In line with this flight to quality, Savills expects rental growth in the North West to outperform the rest of the UK. The current grade A quoting rent stands at £10.95 per sq ft in the region, representing a 4% increase compared to 2023. Looking ahead, Savills baseline forecast predicts a 5.3% rental growth per annum over the next five years for the North West.

In terms of supply, the North West has a healthy level with 6.96 million sq ft of vacant space currently available across 36 units, 36% of which consists of good quality, grade A speculatively developed space. There is also a robust development pipeline in the region with 12 units presently under development totalling 2.79 million sq ft.

Jonathan Atherton, industrial director at Savills Manchester and regional head of industrial and logistics at Savills comments: “Given the wider economic and political uncertainties that have impacted the UK over the past two years, coupled with the increased supply in more central regions attracting occupier interest, it is not surprising that the North West saw lower take-up levels in 2024. Looking ahead however, there is a strong pipeline of interest from a diverse range of occupiers for good quality industrial space in the region which, combined with the increase in supply for this type of space, should bode well for 2025.”

More broadly, Savills research notes that UK take-up for 100, 000 sq ft+ industrial and logistics units reached 27.97 million sq ft in 2024, a modest rise of 1% compared with 2023 and 8% above the pre-covid average.

From an occupier perspective, Savills figures show that, across the UK, manufacturing related occupiers remained the most active accounting for 32% of take-up. This shows businesses are continuing to consider near-shoring and firming up their supply chains. This was followed by 3PLs at 24%, the “other” sector at 11%, which would incorporate uses such as data centres, and online retail accounting for 10%.