"The problem of Rodalies is a weak point of Barcelona, we cannot continue like this"

Anna Gener (Barcelona, 1974) is CEO of Savills Aguirre Newman, the real estate consultancy giant that helps foreign companies establish themselves in Catalonia. Even if he appears on the lists of the country’s new mandarins, he manages his power with the modesty of the smart. She is proud to have received an entire public school education, culminating in an honors matriculation at COU. With a degree in economics from the UPF, she is also a member of the Picasso Foundation’s board of trustees. That planet-saving activists protest by plastering works of art seems to him “a frivolity, an exercise in narcissism and a lack of understanding of culture”. He shuddered to learn that the square meter in the Baix Empordà, his mother’s land, is already more expensive than in Tuscany. He immediately detects the problem: there is very little on offer and the local public is very interested in Empordanet.

Is Barcelona fashionable?

— It is a thousand-year-old city with many layers of history. I wouldn’t say it’s fashionable, but it has made a place in the world without it being planned in the script. Against all odds.

Why “against all odds”?

— Because it is not accompanied by a strong political power. It is a small, Mediterranean city in Europe, on the edge of Africa, which shares many things with other cities but has managed to have a personality that the world recognizes. This magnetism has made it have a place in the world.

When you help companies set up in Catalonia, what are Barcelona’s strong points?

— Here companies find something fundamental, which is talent. Local talent and international talent, who voluntarily are already living in our city. And they also tell us that if they create a job in Barcelona, it will be easier for them to attract profiles of people from everywhere because they will enjoy coming to live in Barcelona.

And vice versa: what are the weak points?

— The same ones we see in the local population: difficulty in accessing housing, inadequate correlation between the average salary and what is an average rent or an average mortgage payment; this is a serious difficulty. They also complain about excessive bureaucracy. The other weak point is mobility. They also suffer from Rodalies.

Rodalies is already out.

— It is a question that should be much more on the table and be a demand that has an end date. We can’t go on like this.

An airport with intercontinental connections is crucial to continue in the first division”

And the airport? Are you in favor of an extension, yes or no?

— Yes or no, no, but I am in favor of expanding the airport. A cost-benefit analysis must be done and how to mitigate negative issues, such as the environmental impact, must be seen. But I am clearly in favor of the enlargement. We cannot afford to be left behind, and we must be able to have an intercontinental airport connected to the world.

And if not, the sentence for the city is…?

— The cities that do not advance are left behind, and we are in an extraordinarily competitive world, which is not so much of states or countries, but between cities, because of this attraction of the talent of companies and investments. And an interconnected airport is crucial to being able to continue in this first division of the world’s great cities.

Have Russian international investors stopped short of the war?

— There is a very big myth in relation to Russian investors. In our house you only buy housing for your own use. There is not a single relevant investment operation for a hotel, a shopping center or offices, which has been carried out by Russian capital in the history of real estate investment in Catalonia. Not one

So who are most interested?

— Fortunately, we attract a type of profile that is the most conservative. And this is because they consider that Barcelona, and Catalonia, is a territory that offers them confidence and, in return, they are prepared to demand a more limited return. The paradigm is the German investment fund, which here is a very high percentage of real estate investment investments. Followed by Americans, English and Asians.

More foreign real estate investments closed in the second half of 2018 than ever before”

Has the Process, 2017 and all the consequences made Barcelona and Catalonia lose their grip?

— The reality is that following October 1, 2017, there was a stoppage of investment operations that we suffered greatly, because we did not know how long it would last. Specifically, it lasted nine months, and something wonderful happened. It could have happened that we had become a market perceived as high risk, and then they sell you another kind of profiles that are not so conservative, and that do not have a long-term vocation, but rather want to take advantage of low prices and sell fast, which are opportunistic funds.

And what happened?

— Fortunately, quite the opposite. The first operation that marked the recovery of the pace of investments was the headquarters of Planeta, at Diagonal 662, bought by an absolutely conservative fund that demanded a return of less than 4%. And that, in a very tight market, made the second half of 2018, after the nine-month drought, the six-month period in which the most real estate transactions closed in history. And already in 2019, the usual investment volume was fully recovered.

