According to our latest figures, take-up levels of UK warehouse space in the year to date are currently hovering at almost 1 million sq ft above the long-term average at 17.5 million sq ft, though a fall in the supply of smaller units has temporarily dragged down the take-up figures for quarters two and three.

High levels of churn in the sub-200,000 sq ft category of space are the foundation for much of the market, but during 2015 take-up in this category fell to just 25 per cent of all the space transacted, compared with 43 per cent in 2014. Put simply: there hasn’t been enough small space to go round.

However, there’s no need for attendees at this year’s Shedmasters to be downbeat: we’re currently tracking 7.9 million sq ft (734,000 sq m) of speculative development due for delivery in the final quarter of this year and into early 2016 across 39 separate schemes. This should help alleviate the issue in the smaller sized bands and get take-up levels in this area back on track.

Let’s also not lose sight of the bigger picture: levels are still above the average and for the most part have been achieved without activity from the large food retailers, which may well return to the market within the next year with large requirements.

Overall, we estimate that an extra 10 million sq ft of logistics space every year is required to service the demands of the online retailers, so 2016 could be very busy indeed for transactions across the board.

Further information

For more details contact Savills Building & Project Consultancy.