Playing host to some 300 guests from areas all the way across those industries relative to the logistics and industrial sectors were in attendance at this year’s Shedmasters event, held in Cannes. Savills announced that, to date, the total amount of take-up reported of UK warehouse space reached a notable high of some 5m square feet, not yet including the 1.9m square feet still under offer; these figured effective highlighting a colossal increase of 85% on the 2015 figure of 2.7m square feet.
In fact, it has been estimated by Savills that the total take-up is expected to actually tip over the long-term Q1 average of 5.4m square feet, which could clock in at a value near to 7m square feet in total for the start of Q2. Playing as key drivers to these figures has proven to be the reported mega-shed deals, which incorporates the 1.2m square feet facility for The Range in Bistol, as well as the 1m square feet centre for distribution of Amazon’s in the Midlands.
Highlighting the figures as a wonderful start to 2016, Savills’ National Head of Industrial and Logistics, Richard Sullivan nodded towards the potential for record-breaking levels of take-up for Q1, with occupier demands sustained at high levels . Much of the interest, of course, has come from manufacturers and retailers operating online, with businesses achieving great success in their dominance in the wider market. Richard Sullivan also went on concerns as to the present state of a sparsity of fit-for-purpose warehouse space presently on the market, yet added: “However with 39 speculative schemes currently in the pipeline, this will help to address the issue over the next 12 months.”
Of course, with the growing success of certain organisations in the online retail sector, as well as that of key manufacturers, the demand for warehousing space is expected to only grow yet further, with the view of this then reaching a value of up to 160% for 2016. And with some 8.8m square feet of prospective development planned for release over the course of 2016, it is, at the very least hoped that the supply for quality warehousing space will be able to challenge levels of demand somewhat.
