■ At a nationwide level, take-up levels have been astonishing. Across the UK, the amount of space transacted has risen by 73% from 2013 and reached 32.5m sq ft for 2014. This equates to the highest amount of yearly take-up since Savills started recording data on the market.

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■ In terms of deal count, we recorded information on 149 separate deals, only the second time in recent history the deal count for the year has been over 100.

■ Across the regional markets, nearly every region that Savills records data on has seen take-up surge. The East Midlands alone, driven by almost 2m sq ft of build-to-suit deals has seen take-up rise by 3.5m sq ft to 6.4m sq ft.

■ Combined, the East & West Midlands areas accounted for 40% of all take-up in 2014, which demonstrates the importance retailers are placing on being located in the centre of the country.

■ The only region that saw take-up levels lower was the South West, by 150,000 sq ft over the course of 2014. However, the market is severely under supplied and therefore occupiers are struggling to fulfil their requirements.

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■ The increase in the number of large deals, particularly over 500,000 sq ft have seen the average size deal in the market increase to 232,000 sq ft.

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■ The largest deal of the year saw Primark take just over 1m sq ft at Thrapston where LondonMetric will develop a unit for the discount retailer. The largest deal on existing stock for 2014 was Amazon taking 995,957 sq ft at the former Tesco unit Bigfoot, near Daventry.

■ In terms of occupier profile, retailers are still the dominant force in the market, accounting for 47% of all space transacted in 2014. When we add in known retail contracts within the 3PL sector this figure rises further.

■ The positive sentiment surrounding the manufacturing sector has seen take-up rise, accounting for 24% of the market, up from 20%. Interestingly, occupiers in this sector have been active in all areas of the market, taking poor quality second hand space through to large build-to-suit units. For example, Jaguar Land Rover took 477,147 sq ft at ProLogis Park in Minworth as they increase production further.

■ Rental growth in core markets is now becoming a reality, driven by lack of stock and unprecedented occupier demand.

Taken from
UK Logistics: Big Shed Briefing - January 2015