IReit Global bags five-year lease for office space in Barcelona property

IREIT Global has secured a "pivotal" five-year lease from a tenant for 3,450 square metres (sq m) of office space in its Il∙lumina office building in Barcelona despite the Covid-19 lockdown, the real estate investment trust's (Reit) manager said in a bourse filing on Thursday.

The tenant is Areas, a travel food and retail services company with 2,100 restaurants and stores across 12 countries in Europe and the US that serve around 340 million customers each year.

The Reit manager said it understands that Areas will be using the space for its new headquarters.

The new lease represents one of the largest known year-to-date rental transactions in Barcelona, the Reit manager said.

It will increase the overall occupancy rate of Il∙lumina to 86.4 per cent, up from 69.2 per cent as at March 31.

Il∙lumina is located five kilometres away from Barcelona's financial district and has a net lettable area of 20,922 sq m.

The Reit manager said that it had intensified leasing efforts following the slowdown in leasing activity amid the Covid-19 pandemic and consequent lockdown in Spain.

It has been exploring different avenues to bring under-rented properties nearer to market levels, and increase their occupancy rate, since completing the acquisition of a 40 per cent stake in a portfolio of four office properties in Madrid and Barcelona.

Units of IReit Global ended Wednesday at 73.5 Singapore cents, up 0.5 cent or 0.7 per cent.