Tomorrow’s Warehouse: Warehouse demand set to grow despite lack of overall consumer confidence
Demand for warehouse space to satisfy ecommerce retailing is set to increase by some 55 million ft2 over the next ten years despite a lack of overall consumer confidence said Newmark partner Will Laing at last week’s Tomorrows Warehouse event in Manchester.
By Liza Helps, Property Editor, Logistics Matters
LAING SAID that individual consumer perception of the economy was negative at present and so they had become more cost conscious with the result that e-commerce was becoming more prevalent as consumers shift online to get the best deals.
Laing noted that at present some 27% of retail transactions were online but told delegates that this was expected to climb to 41% within a decade.
He also noted that there were a number of new entrants to the market including Chinese homeware e-tailer Daals as well as fashion retailer Temu and SHEIN.
In addition to the increase in ecommerce, Laing also noted that the rise in defence spending to meet the 3.5% of GDP spend across NATO members would also see a huge uplift in demand for warehousing space across the UK and Europe per se.
Based on Newmark Research whereby for every £1 million of spend there would be up to 10 jobs and that increased spend could hit £20 billion equating to 200,000 jobs and each job required some 338 ft2 of manufacturing and 750 ft2 of logistics space per worker, Newmark indicated that some 32 – 35 million ft2 of extra industrial and logistics space would be required.
If this level were to be attained by 2033 it would represent a minimum demand for circa 4.7 million ft2 a year.
