Figures from property advisory firm SHW show that in 2017, take-up in the London boroughs of Croydon, Sutton and Merton totalled 392,000 sq ft, close to the nine-year average of 435,000 sq ft. And in the same year, availability of stock fell to an all-time low of just over 400,000 sq ft.

SHW partner Alex Gale says the reason for this imbalance lies in a “perfect storm” of factors. “The economy is still growing, which means that companies continue to look to upsize or move; the loss of inner London industrial space, mainly to residential, has pushed occupiers out to areas such as Mitcham and Croydon; and there has been no new development of multi-let industrial schemes since 2008,” he says.