Investments record high reflects transport sector recovery

The industrial and logistics market is currently characterised by historically high investment volumes, according to CBRE's latest Industrial MarketView by property advisor CBRE.

Meanwhile, transport sector recovery is fuelled by accelerating e-commerce turnover and increasing global trade.
While take-up levels in the first half of 2014 were modest, market conditions in the logistics market remained relatively tight.

Vacancy is particularly low in mainports Rotterdam and Schiphol, with 5% and 6% respectively. Also noteworthy is the limited availability of multi-let industrial space in Rotterdam. With circa 5%, vacancy lies considerably below the approximately 20% in the other G4 cities.

In addition to spatial differentiation, occupier preferences are clearly reflected by their building selection. The majority of the letting transactions concerns modern, high-grade logistics and industrial space. As such, vacancy in these types of assets lies considerably lower; less than 1.3% of total logistics vacancy concerns properties with a construction date of less than 4 years ago.

In the first half of 2014, the investment market for industrial property reached its highest volume since 2008. Total investments amounted to almost € 700 million, a 165% increase with respect to the same period in the previous year. This growth is partly caused by the entry of private equity on the Dutch market. Apart from logistics, these parties increasingly target large (inter)national multi-let portfolios. Additionally, several large single-asset deals were concluded, primarily concerning new developments.

CBRE Netherlands Industrial MarketView 2014 H1