Barcelona brought together nearly 75% of the investment in offices throughout the State in 2021″

And now we are back to normal?

— Not just normal, we have incredibly successful investment attraction figures. Last year, Barcelona was able to bring together almost 75% of the investment in offices throughout the State. Part of the success is in district 22@. This is important because good urban planning, good decisions by the public sector, are usually accompanied by a very strong commitment from the private sector and a generation of opportunities for society.

Barcelona is a city between two rivers, the sea and the mountains. Where can it grow?

— Barcelona has already grown. The real Barcelona is that of the five million inhabitants, the metropolitan region. And I don’t say that with a centripetal will, but the other way around. The place that has been able to make this name, this reputation, needs to be made as extensive as possible. That’s why Rodalies claimed, because until we have a mobility, urban fabric and economic, cultural and housing policies that are more equal and unitary, we won’t be able to take advantage of all the potential we have.

There will be municipal elections in May. What should happen to Barcelona?

— May someone with ambition win, eager to solve our city’s problems. And with this point of pride to highlight all the positive assets we have, which are many and very differentiating.

Ada Colau has been in charge of the City Council for seven years. Has she been a good mayoress?

— In terms of housing, we all know what its origin was. She was an activist concerned about this issue. Honestly, when he came to power he thought he could solve it. For example, one of the campaign myths was that there were a lot of empty homes that speculative investors were holding onto to drive up prices. Well, an inventory was made of all the empty flats and it was seen that it was a ridiculous percentage and that often these flats were either very degraded or in the hands of twenty cousins who would not agree either to sell or to to rent or to do the renovations that needed to be done. It is a very complicated reality.

But has it been successful in solving the housing problem?

— Obviously not, because we have a very serious problem of access to housing. But I honestly don’t think I could solve it. To begin with, the real estate cycle is much longer than the political cycle, and I believe that it cannot be resolved if there is no communication, of trust, with the private world.

It does not make sense for the employer to make a new promotion if he has to give 30% of the flats to social protection. Is this?

— Let’s see… The temptation of the public world to look in terms of votes in three and a half years is very high, apart from whether it solves the problem or not. Obviously, the temptation for the entrepreneur to look only at his own profit is also very high. But along the way we’re 200,000 short of affordable rental homes, and I’m talking just rentals. But much more needs to be built for buying and selling. And it can’t be done if you don’t have the network of local promoters, because they won’t come to you from the United States to do it. And the public sphere does not have the money to build. Then public-private collaboration is needed.

But everyone looks out for him.

— Well, one should not look at the interest in votes or economic income, but as a whole, which is to solve the problem of society. If we were able to make these 200,000 homes and solve the problem, we would solve the votes and the profits of the developer, who would have a more limited industrial margin but in exchange for legal security, protection against illegal occupations, protection against defaults . The public world should lay soil, which can perhaps return to the public world after a few years, and this stable legal framework.

Let’s go back to the Barcelona offices. With teleworking have they been emptied?

— It’s not like that. We are moving towards a hybrid world in the forms of work. This is a big gain, because it was not logical to have to enter a physical location at 9 o’clock and not leave until the hours were up. One of the great lessons of the pandemic is that human interaction, meeting each other, brings us many positive things, in terms of well-being and also productivity, creativity, generating bonds with the organization, with colleagues… And then, it would be very serious if the young people lost a very deep level of training, that of observing the most senior profiles.

Conclusion?

— The conclusion is resounding all over the world. Sharing a physical work space is very important for the profitability of the organization and for the well-being of the professional. However, working some days or some hours from home or from a third place is a great gain.

I end with two super questions. Is another real estate bubble being created?

– No. Clearly not. And as long as financing remains tight, and now, unfortunately, it is expensive or more expensive than before, I doubt that we will enter a bubble situation. And for another very important issue: in the previous stage, many homes were built where there was no real demand. Fortunately, the lesson has been learned.

So, shouldn’t we suffer for another cataclysm like 2008?

– Not at all. I can be very categorical about this.