Carter Jonas partner Andrew Smith, who conducted the research, says London’s population and density “compares quite well” with multi-storey warehouse markets in Asia, such as Singapore, Hong Kong and Tokyo.

However, he says, there is a tendency for developers to stick to what they are familiar with. “Probably the biggest barrier is the fact that it isn’t a commonly accepted type of building and there is very limited experience of building these things in the UK,” he says, adding that when he recently asked some industrial developers why they are not building multi-storey warehousing, their response was: “We just don’t have to.”