Short answer: the essentials before a deposit
Before buying commercial premises, check three things: whether your activity is allowed by planning rules and the building’s community statutes, what licensing it will require, and how much the renovation to meet those requirements will cost. Without those answers, the price per square metre means nothing: cheap premises can turn expensive once you add a flue, a ramp and new electrics.
In Barcelona this matters even more. Several districts have usage plans that restrict certain activities in specific zones. A café operating next door does not mean you can open another one.
Activity, neighbourhood and paperwork
Define the activity precisely: café, clinic, office, shop, studio or storage. Each has its own requirements. Then ask the ajuntament what uses are permitted at that address, and check whether the premises held an activity licence before, and for what.
Order a nota simple from the Registro de la Propiedad: owner, mortgages and charges. Ask the seller for the statutes of the comunidad de propietarios, since some ban particular activities in the building. Find out whether there are outstanding levies for facade or roof works and whether the building has passed its ITE inspection. The activity licence process is covered in a separate article.
Technical check: entrance, height and structure
Look at the entrance. A step at the door of a clinic or shop means a ramp or platform lift, and there is not always room for one. Measure the ceiling height: a suspended ceiling housing ventilation and air conditioning will take several tens of centimetres.
Assess the structure. A gym, an archive or heavy equipment load the floor slab, and that needs checking by an engineer. In an older Eixample building there may be a basement under the premises with timber or steel beams whose condition only shows once it is opened up.
Services: extraction, power and water
A café or restaurant with a kitchen needs to discharge fumes above the building’s roof. If there is no existing flue, one has to run up the facade or a courtyard, which needs the comunidad’s agreement and a technical solution. Without it, a kitchen with frying is not viable.
Check the contracted electrical capacity and whether it can be increased. Check where water and drainage run: a clinic, beauty salon or café needs many wet points that must connect to the stack with a proper fall. A noisy activity will need sound insulation from the neighbours above.
Escape routes, accessibility and toilets
Commercial premises must meet the fire safety requirements of the CTE: escape routes, doors, fire resistance, signage and extinguishers according to floor area and activity. A large unit may need a second exit, and it is worth knowing whether there is one before you buy.
Toilets for customers and staff, including an accessible one, take up space that does not show in listing photos. Work out how much is left for the activity itself after plant rooms, toilets and storage.
Example: a healthcare centre in the Eixample
The children’s psychology centre that BCN YARD renovated in the Eixample between January and June 2026 covers 250 m². It needed quiet consulting rooms insulated from each other, heat-recovery climate control, 24 concealed doors and licensing of the healthcare activity.
Each of those solutions depended on the premises: whether there was enough height for ducts, where to put the unit, where to discharge the air. Had the premises been chosen without a technical check, some of those problems could have been impossible or very expensive to solve.
How we help before you buy
Send us the address, a floor plan or photos, the intended activity and your target opening date. We visit the premises, look at the entrance, ceiling height, services and extraction options, and give you a list of what the renovation will require and the questions to put to the gestor and the technician.
This visit does not replace legal due diligence on the purchase, but it gives you a clear picture of the works before you sign a deposit. The exact price comes from the quote after measurements. We reply within an hour and run projects in Spanish or Russian.