Real estate companies have had such a rough ride in Spain lately, that Mariano Miguel, chief executive of Colonial, is considering moving the group's headquarters from Madrid to Paris.

The plan would make sense, if only to underscore the fact that Colonial earns 60 per cent of its rental income in Paris, where it owns Société Foncière Lyonnaise (SFL), with 470,000 square metres of office space in and around the French capital. SFL accounts for40 per cent of Colonial's €9.5bn ($12.7bn) in assets, with office buildings in Madrid and Barcelona and some logistics parks accounting for the other 60 per cent.