Investment into the European logistics sector dropped in the first half of 2020, but Savills expects the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic to accelerate online retail by a year and so further boost already strong demand for prime logistics space in the region.

Savills recorded investments of €13.3 billion into the European logistics sector in the first half of the year, an 8 percent decrease from the same period in 2019. Germany overtook the UK as the most active market, exceeding €3 billion with a 21 percent increase in investment year-on-year.

Research from the consultancy has also shown that occupier demand for European logistics for the first half this year was 4 percent below the five-year average, mainly due to government lockdowns restricting transactional activity. However, Portugal (+86 percent) Romania (+78 percent), the UK (+41 percent) and Poland (+31 percent) all performed strongly against their respective half–year averages.

Average European va