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Source: Rebitzer; Date: 1st Quarter 2007

Germany will continue to profit from the expanding European market, and has the highest space turnover (over three million square metres), followed by Great Britain and France (both over 2.5 million square metres). Together, the three anchor markets make up 70 to 75 percent of the entire space turnover in Europe. With a market share of ten to 15 percent respectively, the Netherlands and Belgium follow as traditional logistics and trade locations in Europe, as well as the “sunbelt” with Spain and Italy. However, the Central and Eastern European markets of Poland, Hungary and Czech Republic also have logistics clusters that currently hold a five to ten percent share of the entire European space turnover. In total, roughly twelve million square metres were sold in Europe over the last year. This number clearly shows the dynamics of the market, which will speed up in 2007.

Focus points of leasing

Over 90 percent of the turnover in the agglomerations will be done through leasing. Owner-occupiers dominate in other locations. In total, the relevance of development projects and leasing markets will grow. An estimated half of the demand for space will come from companies in logistics, followed by retail (30-40 percent) and manufacturing (ten to 20 percent). The share of logistics companies in transactions has doubled over the last decade and highlights the increasing importance of the logistics industry. Currently, logistics companies are providing 40 percent of all logistics services—non-logistics companies are (still) carrying out 60 percent themselves. However, retail and manufacturing companies are increasingly outsourcing their logistics activities.

More than 80 percent of the total sales reaches across 5,000 square metres of space. Half of that is outside the agglomerations. The difference becomes even clearer with sales over 20,000 square metres: in the agglomerations, the average contract volume is nearly 10,000 square metres. Outside the agglomerations—where land prices are the lowest—the average contract volume is twice as high and increasing.