Jaume III continues to be much in demand.

Jaume III continues to be much in demand. | S. AMENGUAL

Majorca Daily Bulletin reporterPalma19/11/2015 00:00
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International real estate consultants, Cushman & Wakefield, have identified Palma’s Jaume III as being one of the most expensive shopping streets in Spain. It ranks alongside the likes of Malaga’s Marqués de Larios, Bilbao’s Gran Via, Valencia’s Colón, Seville’s Tetuán and Zaragoza’s Plaza de la Independencia as being particularly expensive, but the most expensive of all are in Barcelona and Madrid.

El Portal de l’Àngel de Barcelona is Spain’s most expensive with the average rent being 3,240 euros per square metre. Behind it come Preciados in Madrid (3,000 euros), Passeig de Gràcia in Barcelona (2,760) and then three other Madrid streets. El Portal is estimated to be the fourteenth most expensive shopping street in the world, having slipped one place. It is quite a way behind the world’s most expensive, New York’s Fifth Avenue, where the average rent works out at almost ten times more.

The report has considered nineteen Spanish locations and indicates that rents have increased by almost 5% in the past year: only four of the nineteen have remained the same, and Palma’s Jaume III is not one of them.

Contributory factors to a rise in rents in Barcelona are the increase in tourist numbers as well as the further opening of leading international store names. In addition, observes Cushman & Wakefield’s director in Spain, Robert Travers, “the improvement in the Spanish economy has increased demand from national stores, while it has also given encouragement to foreign investors and tenants.” The availability of space in the best streets of cities is limited, he notes, and so some retailers are having to consider other streets.