Over 6m sq ft of UK big box space taken up in Q3 2019

LONDON, 08 October 2019 – The UK’s industrial and logistics market saw a strong third quarter, according to JLL, with big box take up reaching over 6.6m sq ft. This activity which was driven by a number of key deals including Jaguar Land Rover’s acquisition of 2.9m sq ft of space at Appleby Magna, has brought UK take up for the first three quarters of 2019 to 16.2m sq ft, up from 15.9m sq ft (1.89%) in Q3 2018.

JLL reports a vacancy rate of 9% with 25.8m sq ft of Grade A logistics space available across the country, of which 6m sq ft is being speculatively built, showing that supply levels are still relatively high. With new speculative schemes continuing to come forward, JLL forecasts that the vacancy rate will continue to remain at around 9% for the rest of this year.

Tessa English, director of UK research, JLL said: “Given the continued political and economic uncertainty, activity across the first nine months of 2019 are positive. As a result of the strong Q3 take up, we expect final take up in 2019 could match the five-year historic average which would represent another year of strong demand for logistics space in the UK.”

Commenting on these numbers, Ed Cole, head of logistics, at JLL added: ‘2019 has demonstrated the continued demand for logistics buildings in the UK witnessed over the last five years. The importance of moving goods across the UK has never been discussed more than it is now and occupiers looking to improve their supply chains to meet growing consumer demands has resulted in demand for better quality logistics space.’