UK industrial take-up fell 55% year-on-year in the third quarter despite the manufacturing sector making a resurgence, according to Cushman & Wakefield.
Take-up reached 3.2m sq ft in Q3, 55% below the same time last year, while total take-up in the first nine months fell 20% year-on-year.
E-commerce take-up was particularly slow in the quarter, accounting for just 10% of the total.
Manufacturing, which made up only 8% of take-up in Q3 2016, surged to 40% of leases this year, thanks to a major deals from Aston Martin, Grupo Antolin and Polytec.
Cushman & Wakefield said the numbers point toward continued activity in the UK car production industry post-Brexit.
David Binks, head of UK logistics and industrial at Cushman & Wakefield, said: “In the short term, a weaker sterling is bolstering exports for goods and services, particularly in the manufacturing sector, which is shaping up to be a significant contributor to take-up this year.
“With an emphasis from the chancellor to increase future UK R&D activity, we can expect this trend to continue in the long term.”
Meanwhile, investor enthusiasm for industrial assets appeared to continue, attracting £6bn of capital in the first nine months of 2017 – up from £5.2bn invested in the same period last year.
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