More than a quarter of all new distribution warehouse construction is taking place in just two markets – the East and West Midlands, according to research by ProLogis and King Sturge.
Those areas had almost 3.9 million sq ft under construction at mid-year 2006, out of about 15 million sq ft in total.
The report, entitled ‘UK Logistics Property Markets – Hale and Hardy,’ indicates continued robust conditions for developers of industrial distribution space across the country.
Meanwhile, construction of new industrial facilities is occurring at a brisk pace. Deliveries of new space in the country’s top 15 industrial markets during 2006 are expected to exceed totals in the prior year, when almost 11 million square feet of inventory came onto the market. More than 5.3 million square feet was constructed in the first half of 2006, with another 7.2 million square feet under construction at mid-year.
The report is based on in-house analysis by ProLogis of the UK’s top 15 competitive markets for large-scale bulk distribution facilities, in addition to data from King Sturge.
l In separate research King Sturge indicated that there were 72 speculative schemes over 100,000 sq ft immediately available or under construction at the end of last year.
The total floor space equates to 18.2 million sq ft with 49 of the schemes equating to 12,946,513 sq ft immediately available and 23 totalling 5,272,864 sq ft under construction.
