Zaragoza, March 2026 — The 4th "Real Estate Market Outlook 2026" conference gathered sector professionals in the Salón Rioja of Ibercaja's Patio de la Infanta on 13 March to analyse, market by market, the current situation and the forecasts for the year. The event, organised by the University of Zaragoza's Real Estate Market Chair and Ibercaja Banco with the sponsorship of API Aragón, Grupo Plaza 14, Ingennus and the College of Registrars, was opened and closed by Luis Fabra, director of the Chair, and Enrique Barbero, Deputy General Manager and Head of Communications, Brand and Institutional Relations at Ibercaja Banco. The programme was structured around three round tables: housing; retail units, offices, shopping centres and hotels; and logistics, industrial, agriculture and data centres.
Retail units, offices, shopping centres and hotels
Overlord Gestión took part in the second panel, "Situation and outlook of the retail, office, shopping centre and hotel markets", moderated by Fernando Baena, president of the Aragon College of Real Estate Agents, which brought together Íñigo Muñoz, the firm's Head of Investments, with Jorge Anglada, director of the World Trade Center Zaragoza, and Yolanda Gimeno, director of Puerto Venecia. The shared diagnosis was a shortage of product: Zaragoza lacks large flagship units on its prime high streets and offices above 1,000 m², which diverts deals to Madrid and Barcelona and, within the city, favours retail parks. With office rents of around €14-15/m² and construction costs at record highs, the numbers do not add up for new developments, and in the prime area some office floors are being converted into rental housing, which yields more.
Íñigo Muñoz brought to the panel the firm's experience in temporary accommodation and flex living. His reading, as reported by elEconomista, starts from one observation —"there is an inability to generate land"— set against an enormous need for housing: flexible formats and coliving work best where pressure is highest, such as Barcelona, Málaga or the coast, whereas in Zaragoza land and construction costs do not yet match a rent that users can afford. The good news is that these projects can now be financed with traditional bank debt, which was not the case until recently. That is why Overlord concentrates its flex living vehicles in Madrid —Mad Río Hco, Inversiones Valdemarín and Vik Living—, where the supply deficit is structural.
In hotels, the panel pointed to a rising segment, with some €4 billion invested in Spain over the last year, driven by tourism and, in Zaragoza, by growth of more than 20% in conferences over three years, although with more demanding management than other assets. The scarcity of prime product is ground the firm knows first-hand: in Zaragoza it invests in retail units through Cesaraugusta Prime Estate and Cesaraugusta Prime, on the thesis that the lack of quality product in the best locations is what underpins the rents of well-located assets.
Housing: rising prices and fewer transactions
The housing panel, moderated by María Ángeles Ruiz, dean of the Aragon College of Registrars, with Julio Brasa (Cuatrecasas), Julián Salcedo (Real Estate Economists Forum of the Madrid College of Economists) and Jorge Aguerri (Ibercaja Banco), left a clear conclusion: prices will keep rising in 2026, though less sharply than in 2025, and the number of transactions could moderate. Luis Fabra provided the context: Spain closes around 700,000 sales a year and Aragon, with 13 transactions per 1,000 inhabitants against a benchmark of 10, is a particularly active but already tight market, with new-build caught between record construction costs and insufficient output. The third panel, moderated by Miguel Ángel Gómez Rando (GB3 Partners), covered the logistics, industrial, agriculture and data centre markets with Sandra Pérez (Valfondo), Chus Verón (Viveros Verón) and Jaime Mielgo (Azora).
This is Overlord's second collaboration with the Chair in four months, after Íñigo Muñoz's participation in the 4th "Innovation in Times of Change" conference last November.
The full programme is available on the Chair's website, and reports on the conference (in Spanish) in elEconomista and Hoy Aragón.
More information
Prime rental: stable income with CPI indexation