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A tale of two countries: A look at the UK and Italy shows that ecommerce and the rise in consumerism in Europe is maintaining investment appetite for industrial and logistics assets
The structural change in consumer behaviour, accelerated by the COVID-19 crisis, has made more consumers embrace the convenience of online shopping.
As a result, investor demand for European industrial assets is at an all-time high, driven by the strong growth of ecommerce and the subsequent need for occupiers to bolster their supply chains.
According to research by Prologis, online fulfilment requires more than three times as much space as a regular bricks-and-mortar store fulfilment. This is because an entire online retailer’s stock is stored within the warehouse network and it usually has a high level of returned items that need to be handled.
Strong levels of occupational activity in Europe have not gone unnoticed by investors, who have sought to capitalise on the rental growth and yield compression that the sector is expected to offer. The subsequent underperformance of the retail sector has also prompted an increased pool of investors adjusting their por
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