The conversion of offices, offices and consultancies into apartments, especially in Madrid, is one of the issues that concerns and concerns the Spanish Association of Offices (AEO), which this year celebrates its 20th anniversary. «We calculated an average of 250,000 square meters in the central neighborhoods that could be transformed into around 20,000 apartments», explains José María Álvarez (1950, Madrid), president since 2013. He underlines the degree of efficiency and sustainability of these properties and the dynamic role they play in the economy of Spain, a country that has 25 million square meters of private offices, 80% concentrated in Madrid and Barcelona. Nonetheless, he admits that mistakes were made in the design of the spaces with the sole aim of saving costs.
Ask. The sector has taken a hit with the pandemic. Has demand recovered?
Answer. There has been a decline, as well as in tourism, air transport or GDP. It was a terrible crisis, in some respects even more so than the Great Recession of 2008. Today the market is approaching the 2019 data. Hiring, the availability rate and the volume of investments are recovering, and more than 70% of employees are returning to headquarters in in-person or hybrid mode.
Q What figures do they use?
R. Office rentals in Madrid are estimated to total 600,000 square meters in 2025, which represents a 5% increase compared to 2024. It is still below 630,000 square meters in 2019, an all-time high since 2007. In Barcelona, the estimate reaches 310,000 square meters, up from 399,000 in 2019.
Q. At the time it was said that the offices would disappear. Did you believe it?
R. I never thought about it. The offices would die in 2020 and have been resurrected. In 1919, during the so-called “Spanish plague”, the end of the cities was also announced and it was said that people would go to the countryside. Neither then nor now it happened. The human being is social; Cities have always been the engine of economic, social and cultural development. Offices remain essential spaces for communication, cooperation and creativity. The fact that a hybrid model exists today proves that the prophecy was a lie.
Q. Not a big fan of teleworking…
R. It’s one thing for technology to help and complement us, it’s another to believe that a business can be built on the foundation of digital nomads. The most important thing in companies is always their human capital.
Q. Do you think the office has been demonized?
R. YES. Some influencers They try to characterize the office as a space of the past, but this does not correspond to reality. The average office in Spain incorporates very important elements of design and structures, air quality and ergonomics. There are truly spectacular offices, where you want to go to work, with food services, gyms and pleasant spaces.
Q. Do you think going to the office improves productivity?
R. Coexistence tends to improve productivity because communication costs are more agile and let’s not forget that Spain has a very notable productivity problem.
Q. Don’t you think there has been an abuse of the open office concept?
R. Yes, there were serious errors. It is true that two concepts have been abused: densification and open space. There was an idea based only on costs, about putting more people in fewer square meters. And employment costs are very unimportant in relative terms compared to wage and financial costs. I think there was a lot of fundamentalism. Furthermore, one of the lessons of the pandemic is that hyperproximity is not the most advisable solution, but not for the virus, but for the cold. It is a mistake to reduce the space because it is not possible to downsize the office for 80% of the employees; If one day there was a peak, people would no longer have a place.
Q. What role does the office play in the economy?
A. I believe that offices are an economic driver and their economic impact, which we are now studying, is proof of this. There are real icons, like the Flatiron, in New York, The Gherkin, in the City, or the Picasso Tower here.
Q. Has Spain missed an opportunity with Brexit?
R. At that moment there were more ideas than plans. Spain has competitive advantages, such as quality of life, for companies to locate here, for example, many pharmaceutical companies are considering it. Furthermore, rents are between 35% and 40% cheaper than in cities like Paris or London. Madrid still has very attractive prices.
Q. How can Spain attract businesses? Have they presented any proposals to the Government?
R. We have proposals that we will present to the Government. Compensations must be analyzed in terms of buildability or taxes, as Ireland does, so that there is recognition for those who invest in the construction and renovation of more efficient buildings. It’s reasonable to ask; To date this effort is only made by the private sector and if you compare houses to offices they have nothing to do with energy efficiency and construction and technological quality.
Q. The housing access crisis is bloody. Are you in favor of transforming offices in residential buildings into apartments?
R. It is not an easy or trivial topic. In Madrid, the average of central neighborhoods, such as Retiro, Salamanca or Chamberí, is around 250,000 square meters of offices installed in residential buildings and which could be converted into around 20,000 apartments. In Barcelona the problem is much less. We talk about attracting businesses and this means attracting qualified professionals and their families. These gentlemen will ask for accommodation in quality locations in the center. This is not to discriminate against Carabanchel or developments in the southeast, but a professional prefers to live near Retiro. We believe this needs to be rationalised. We are in favor of the combination of uses, but with fair competition, in order to compete with the same rules of the game, i.e. quality, evacuation… We must collaborate with public administrations so that what are today apartments continue to be apartments, because there is nothing to transform.
Q. And what do we do with the notary or the dentist?
R. It is true that a product will have to be developed according to the average level of these studies, which are usually not very large (notaries, agencies, psychologists…). The three Administrations have multiple buildings spread across the territory and I believe that the rationalization and consolidation of these portfolios would be good for citizens. They could sell buildings.
