TAKE-UP REMAINS BELOW THE LONG-TERM AVERAGE
- Cologne's warehouse and logistics market achieved a take-up of 160,000 m² in 2023, missing the previous year's result by almost 38 % and the ten-year average by 29 %. The economic conditions led to a noticeable reluctance on the occupier side, particularly in the first half of the year, and letting processes took a longer period due to the existing uncertainties about future development.
- In addition, there is still a shortage of market-adequate supply in the large-space warehouse segment, particularly in central locations, meaning that users in this category are predominantly forced to switch to peripheral locations and only three contracts for 10,000 m² or more were signed in 2023.
- New build space is also not available to a sufficient extent, which is emphasized by the very low share of new buildings of 7 %, which is well below the average (ten-year average 39 %). In addition, owner-occupiers contributed very little to take-up at around 3 %.
- Primarily due to the low supply, the rent level rose by 10 % to 7.70 €/m² at prime and to 5.80 €/m² on average (+12 %).
RETAIL COMPANIES BENEFIT FROM MAJOR CONTRACTS
- The distribution of take-up by size class traditionally shows a very balanced picture on a long-term average and thus reflects the fundamentally broad demand base of the Cologne market. For 2023, however, it indicates a rather unusual distribution. With a contribution of almost a quarter, the 3,000 to 5,000 m² segment recorded an above-average result and a solid take-up was also achieved between 8,000 and 12,000 m² with a similar share.
- In contrast, the shortage of supply is evident in the larger space category. With one letting for 38,000 m² in Frechen, only one contract above the 12,000 m² mark was signed in the entire year.
- This lease also has a significant impact on the sector distribution, which is led by wholesale/retail companies at 58 %, contrary to the nationwide trend. While logistics firms (around 26 %) and manufacturing companies (11 %) remain far below their long-term averages, both proportionally and in absolute terms, the retail sector contributes a high volume of almost 58 % to the result.