Scottish industrial property market forecast to bounce back after lockdown

Scotland’s industrial and logistics commercial property market remains in rude health despite the Covid-19 pandemic, according to new research.

The report came a day after it emerged that the largest lockdown industrial property deal in Scotland had been sealed, with logistics firm Malcolm Group taking 67,000 square feet of space at Westway Park, Renfrew.

Property and investment firm Colliers International said the market was in good shape before the lockdown and should recover “when some normality returns”.

The study describes the west of the country – Scotland’s largest industrial market, accounting for 63 per cent of take-up last year – as being in “reasonably good shape” before the coronavirus emergency. It says that tightening supply, with 6.5 per cent availability, along with robust demand and limited development have resulted in rental growth over the last few years.

Iain Davidson, director of industrial and logistics at Colliers in Glasgow, said: “It’s fair to say most people came into 2020 relatively optimistic about the year ahead, off the back of December’s election result and more clarity regarding Brexit. But then Covid-19 hit and social distancing is clearly having an unprecedented economic impact.”

He said the larger 30,000 square feet-plus sector in the west of Scotland was faring better than the small and medium sub-30,000 sq ft size range.

The report came a day after it emerged that Scotland’s largest lockdown industrial property deal had been sealed, with logistics firm Malcolm Group taking 67,000 sq ft of space at Westway Park, Renfrew.

Davidson added: “Assuming we get back to some semblance of normality relatively quickly, I believe the industrial sector will weather the storm in the short term and show resilience in the medium to longer term.

“The sector is likely to be a beneficiary of current events due to an acceleration of consumer behaviour further towards on-line retail.”

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