The 海角视频 saw more big warehouse deals signed during the main three months of lockdown than ever before, new figures suggest.
Despite the lockdown the logistics market recorded the highest quarterly take-up figures on record between April and June, according to data from global real estate advisor CBRE.
The figures have been boosted by a number of national businesses, including Next and Topps Tiles, selling and leasing back warehouses to bring in hard cash to help them through the pandemic.
READ MORE: {}
Following a robust start to the year, the total warehouse take-up for the first half of 2020 was more than 19 million sq ft – 44 per cent higher than the first half of 2019, and almost 5 per cent higher than the previous record in the first six months of 2018.
There were a total of 36 deals completed during the last three months, a third higher than the same period in 2019.
Short term, Covid-19 related deals for 12-month lease terms or less accounted for 22.2 per cent by number of deals, and 15.5 per cent by floor space.
Despite speculation that take-up would be heavily weighted towards the short-term Covid deals, the CBRE said that was not the case.
Recent big deals include DHL pre-letting a 694,000 sq ft warehouse at SEGRO’s East Midlands Gateway scheme next to the M1 on the Leicestershire/Derbyshire border.
Most Read
According to Property Week DHL has taken the space as part of a contract for an international food manufacturer.
The lease is on a 20-year lease and is conditional on SEGRO being given panning permission to build the distribution facility.
SEGRO said it hopes to start the build later this year with completion in early 2022.
The CBRE said average unit sizes are also going up – at 355,000 sq ft in the last three months compared to less than 280,000 sq ft in the second quarter of 2019.
More than 90 per cent of take up was shared equally between the East Midlands, the South East and Yorkshire & the North East.
Online, retail continued to account for the largest proportion of take-up at almost 44 per cent.
Paul Farrow, head of 海角视频 industrial and logistics at CBRE, said: “The Logistics sector has gone from strength to strength through some testing times for the wider market and has just experienced the highest quarterly take-up figures on record.
“A large increase in online retail spending has been a key driver in the demand spike, and whilst warehouse availability is low and continuing to reduce heading into Q3, we expect the appetite for logistics space to continue to grow.”