The pandemic-induced growth spurt in UK online sales over the past 18 months has forced etailers to expand their operations to such an extent that they spent a record £6bn on building new warehouses in the first six months of this year, compared with £2.7bn in H1 2020, according to Knight Frank.
The estate agency forecasts that the amount of warehouse space being created in developments exceeding 4,500m2 nationwide in 2021 will be double last year’s total of 1.9 million m2. Yet no matter how quickly these big sheds are being built, the demand for storage facilities still far exceeds the supply.
“The availability of high-quality space in particular has diminished owing to robust levels of occupier take-up over the past 18 months,” reports Charles Binks, partner at Knight Frank and head of its logistics and industrial agency. “Our figures show that only 3.9 million m2 is available – and much of that space is either under offer already or not of the right specification for potential occupiers.”