Consulting company IndustrialPort + IW present new Industrial Real Estate Index (IWIP)
They are the often underestimated cog in the transmission of the economy: logistics real estate and warehouses. Without large hall areas, modern logistics and production would be unbreakable. The consulting firm IndustrialPort is for the first time systematically showing in an index (IWIP) how rents have developed for these industrial real estates in cooperation with the Institute of German Business (IW).
Products are increasingly being ordered online. Companies are fighting for ever shorter delivery times. For that they need as much as possible warehouse, logistics and production areas close to the city centres. But they are getting short and expensive – despite large capacities: The total area of all German warehouses for warehousing, logistics and production is around 600 million square meters, whereby the detection system of IndustrialPort only considers areas of 1,000 square meters or more.
The hall offer is much sought after. Rents have risen significantly over the past five years:
from an average of 2.81 euros per square meter in 2012 to 3.75 euros in the past year – an increase of 33 per cent. However, there are differences depending on how the area is used. Heated logistics halls are particularly expensive: the average rent in 2017 was 4.05 euros per square meter! In contrast, pure warehouses and production halls with 3.65 or 3.53 euros are cheaper. “The significant increase in average rents for logistics halls is also due to the fact that there are no rental price brakes in this segment. The logistics industry is booming, demand is very high, supply is manageable and the cost trend is above average,“ explains Peter Salostowitz, Managing Director of IndustrialPort.
The newly developed price index (Industrial Property Index – IWIP for short) of IndustrialPort and IW, in which not only the rent but also specific quality features of the property – including location, equipment, heating, gates – are taken into account, confirms this finding. Industrial real estate is differentiated according to storage, logistics and production areas. “For the first time, the index is consistently and systematically showing the rapid price development in this important economic segment,” says IW scientist Ralph Henger. Generally, the closer a hall to the city center, the higher the rents. “Investors need to weigh the pros and cons of the locations. In the city, the space is expensive, in the country may be missing the skilled workers, “explains Henger.
For the new industrial real estate index (IWIP), data from around 11,500 properties with 100 million square meters of hall space were analyzed for the period from 2012 to 2017. The aim of the index is to become a new and generally accepted industry standard in the short to medium term. In general it is possible to acquire the index for own commercial purposes and to use it in agreement with IndustrialPort.
Ralph Henger: Industrieimmobilien-Index (IWIP) – neuer Index für Industrieimmobilien; IW-Kurzbericht/2018