Industrial buildings take-up plunges by 29%

THE take-up of industrial buildings in Scotland plunged by more than one-quarter last year as a lack of premium buildings took its toll on the market.

However, presenting its latest Scotland industrial trend survey, property firm Colliers International said demand for buildings remained robust, despite Brexit.

The figures showed companies bought or rented around 5.8m sq ft of industrial space across Scotland in 2018, down 29 per cent on 2017 and 34% below the five year average of 8.8m sq ft.

Iain Davidson, director of industrial and logistics at Colliers International’s Glasgow office, said: “We believe these figures are more to do with a lack of stock, as opposed to lack of occupier appetite. In west Scotland, availability has been declining over the past few years to the present 7%, representing a whopping 46% reduction from the 2011 peak, 13%.”

Few occupiers seem to be mentioning Brexit ... but time will tell

He said the development pipeline is “very limited”, at 500,000 sq ft under construction or planned across West Scotland this year.

This represents approximately two months’ take-up, based on the fiveyear take-up average.

He added: “The last few years have seen good rental growth across all size bands with prime small-mid size rents typically between £7.50 to £8.50 per sq ft.

“Few occupiers seem to be mentioning Brexit, albeit only time will tell whether this starts to affect demand.”

West Scotland saw take-up of 2.3 million sq ft in 2018, down 22% on the previous year. East Scotland saw take up fall from 1.3m sq ft in 2017 to 1.1m sq ft.

The largest deal in the east was to packager Nampak and in the west Eurocentral, where Brewdog acquired space at the Vertex building.