First quantified in 2015, Savills and the UKWA have built a comprehensive database of warehouse units in Great Britain over 100,000 sq ft. Overall, the UK warehouse market has grown by 61% since 2015 and now stands at 690 million sq ft. In fact, in the last three years alone the sector has grown by 22% as a result of the Covid-19 lockdowns.

Looking at occupier mix, back in 2015 high street retailers were dominant accounting for 84 million sq ft. However, they have increased their total footprint by just 15% over the past decade. Whilst online retailers account for the largest increase by some margin, 3PL’s are still the biggest occupier group in 2024, increasing the amount of warehouse space taken by 70% to 128 million sq ft.

Clare Bottle, CEO of the UKWA, comments: “As a whole, the picture of the UK warehouse market is of sustained growth, as well as continued demand and the adaptability to respond to changing social and supply trends, from online shopping to near shoring. Given the dominance of both online retailers and 3PLs, this points to a need for more warehouses built close to population centres and alongside motorway corridors to meet the ever shorter delivery demands of online customers.”

As a result of this growth, the size of the average warehouse is also changing. Since 2015 there has been a clear trend of buildings getting larger in size and scale. At present, warehouses under 500,000 sq ft still account for the majority of units, making up 65% of stock. However, the number of 1 million sq ft units has increased considerably with development rising by 345% across the UK, equating to 63.5 million sq ft which is 10% of the market, up from 3% a decade ago.

There has also been a geographical shift, with Savills and the UKWA seeing a number of interesting developments at a regional level. As in 2015, the East Midlands remains the largest market for total warehouse inventory. Rising by 66%, it now accounts for 130 million sq ft of space, an increase of 51.5 million sq ft.

Other core markets have also continued to see growth. On average the West Midlands, South East, Yorkshire and the South West have seen growth of 61%. The only anomaly is the North West where stock has risen by just 41%. Yet, looking at Savills land supply data for future warehouse development this can be attributed to the fact that the region has the lowest amount of development land allocated which is hampering future growth.

Kevin Mofid, head of industrial & logistics research at Savills, adds: “The growth of the UK logistics property market comes as no real surprise given its importance to manufacturing and retail supply chains. However, it’s not only the size, but also the geography that has changed. For instance, the golden triangle continues to spread eastward, with the amount of warehouse space developed in the East of England increasing by 104% over the past 10 years. With online retail continuing to grow and many companies looking to near or re-shore elements of their operations the story remains strong. What is less clear is whether or not we are allocating enough well located land to meet future demand.”