Knight Frank tops national industrial league table

A bumper opening six months to the year for Knight Frank saw the national firm take the top spot in the Radius Data Exchange industrial league table. At over 5.3 m sq ft, the company transacted the most space of any agent, albeit just 125,000 sq ft more than CBRE, which climbed the table to take the silver medal. Knight Frank shot to the summit after acting on some of the largest transactions in H1, including deals for Royal Mail in Sheffield (336,000 sq ft), Ocado in Bristol (150,000 sq ft) and Pricecheck in Rotherham (197,000 sq ft). Compared with the past six months of 2019, overall space taken has slipped by 6% to 42.3m sq ft, while the number of transactions completed has fallen by 40% – showing there is continuing appetite for larger industrial units. In terms of the number of deals, JLL was most active with 136 across H1, having topped the pile in H2 2019 in terms of amount of space disposed. This was spread between multiple regions, coming top in London, while Knight Frank claimed top spot in Wales and the North East. Unsurprisingly, the South East and West Midlands led the way in terms of regional take-up, making up 33% of the total for H1 2020. Yorkshire & Humberside and the East of England were the two winners in terms of largest percentage uplifts from the second half of last year. London, the North East and the South West all saw reductions in take-up of approximately 50%, indicating that these regions are beginning to become more constrained in terms of quality standing stock available for prospective tenants.   To send feedback, e-mail james.child@egi.co.uk or tweet @JamesChildEG or @estatesgazette Photo © REX/Shutterstock