One of LondonMetric’s developments
(Picture: LondonMetric press image)Firms are on track to have taken warehouse space equivalent to the size of 93 Wembley stadiums in 2021, according to research that points to the ecommerce boom continuing to benefit landlords.
The bumper amount of lettings came during a period that saw some businesses seek more storage space closer to home as the supply chain crisis hit, and as many retailers continued to see online orders grow.
Property agent CBRE, which tracks deals of 100,000 square feet or above, said it expects full-year take-up of warehouse space to reach 40 million square feet in the UK.
Last year 43 million square feet of deals were done, but this year’s figure is still significantly higher than the 25.4 million square feet recorded pre-Covid in 2019.
Firms that lined up new or more warehouse space in 2021 included online furniture retailer Made and logistics company Wincanton.
Tasos Vezyridis, executive director, UK & EMEA research at CBRE, said “This year we have seen double-digit rental growth in many prime markets in the UK, particularly hubs surrounding London as the impacts of the shift towards e-commerce continue to steer the market.”
Andrew Jones, chief executive of landlord LondonMetric Property, said: “The warehouse market has continued to benefit from structural tailwinds with growing demand and limited supply leading to material rental growth.”
