
In the past ten years, the warehouse space market has grown rapidly with the rise of e-commerce. Online retailers needed more and more storage space, and demand was constantly increasing. Real estate agency CBRE estimates that every additional £1bn ($1.2bn) spent online means more demand for 1m square feet of warehouse space.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the market was actively expanding, and the vacancy rate was declining. At the same time, investors considered commercial properties such as offices and shops less attractive due to quarantine restrictions. “You went to every meeting and the investors just wanted to buy hangars,” recalls Markus de Minkwitz, HEAD of European industrial and logistics real estate at Savills.
The flow of money poured into a relatively small sector, and prices skyrocketed. But in 2022, the warehouse space market has faced a number of challenges, writes The Financial Times.
If European economies hit a recession — a scenario that economists say is “increasingly likely” — business will be swept by a wave of bankruptcies. This can lead to huge warehouses becoming empty.