Logistics Property Property News LOGISTICS PROPERTY NEWS
‘Empty warehouse’ ruling raises eyebrows
A Coventry warehouse which stored just 16 pallets in 140,000 sq ft has been allowed to claim empty rates relief. The decision opens the door to legal ways to manage empty rates tax liabilities. The High Court ruling by Judge Jarman centred around the 16 pallets which occupied just 0.2% of floor space in the shed in Rowleys Green. He agreed that cash & carry giant Makro’s warehouse, which stored the pallets of documents between November 2009 and January 2010, was enough to trigger a six-month empty rates period after the files were removed. Rating expert Stuart Hicks, director at Manchester-based surveyor Dunlop Heywood, said: “This was a test case that will have huge implications for businesses
across England. We have seen some creative schemes come into the market since empty rates relief was severely limited by the last Government, but this ruling has essentially given carte blanche for businesses to use premises for very limited storage purposes and then claim the relief afterwards.”
The moves follow a separate lower court judgment handed down in South Wales. Cardiff Magistrates found against Vale of Glamorgan Council’s hardline approach to what counted as occupancy. The ruling comes only weeks after the Chancellor George Osborne agreed to review empty rates legislation and appointed Yorkshire MP Julian Sturdy to look at proposals on how to amend the tax, which generates £1bn revenue. n
UK warehouse landlords look to EU
The supply of large modern warehouse units in Europe is drying up fast, prompting UK landlords to buy across the Channel. Limited choice will keep up competition for best-in-class units despite slowing demand, according to researchers at Jones Lang LaSalle. The firm says that only a few European markets will offer occupiers a healthy choice, including Amsterdam, Lyon, Paris, Madrid, Budapest, Warsaw and Moscow. Only Moscow is seeing significant speculative development.
It predicts similar supply problems in the Middle East and Africa. The prospects for occupiers are brighter in Central and Eastern Europe, where choice is greater and rents lower. Shortage of supply has triggered a spate of investment in European warehousing by UK-based investors and developments. Henderson Global Investors announced recently a partnership with specialist warehouse investor Palmira Capital Partners to launch a €250m German and Austrian real estate fund. The fund is expected to target buys in the Rhineland and Ruhr as well as the northern port of Bremen. n
www.joneslanglasalle.co.uk MAG eyes Bournemouth New-build shortage
MAG Developments – the property arm of the Manchester Airports Group – has revealed the master plan for Aviation Business Park, Bournemouth. The development will total 540,000 sq ft including 302,000 sq ft of logistics floorspace. The project is backed by Christchurch Borough Council and Dorset County Council.
MAG Developments secured outline planning permission for a 35-acre slice of the 200 acre project last December. Development will be in phases over the next 10 years. Stephanie Mullenger, general manager for property at MAG, said: “Aviation Business Park has maintained a high level of resilience through the economic downturn and has shown robustness in meeting demand for smaller industrial units and relocating larger units, with occupancy levels now at around 97%. It is a particularly favourable location for industrial occupiers within the A31-M27 Corridor.”
A £1.1m programme of improvements to road access has been agreed.
The Aviation Business Park at Bournemouth Airport currently provides 1.6m sq ft of business space, supports over 200 businesses and around 2,500 jobs. Major occupiers include Honeywell, Babcock, Meggitt, AIM Aviation, JETS and Basepoint Business Centre. n
www.magdevelopments.co.uk
48 August 2012 Storage Handling Distribution
The lack of speculative industrial property development in recent years has resulted in an acute shortage of good quality, affordable warehouse and distribution space.
This paucity of decent facilities in prime locations is driving above-inflation increases in rents as landlords seek to cash-in which, in turn, is putting additional pressure on the already tightly squeezed margins of companies operating in the UK’s logistics industry.
That was the message from John Maguire, national chairman of the United Kingdom Warehousing Association (UKWA) in his address to UKWA members at the Association’s AGM, held recently at the Dorchester Hotel, London.
“Throughout the UK there is a lack of new buildings and sites under five years old built to a high specification, and this has tipped the market in favour of landlords,” John Maguire said. “It would appear inevitable that any increases in rents will result in price increases across the supply chain – which
www.shdlogistics.com
will not help the broader economy as it seeks to recover from doldrums.” Over the past three years, the supply of new build or refurbished industrial accommodation has fallen steadily to the point where it now represents just 11% of all available stock. Currently 84% of all available storage space in the UK is classed as second-hand.
The situation is unlikely to ease in the immediate future as uncertainty arising from the Euro crisis seems certain to delay the return of significant levels of speculative development activity. “Along with the retail industry, the 3PL
service sector continues to drive demand within the industrial property sector, but the lack of good quality accommodation is leaving many 3PLs with little alternative but to put off decisions to take space rather than take poor quality stock. In many cases, companies are reconfiguring their existing facilities to accommodate new or growing accounts,” John Maguire added. n
www.ukwa.org.uk
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60