JLL- e-commerce companies take 25% of warehousing units

Industrial real estate consultants JLL have published research that shows that e-commerce companies took up 25% of all warehousing and logistics floor space let and sold in the UK in 2019. This includes Amazon that has been buying and letting a number of large distribution and fulfilment centres.

Ed Cole, head of logistics, JLL said: “Retailers continued to drive demand in the market and last year over a quarter of all Grade A take-up was in dedicated e-com facilities.”

Jon Sleeman, director of UK research, JLL, said: “Structural changes in the market and companies looking to restructure their supply chains drove demand for logistics floorspace last year and we expect to see these trends continue this year.”

Across the logistics and warehousing space, JLL showed that take-up of Grade A warehouse units of 100,000 square feet and over reached 19.9 million square feet, matching the five year average.

However the vacancy rate nationally increased from 8% in 2018 to 9%, driven in part by a slight oversupply with newly constructed units (sometimes speculative developments) growing by 15%.

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