North West industrial space rent on the rise

New research from global real estate firm Colliers International has found that primary and secondary industrial rents across the North West have risen sharply in the last year.

A shortage of industrial and logistics space has driven rental values up across the region over the last 12 months, both for small sheds ranging from 10,000 sq ft to 30,000 sq ft and larger sheds comprising 100,000 sq ft of space or more.

In the 12 months to June this year, the average prime rental value for big sheds in the North West rose to £5.31 per square foot, a year-on-year increase of 15%. Meanwhile, the average secondary rent rose by 14% to £4.25 per square foot.

For Greater Manchester and Warrington, the average prime rental value for a big shed saw a 16% leap, rising to £5.50 per square foot, while in Liverpool the figure stood at £5.25 per square foot, a rise of 17%.

Lancashire showed the biggest increase in secondary rental values for big shed spaces in the North West at 23%.

The director of industrial and logistics for Colliers International’s Liverpool and Manchester offices, Julien Kenny-Levick, said: “An increasingly acute shortage of new supply coupled with expansionary activity from occupiers keen to take advantage of more benign economic environment, meant that primary and secondary rents have seen sharp upward movement in the 12 months covered by our research.”

For small sheds in North West, the average values in the primary and secondary rental markets rose by 8% and 13% respectively.