Asturias’ Industrial Land Market: The 2021–2022 Cycle and Current Outlook
A wave sparked by a major retail online retailer briefly reshaped Asturias’ urbanized industrial land market in 2021, with commercial activity in land destined for business establishments cutting roughly in half the following year, according to the Idepa Institute for Economic Development in the Principality of Asturias. The year 2021 stood out, registering a high demand and a strong landing of industrial plots that year despite broader regional uncertainties. A key moment was the arrival of a large e-commerce hub in the Bobes industrial park in Siero, where Amazon began the construction of its logistics center. The project boosted visible demand and acted as a magnet for nearby plots. Yet shifts in corporate plans and the pressures of the war in Ukraine, combined with rising inflation, cooled the market and tempered immediate activation of all planned uses.
Idepa’s annual overview shows that 106,764 square meters of polygonal plots were sold across Asturias in 2022. This figure marks a decline from the peak set in 2021 but remains well above the pandemic year of 2020, when activity dipped to 25,563 square meters. The 2022 performance mirrors the pre-pandemic level of 2019, suggesting a stabilization of demand after the post-crisis surge. In 2021, sales reached 197,615 square meters, a result not seen since the 2008 onset of the economic downturn, underscoring how pivotal the Amazon project was in shaping investor and developer sentiment.
Idepa’s data indicate that 18 companies began operations on the land marketed in 2021–2022, involving 31 plots, with a planned investment of about 21.5 million euros and creation of approximately 170 jobs, 92 of them newly generated. This development activity signals a firm intent among industrial players to expand or relocate production and logistics capacity within Asturias, leveraging the region’s strategic access to markets and its evolving logistics infrastructure.
Plot Reservation and Available Inventory
As of 2022, about 1.7 million square meters of industrial land remained available in Asturias. The most active zones include the central Logistics and Industrial Operations Zone (Zalia) along with the La Lloreda area in Gijón and the Bobes area in Siero. Other notable sites include mining-related plots in Reicastro and vacant parcels in Mieres and Langreo, as well as frontier locations in Ribadesella’s Guadamía polygons and Castropol’s Barres area.
Even with robust activity, the market has a long tail. If current sales rates persist, the available stock could support continued development for roughly 16 years. Yet two industrial zones under development—Villallana in the Lena council and Venturo in the San Martín del Rey Aurelio council—illustrate ongoing confidence in Asturias’ growth potential. Both projects receive financial support from mining-related funds and are watched as barometers of the region’s ability to attract new manufacturing and logistics tenants in the medium term.
The evolving landscape reflects a broader pattern: a powerful early impulse from a single high-profile tenant can drive a marked but temporary shift in land utilization, followed by a period of recalibration as broader economic headwinds take hold. In Asturias, that recalibration has involved balancing speculative land sales with measured investments in infrastructure, industrial parks, and zoning that align with both current demand and strategic policy objectives. Market observers continue to monitor the pace of new occupancies, the realization of the planned investments, and how the region’s logistics corridors respond to the needs of domestic and international firms seeking efficient access to European markets.
Overall, the data underscore the resilience of Asturias’ industrial land market: a mix of available inventory, strategic park developments, and ongoing support for large-scale projects suggests a continued role for the region in attracting manufacturing and logistics activity. The evolving mix of public investment, corporate planning, and global economic conditions will shape how quickly vacant plots are absorbed and how the landscape of the Principality adapts to new industrial paradigms.