Industrial and logistics take-up soars to record high in 2018

Fresh evidence of the UK’s industrial property boom was brought to light today, with new figures showing that take-up in the sector during 2018 hit a record high.

Online retail giants such as Amazon have largely driven the rise in demand, as an increasing number of consumers turn to e-commerce for shopping.

Total take-for big box logistics, which cover a minimum of 100,000 square feet (sq ft), reached 31.5m sq ft up in 2018, surpassing both 2017 and 2016 levels at 17.4m sq ft and 29.3m sq ft respectively.

Take-up by occupiers in the e-commerce sector continued to grow, reaching 9,98M sq. ft. in 2018, which is the highest on record, accounting for approximately 32% of all take-up nationally.

Regionally, take-up levels were dominated by the East Midlands at 11.8m sq ft, representing 37.4 per cent of the UK’s overall take-up.

“2018 saw an increase of lettings of the XXL warehouses, which has given developers confidence to build speculative warehouses on a very large scale,” according to Jonathan Compton, head of industrial and logistics strategy at CBRE UK.

Compton added: “Moreover, as the e-commerce sector continues to develop, we expect appetite for warehouse space, especially in urban ‘last-mile’ areas to remain strong.