Recently in Industrial Category

Great story on the Wales Business Insider today. Apparently the band's front man Bruce Dickinson has taken 132,000 sq ft of space at St Athans (he's the one on the right seen celebrating after the deal*) for his airline maintenance and repair business. 

Who needs Cannes when we have the No-Cannes-Do. The first of the not-at-Mipim events kicked off yesterday with over 400 shed-shifters descending on London's Oxo Tower. 

Who's got the power in the North West industrial sector? In our North West Focus in this Saturday's magazine we've published the 'power list' of agents and developers in the region which you can see in full by clicking here.

The top five agents have been ranked by disposals, with some others flagged up as important players. Developers have not been ranked, but the list highlights those that look best placed to take advantage of the next cycle.

The power list is bound to provoke debate - and we welcome it. So, if you disagree with our selection or think that your company should be up there, tell us why by leaving a comment below. 

Let the debate begin... 

 Power On button image by LivingOS from Flickr, used under creative commons licence

Hot off the press DTZ's industrial times report for Q3 shows a market reaching new low levels of take up overall but with supply also in decline incentives are hardening. The researchers behind the report predict no further drop in rents but no growth for the time being either. 

Exeter is the unexpected UK shed hotspot or rather the location Knight Frank is predicting industrial rental growth across all unit sizes over the next 12 months. Not naturally a place one associates with a budgeoning shed market but credit where credit is due, it is good news afterall.

Knight Frank monitors 41 shed locations around the country analysing small (20,000 sq ft and under), medium (20,000-50,000 sq ft) and large (50,000+ sq ft) units and it is difficult to find much else in the research to feel cheery about. The past 12 months has seen most industrial rents in the UK remain static - at least they aren't falling could be the positive spin.

The company's outlook has a rosy tint for only four big shed locations - Newcastle, Leeds, Sunderland and Exeter - all predicted to see rental growth over the next 12 months. At the small and medium end of the market it is slightly better picture with six and nine locations respectively forecast to see growth. Among their number are the likes of Plymouth and again Leeds and Newcastle.

For once the gloomiest picture can be reserved for the South East with rents either static or falling in the next 12 months across all unit sizes.

You can view the full report which includes a dizzying amount of numbers on Knight Frank's website.

Image by Keith Riley-Whittingham on Flickr

Colliers International has released a very useful graphic indeed.

The firm's Logistics and Industrial Rents Map, which can be accessed by clicking here, is an interactive UK map which allows the user to click on key towns and cities for a full breakdown of shed rents across the large and small sectors of the market.

It provides a helpful snapshot of the sector, and according to the map, a few industrial hotspots stand out.

With its proximity to the Britain's major airport, Heathrow is Greater London and the UK's most expensive shed location, with prime rents at £12 per sq ft and land valued at a whopping £1.4m per acre.

In the South East, Hemel Hempstead leads the charge with rents reaching £7.50 per sq ft and land at £500,000 per acre, which, outside London, are the highest figures in the country.

Lambert Smith Hampton has released its National Industrial & Distribution Report 2011 which provides the agency's summing-up of all things sheds across the UK.

Overall, it reveals a sector which remains under major pressure, but one that is gradually getting back onto its feet after the downturn.

The report in full can be downloaded here, but below are a few interesting points to pick out of it:

• Internet retailers are becoming an ever-more important source of distribution demand as people do their shopping from the comfort of their computer screens. Last year, internet retail accounted for a record 8% of total sales.
• As a driver of the UK economy, manufacturing is outperforming the service sector, and is expected to grow by 3.5% in 2011 in comparison to the service sector's 2%.

The latest research from DTZ might just give the country's shed agents and landlords something to be a little bit optimistic about. The report predicts that national take up of industrial space by the end of the year will be up by a third on 2009's figure.

Fuelling take up is increased demand from retailers seeking distribution space for their online trade. Last year the sector accounted for 18% of all demand but 12 months on this has risen to 50%. Not so good is that manufacturing demand has slipped back over the same time period from 35% to 8% of demand.

However this must be tempered by the fact that occupiers remain cautious and are still looking for flexibility in deals and shorter leases.

With take up on the increase grade A stock is diminishing - Scotland, Wales and the South West are the winners and regarded as having very low grade A supply - but availability of poor grade stock continues to rise.

The loser is Yorkshire and Humberside, which has the largest proportion of grade A stock of any region in the country at just over a third of its total supply. Not good news if you've got empty rates to pay.

It was all going so well. And then, yesterday, the RICS reported a drop in investor and occupier demand in Wales - the first for a year.

Nobody's saying this is the dreaded and much talked about double dip...yet, and the RICS is laying the blame on cuts announced in the emergency budget which are now weighing on investment decisions. But could it be more than a passing pause for breath. 

South Wales in particular, as the seat of the Welsh Assembly Government, is highly reliant on public sector jobs and its support services. The South Wales Focus in tomorrow's magazine explores the possible impact in more detail, but its been suggested that some 40% of jobs in Cardiff come from the public sector.

Those looking for offices were the most bearish, followed by industrial, with 15% more office agents saying there'd been a dip in tenant demand in the second quarter compared to the previous one (you can read a full list of the findings by clicking on the continue reading link below).

It's a familiar story of rising supply, dropping demand and a "significant drop" in new occupier enquiries leading to increased incenvtives.

Here's a bit of a conundrum. In Wales rents are still slipping but confidence is most definitely on the up. The RICS's Welsh sentiment survey report released today said confidence had returned to the Welsh commercial property market across all sectors (click on the continued reading link if you'd like a summary of the details). 

Agents said there has been a rise in tenant demand for office and retail space with 15% claiming to be more confident about the prospect of future lettings in quarter one compared to last quarter. That's a seismic shift copared to the end of 2008, what the RICS calls an "all time low", when three quarters of those questioned reported a drop in confidence.

But the bad news is rents are still slipping. The pace of decline has slowed over a fifth more chartered surveyors feel a decline rather than a rise in rent expectations is in store across all sectors. The figure has been slightly improving since Q4 2008 which experienced record lows.