Heathrow/West London industrial market shows resilience
The continual need for goods and services to serve London’s huge and growing population has helped the market for industrial property to let around the Heathrow area and the Western Corridor outside London to produce a relatively resilient performance in H1 2010, according to new research from Jones Lang LaSalle. The other factor helping this market is its ability to stem the flow of development relatively quickly.
A total of 1.59m sq ft of industrial property was let during the first half of this year. In the West London market almost 779,000 sq ft of space was let, up 3% from the second half of 2009. JLL notes that almost all this property was grade B, with grade A take-up accounting for just 160,000 sq ft.
Around Heathrow/ Feltham/ Poyle, only 118,000 sq ft was let in H1 2010. Although there is a good supply of quality stock available to let in this area, none of the property leased during H1 2010 was grade A, JLL notes. The Greenford area fared marginally better, with 140,000 sq ft let, although this was well down on the 374,000 sq ft let in H2 2009.
In the Heathrow area there is now 690,000 sq ft of vacant grade A stock with no new construction underway, the group points out.
Landlords were quick to respond to the slowdown last year by cutting rents, and JLL says it has seen evidence of further reductions in rents of 2%-5% so far in 2010. There are also generous incentives available – for grade B space, anything up to 22% in Heathrow, Greenford or Park Royal, and 15% in Slough.
If you are considering an industrial property to let in the Heathrow or West London areas contact NovaLoca on 01767 313 380 and let us help you meet your requirements.
