“Take-up in the first half of 2018 was boosted by an overhang of deals that didn’t complete at the end of 2017, creating a strong start to 2018, and then Q4 2018 saw a flurry of deals that boosted overall take-up levels,” says Tessa English, associate director of UK research at JLL.

“The growth of ecommerce helped drive this with approximately 27% of all grade-A take-up taken for dedicated e-fulfilment facilities, demonstrating that the growth of online shopping continues to have a positive impact on the logistics market as retailers and third-party logistics companies improve their supply chains.”

Supply also picked up over the course of 2018 boosted by speculative development. The research shows that at the end of 2018 there was approximately 23.6m sq ft of grade-A space involving units of 100,000 sq ft and over available nationally, including 7.4m sq ft of big-box space speculatively under construction.