East Midlands
Onwards and upwards! Reports Richard Ludlow Partner ILP Key recent transactions include:
It is now nearly 3 years since we formed Industrial & Logistics Property Partners (ILP). Myles Wilcox-Smith, Chris Kershaw and I teamed up again after working together for many years as the core of the Gerald Eve big shed industrial team.
This specialism is at the heart of ILP but has been further magnified and focused with our concentration on large scale high quality new and modern buildings and developments.
Since formation we have let sold or acquired over 2. 5m sqft of industrial and logistics space and have c. 16 million sqft plus of pipeline space.
Which includes prime, modern and new spec buildings and develop- ments and sites where we are acting for deveolpers such as Prologis, Tritax BigBox, Goodman and Stoford and also for key funds such as Legal and General, CBREIM and Logicor together with a number of Corporate clients.
This focus on the large prime warehouse market, allows our hugely experienced team to give our clients and their property the time and personal attention that is required, particularly in what has been and remains a difficult but improving market.
It is in these times that experience and tenacity come to the fore to get deals done.
• • •
4 Prologis buildings totaling 733k sq. ft, - DC4 at Ryton, DC4 & 7 at Kettering, DC6 at Midpoint.
Tritax Big Box Letting 390k sq. ft at Symmetry Park Rugby. A170k sqft and 340k sqft unit remain available.
Logicor Letting 140k sqft at DIRFT.
The sale of The Vauxhall Van Plant in Luton for Stellantis (1. 7 million sq. ft on 92acres) to Goodman at the beginning of the year.
This flush of deals hopefully signals better overall occupier demand and take up in 2025 than 2024, which was greatly affected by the uncertainty of the elections in the UK & US and the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement. There are a lot of existing buildings and built to suit opportunities under offer. If the vast majority of these transac- tions proceed the second half of 2025 would be very positive. The general ILP view of the logistics market is positive going forward. The migration of retail sales will continue from the high street to online. The demand for warehouses from existing retailers reshaping their businesses and new entrants from the UK and abroad (particularly the Far East) will continue to drive the market. This demand will not be linear and is likely to come in fits and starts, but it is sure to continue.
In My View: Midlands Logistics Mark
It’s fair to say this summer has been anything but quiet for the UK ‘big box’ logistics market, with leas- ing activity showing signs of turning a corner after the frustrations of the past 18 months. Total take up in the 100,000 sq. ft + mar- ket currently stands at 18. 86 million sq. ft (as of 31st August 2025), which is 3. 5% up on the same period last year, and 6. 3% ahead of the 10-year pre-Covid average.
Tom Fairlee – DTRE
The Midlands continues to outperform the other regions, reaffirming its position as the UK’s most sought after location for logistics and manufacturing businesses. Take up across
the East and West Midlands is currently at 7. 6 million sq. ft, with a further 4. 1 million sq. ft under offer. With very little new speculative development being announced across the region, we are seeing rental growth across all the core locations.
Core schemes such as Magna Park Lutterworth, SEGRO Park Coventry Gateway and DIRFT, are now all firmly established in the £10s per sq. ft, with the next wave of speculative development expected to push into the £11s across these logistics’ parks.
So, what’s behind the sudden spike in leasing volumes? It can be one of, or a combination of several factors; Trump’s tariffs across
COMMERCIAL PROPERTY MONTHLY 2025
the globe making the UK an attractive place to store and distrib- ute stock, building obsolescence and a dwindling supply of good quality, energy efficient buildings, supply chain efficiencies through consolidation and automation, increased defence spending and therefore a surge in military backed contracts, and a more buoyant automotive sector.
Who is taking the space? It’s no secret that Chinese businesses have been very acquisitive so far this year. JD Logistics have leased nearly 930,000 sq. ft across sites in Milton Keynes, Dunstable and Coventry, with more live acquisitions in the pipeline as they aim to take on the likes of Amazon for UK market share. The market is poised for the next wave of acquisitions from Super Smart Services, having acquired close to 1m sq. ft in 2024. Meanwhile, Top Cloud Logistics has entered the UK market with its acquisition of 160,000 sq. ft in Birmingham.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, we have seen an uptick in enquiries from defence related companies, with the likes of Babcock, Marshall Aerospace and BAE all having either already acquired warehouse space already this year, or under offer on their preferred buildings. With defence budgets on the rise, this is a trend we expect will con- tinue for several years.
Alongside the growth in defence-related activity, the 3PLs have remained central to activity, with DP World, Menzies, GXO, Iron Mountain, Fiege and DFDS having a busy year so far.
Finally, the supermarkets have been the strongest performing retailer group, with M&S (1. 3m sq. ft), Tesco (806,000 sq. ft) and Sainsbury’s (391,000 sq. ft) to name just a few examples.
All-in-all, market sentiment has strengthened considerably this year, particularly for the Midlands big box market. With the busiest period still ahead of us, let’s hope this continues in to the year end, and beyond.
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