M4 Corridor: Industrial floorspace take-up reaches five-year high

A total of 5.6 million sq ft of industrial floorspace was taken up in the Western Corridor in 2016, 9% up on 2015, JLL's latest Western Corridor Industrial and Logistics research has revealed.

The research also reveals that around 7.2m sq ft of floor space was available at the end of 2016, 4% up on the previous 12 months.

And, despite a slight pick-up in supply, at the end of 2016 supply was 45% lower than the most recent peak in 2010.

Commenting on JLL’s research, Melinda Cross, director in JLL’s Industrial & Logistics team, said: “A vast 5.6m sq ft of industrial floorspace was taken up in the Western Corridor in 2016, 9% up on 2015 and the highest level of take-up over the last five years.  Just over 3m sq ft was taken up in West London last year, 7% up on the five-year average.”

Cross continued: “Demand in 2016 was boosted by a high number of smaller transactions. Despite some concerns about the UK economy we remain positive about the markets strong fundamentals in the Western Corridor, additionally the third runway announcement was very positive news for the West London and Heathrow industrial and logistics market.”

At the end of 2016, around 7.2m sq ft of industrial floorspace was available in the Western Corridor. 

Tessa English, associate director, UK Research JLL, concluded: “2016 saw an increase in speculative development in West London which boosted supply. A number of big box units in particular were developed around Heathrow and were available at the end of the year.  However, despite this boost, supply in West London at the end of 2016 was still 45% lower than the most recent peak in 2012. Overall we expect available supply to fall over the next 12 months as the new floorspace that has recently been built in the Corridor is taken up.”