The current supply of new industrial property stock in the West Midlands will run out next year, according to CBRE.
The agent’s latest figures for the region reveal a current average annual take-up rate of 1.73m sq ft, meaning there is only enough stock to sustain the market for another one-and-a-half years.
Just 2.7m sq ft of new industrial units of more than 100,000 sq ft are available in the region. This figure has dropped from 3.1m sq ft at the end of 2010.
In total, including second-hand units, there is 5.6m sq ft available.
Total take-up of new industrial units was just below 3m sq ft in 2011, up marginally on 2010.
Richard Meering, senior director in the industrial agency team at CBRE in Birmingham, said: “As available stock continues to decline, and with no new stock in the pipeline, we could see take-up levels fall this year, as was the case in the East Midlands last year, where take-up plummeted from 6.8m sq ft in 2010 to just over 2.1m sq ft in 2011.
“Interestingly, it is the first year industrial take-up in the East Midlands has been lower than the West Midlands.” He added that there are now increasing opportunities for developers offering “oven ready” design-and-build schemes owing to the lack of new stock, and that developers were starting to consider speculative building again.
lisa.pilkington@estatesgazette.com
