The Meridia RE IV fund, five months after closing its latest investment by Meridian Capital, has announced a new acquisition: two adjacent office buildings at numbers 21 and 23 on Milanesat street in the Sarriá district, one of Barcelona’s most prestigious areas. The purchase price stands at 19 million euros, with the fund’s initial outlay set at 18.5 million beyond equity raised through a capital increase. The structure is a Socimi, a Spanish real estate vehicle designed for favorable tax treatment, and it is listed on the Euronext Access Paris market in France.
The Catalan real estate and venture capital entity led by Javier Faus, a prominent businessman and former FC Barcelona president, completed the deal just days ago, on May 9. The selected properties will undergo a refurbishment process commonly referred to in the industry as a
“brown to green” upgrade. The aim is for the assets to attain sustainability certifications and ESG compliance. Since the buildings are already in solid condition, Meridia anticipates only modest capital expenditure and relatively light rehabilitation requirements.
According to available information, tenants currently occupying these offices include the creative and strategic consulting firm K-Factor, the Mur Arquitectura studio, and the ICR ophthalmology center, as noted at the entrance badges observed on the site.
Meridia emphasizes strong demand for Sarriá office space and a limited supply remaining in the market. This situation, the firm notes, creates an excellent opportunity to strengthen its position in what is considered the most valuable office market in Barcelona.
The most recent acquisition by Meridia’s fourth real estate fund was an industrial property in the [email protected] district of Barcelona, purchased for 9.2 million euros. The manager, led by Faus, plans to convert that asset into a state‑of‑the‑art office building in a location that has shown sustained demand and significant development activity in recent years.
Barcelona office market
Barcelona ranked as the second most visited city after Madrid in 2022 for office investment, recording total activity around 950 million euros across 23 deals, which accounted for roughly 37% of the regional total. A Savills annual review notes that while the Barcelona market contracted by about 45%, the scarcity of open sale processes in Madrid has kept investor interest focused on Catalonia. The drop in total transaction volume was partly due to five deals over 100 million euros in 2021 not translating into similar volumes in the following year.
On the leasing side, market activity remained robust through 2022, with about 325,000 square meters leased. For 2023, Savills projects around 293,000 square meters of inflow, a figure not seen since 2008, driven by a sizable amount of newly built and rehabilitated space entering the stock in 2022. Availability remains high, with roughly 113,000 square meters of vacant space anticipated to be absorbed in 2022, and expectations for 2024 point toward maintaining a strong development pace, with around 265,000 square meters more to come, almost all of which is expected to be usable space.