A busier than expected summer period saw large industrial property take up in Wales reach 432,000 sq ft in the third quarter of the year (Q3), according to the latest report from global property consultant Knight Frank.
The take up, of properties over 50,000 sq ft, was almost 200,000 sq ft more than in Q2, with the six transactions split equally between owner occupier sales and lettings.
The Knight Frank research reports that take up for the year to date totalled approximately 1 million sq ft – 400,000 sq ft less than the same period last year.
Neil Francis, head of the Knight Frank Wales Logistics & Industrial team based in Cardiff, said: “The largest deal of the quarter was the sale of 149,000 sq ft in Dyffryn Business Park in Ystrad Mynach to Caerphilly County Borough Council, which plans to create a new state-of-the-art operations depot and processing facility to help boost recycling rates.”
The availability of large industrial premises in Wales remains at 3.9 million sq ft, unchanged from the previous quarter. Crucially though, there is no Grade A space available in Wales. The entire pool of available space is second-hand and 96 per cent of this is Grade B or below. This underlines the growing mismatch between supply and the new and modern requirements of occupiers.
Neil Francis added: “Frustratingly we are continuing to see the impact of a lack of new build stock, with a number of requirements actively searching for good quality units along the M4, that just are not there.
“With delays in new build due to planning timescales and increased construction costs this is a perfect storm for the market and will only impact the take up figures moving towards the end of the year.”