Over the past few months, the national media has been full of stories about shortages. Energy, HGV drivers, supermarket products, petrol… you name it, Britain is short of it. Another shortage that hasn’t made the national headlines, but is being closely monitored by the property industry, is that of industrial and logistics space.
Data provided by Savills presents a stark picture of how acute the shortage is – and underlines the need for more speculative development of the right sort in the right places. Due to a shortage of available land suitable for this type of development, some of these units will need to be built near residential developments, raising the question of whether we should look to incorporate logistics capability into residential design.
Another way of addressing the lack of available industrial and logistics space and the shortage of land suitable for new development in the UK is to develop more multi-storey warehouses, as SEGRO is attempting to do.
Inevitably, many companies are also addressing the robustness of their supply chains and considering nearshoring operations and/or moving to more regional hubs.
Regardless of the short-term turbulence and longer-term fallout caused by shortages, the one thing that hasn’t changed is occupier and investor appetite for industrial and logistics space. This year looks set to be a record one in terms of investment and occupier activity, with no shortage of takers. The question is: how much longer will the good times last?
Simon Creasey is Property Week’s contributing editor (features)
I&L space shortage points to an uncertain future
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