Warehousing firm LondonMetric on Wednesday said rental income is being boosted by retailers taking part in an “Amazon race” as they fight for storage space close to cities.
LondonMetric boss Andrew Jones said: “Amazon keep moving the bar to give customers quicker deliveries.”
He added that other businesses want to keep up, fuelling demand for transport and distribution centres closer to urban populations.
Jones’s firm, which counts Amazon, Currys PC World and Aldi among its tenants, saw rental income rise 16.6% to £54.9 million in the six months to September 30.
During the period it completed a £415 million deal to buy property firm A & J Mucklow giving it more properties close to cities such as Birmingham.
Jones said: “The acquisition of A&J Mucklow was a significant milestone and accelerated our conviction call to increase our weighting to the urban logistics sector where rents are rising to reflect growing consumer demand for quicker and more efficient deliveries.”
It recorded a pre-tax loss of £10.7 million, compared with a profit of £79.3 million. That was primarily due to acquisition costs and lower property revaluation gains.
