Spanish commercial real estate returns are back to double digits, according to MSCI.

Returns last year reached 10.1%, up from 0.3% in 2013.

The result is the first time MSCI’s IPD Spain Annual Property Index has reached double figures since 2007’s figure of 12.4%.

The index measures un-geared total returns on directly held property.

Industrial was the best-performing sector, with a total return of 14.4%.

Retail, however, was the worst performer, although a total return of 9.7% was recorded in a sharp rise from the -1.5% in 2013. 

All sectors showed positive total returns thanks to their positive capital growth led by industrial, which grew at 6.7%, followed by office at 4.7% and retail close behind at 3.1%.

Elsa Galindo, MSCI senior associate, said that, after β€œmany years of negative and sometimes cataclysmic return levels”, favourable trends in macroeconomic fundamentals have had a positive impact on confidence levels within the real estate sector.

β€œCapital values have increased, driven by the recovery in fundamentals and by the high liquidity existing in the market,” Galindo said. 

β€œInvestors will hope the 2014 index results will mark an important part of the economic cycle as we see a gradual recovery both in the real estate market and in the Spanish economy as a whole.”

Spanish commercial property outperformed the domestic equity market, which returned 8.9%, but underperformed bonds, which delivered 24.5% last year.

The recovery in commercial property total returns was driven by a positive capital growth of 4.2%, compared with a 4.9% fall in 2013.

The rsie was the first time capital values have increased after six consecutive years of falls.

Income return remained stable at 5.6%.