■ Grade A and large unit supply continues to fall. Indeed, any occupier requiring a grade A unit over 400,000 sq ft only has one option, Quantum at Magna Park, which is not ready for occupation until the autumn.
■ In turn this is ensuring that occupiers have to turn to the build-to-suit (BTS) market to satisfy larger requirements. In 2016 so far 48% of the space transacted has been for bespoke BTS units.
■ The rate of speculative announcements has slowed in 2016 with just 11 recorded so far this year. We expect that the second half of 2016 will see few announcements detailing new speculative delivery as developers lease existing space and also await the impact of Brexit to become clear.
■ The investment market for logistics units continues to perform well. In the first half of 2016, £1.2bn of stock was transacted, which is £350m above the long term average. Investors are also increasingly comfortable with the shift towards online retail and the Amazon covenant as two of the three keenest yields paid this year have been for Amazon units.
