A record amount of space in big warehouses was taken up in the first half of this year, confounding fears that Amazon’s decision not to expand so quickly would leave a big hole in the market.
According to data from CBRE occupiers leased 22.6m sq ft of space in warehouses over 100,000 sq ft in size — 10% more than they did in the same period of last year.
The record-breaking take-up has pushed the UK vacancy rate down to a new low of 1.2%. Just two years ago, the rate was 6%. For the first time in at least five years, online retail was not the most active sector in the first half, having been overtaken by both logistics companies and manufacturers.
