary the Jew.
The spokesperson for Gran Capitán acknowledges, however, that although it is profitable to offer this type of premises in real estate agencies, the price of both sale and rental has remained the same, even stagnant, for two or three years. The most requested office space size ranges between 70 and 200 square meters and the vast majority of applicants look for a bright space and, if possible, with large windows. According to the real estate sector, there is no seasonality in this market. That is to say, there are no seasons or months in which the rental or sale of this type of premises increases.
In addition to being able to rent an office for months, in Córdoba there is Córdoba Spaceswhich offers rent an office even for an hour. «Now, there is a lot of supply of premises and very little demand. “They are streaks,” says Espacios Córdoba spokesperson, Isidro Vázquez, with 15 years of experience.
The purchase and sale of commercial premises -includes offices, shops, bars and any other business- remained practically at the same level last year as a year before, since 857 operations went to 840, that is, there were only 17 fewer. According to the INE, in 2019 there were 707 transactions, while a year later there was a significant decrease and the figure dropped to 578. Later, in 2021 the number of operations rose to 752, and in 2022, to 857, to decrease slightly in 2023 (840). Only between January and February of this year there have been 124 transactions.
