At Spotify's headquarters in New York, ping-pong tables, karaoke, specialty coffee and schedules for a daily yoga and Pilates class make their way. The music company wants to attract its employees back to the offices but without forcing them to abandon teleworking.
Before her, other large technology companies were less subtle: Google, Meta, Zoom, Amazon... all reduced the possibilities of their staff working remotely and even, as in the case of the online commerce giant, it was established as imperative to attend physical positions from Monday to Friday.
After the rise of teleworking that was unleashed with the pandemic, the passing of the years has given rise to a gradual return to in-person work. It is a global trend that is reflected in an infallible indicator: the demand for office space. In Spain, this reality is also a fact and is behind an investment in office spaces that is at a seven-year high.
Madrid and Barcelona are the greatest exponents and bring together an accumulated investment of 1,962 million euros between January and September. The figure is 21% higher than the same period last year and represents the best record in that period since 2019, according to data shared by the international real estate consultancy CBRE with EL MUNDO. The figure is already equivalent to more than 90% of all the capital invested in offices during 2025. If acquisitions for own use are incorporated, which reached 165 million euros, and operations linked to changes of use, with 372 million euros, the total investment allocated to office assets exceeds 2,500 million euros in the first nine months of the year.
Regarding joint contracting, it reaches 574,000 square meters, 7% less "than the extraordinary volume registered in the same period of 2025."
The data is based on two solid variables: on the one hand, the growing corporate demand, which seeks high quality and very well located spaces. On the other hand, an investment market that maintains the dynamism registered during the first half of the year, supported by solid fundamentals and growing interest in the best positioned office assets.
Some of the most relevant operations in these months, over 80 million euros, have been the acquisition of the Estel building in Barcelona - the largest investment operation in a single asset carried out in the city and one of the most relevant of the last decade in Spain -, the development of Oria Innovation Campus in Madrid, the sale of Torre Sevilla or the acquisition of Puerto Somport 21-23 by GMP, all of them advised by CBRE.
"The office market continues to be characterized by a strong polarization. Demand remains strong, but increasingly concentrated in the highest quality buildings and in the most consolidated locations, while the rest of the market faces a more demanding environment. The reduction in availability in the most in-demand areas and the renewed investment interest reflect solid fundamentals, although with very different behaviors depending on the location and quality of the assets," explains José Mittelbrun, director of Office Advisory and Transactions at CBRE.
In the comparison between Madrid and Barcelona, the capital prevails. Madrid concentrated more than 90% of the investment activity registered during the third quarter, with 313 million euros, while Barcelona barely registered relevant operations after a very active first semester in which it had already exceeded the volume invested throughout 2025. In the annual cumulative figure, Madrid reaches 1,090 million euros and Barcelona 796 million. At the end of September, prime yields remained at 4.5% in Madrid and 4.65% in Barcelona.
"Despite macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainties, the office market in Spain is one of the most dynamic in Europe, supported by strong occupational fundamentals and thanks to the combination of liquidity, access to financing, stabilization of returns and demand for quality assets. Our forecast for the end of the year is also very positive given the high number of operations in progress," says Diego Contreras, director of Capital Markets Offices at CBRE.
Impact of AI
Behind this renewed interest in offices is also a collateral effect of the development of artificial intelligence and its integration into companies. Amid the acceleration of AI and automation, offices are reinforcing their importance within organizations as "spaces capable of maximizing collaboration, productivity and the employee experience." As the most routine tasks become automated, activities where human interaction is decisive, such as innovation, creativity, decision making or collaborative problem solving, take center stage.
This evolution and impact are already reflected in the levels of use of the spaces. According to CBRE's Global Workplace & Occupancy Insights series, which analyzes the main trends that are transforming the global workplace, average office use reached 53% globally in 2025, equivalent to more than 2.5 days of in-person attendance per week, compared to 38% the previous year. This represents the largest annual increase observed since 2021 and evidence that hybrid models are achieving greater stability, according to the firm.
The trend is also reflected in Spain, where companies are opting for higher quality offices to attract talent and improve the employee experience. The CBRE Office Trends 2025 report shows that 54% of companies in the country plan to increase the use of their offices in the coming years, a figure higher than that registered in Europe (47%), America (38%) and Asia-Pacific (34%). Professional and financial services companies register the highest occupancy levels, with an average of 61%, while sectors such as media, telecommunications and health sciences are around 50%.
"Artificial intelligence is profoundly transforming the way of working, but it is not reducing the relevance of the office. The data shows that we have left the experimental phase of hybrid work behind. Organizations are defining more clearly the role that the office should play and how it contributes to collaboration, corporate culture and business development. It is not about going back to the past, but rather about building an office better adapted to current needs, already stabilized," explains Jaime de Paz, Senior Director of Strategic Office Consulting at CBRE.
The growing attendance at offices responds increasingly to the value that face-to-face interaction brings. Companies seek to create environments that encourage the exchange of knowledge, innovation and informal relationships between teams, thus reinforcing the role of the office as a meeting point and not only as a place of work. Hence, perhaps, Spotify's determination to fill its headquarters with karaoke equipment and ping-pong tables.
According to CBRE studies on the impact of AI on the demand for workspaces, office employment will grow by 0.9% annually over the next five years. Their data also show a high capacity for adaptation of the labor market to this technology. Only 6% of office jobs are considered highly vulnerable to automation, while 18% are highly adaptive and will be able to integrate AI tools to improve their productivity.
