A record amount of warehouse space was let in the last three months as multichannel and online retailers sought to expand capacity to meet growing ecommerce demand.
Take-up of warehouse rental space in the third quarter of this year reached 13.3 million sq ft, more than double that for the same period last year, according to research by property firm CBRE.
This follows on from another record period for warehouse rentals in the second quarter, where 12.8 million sq ft of space was taken.
The driving factor behind this warehouse rental boom was the growth in ecommerce, with online retailers driving 33.3% of new deals. CBRE also noted strong growth in activity from third-party logistics operators, more general retailers and food providers.
CBRE said that one of the biggest spaces taken was by Pets at Home, which rented a 670,000 sq ft distribution centre near Stafford.
The Hut Group, the pureplay health and beauty retailer which recently floated, meanwhile agreed to take a 470,000 sq ft shed near Manchester airport.
Other retailers included multichannel fashion giant Next, with its 850,000 sq ft warehouse in West Yorkshire, and meal box delivery service Gousto, which took 200,000 sq ft of space in Essex.
CBRE senior director in the industrial and logistics team, Jonathan Crompton, said: “The extraordinary level of take-up seen in Q2 has now been exceeded in Q3. To put the numbers into context, the past six months’ take-up exceeds the annual total for eight of the past ten years.
“Concerns around Covid-19 and Brexit have not suppressed demand, and consumers in the UK have fundamentally changed the way they shop.”
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