Transactional activity is up 49% on 2024.
Strong transactional activity during 2025 has helped to exceed take-up levels seen in 2024 — this led to undersupply across certain size bands. Along with a limited speculative pipeline, these dynamics will sustain future rental growth.
Tom Asher, Director, Industrial and Logistics
Savills advised the landlord (a joint venture between Citivale and Partners Group) at Greenbox Darlington, on a letting of Unit 2, a 107,775 sq ft Grade A warehouse built to Net Zero Carbon and BREEAM Excellent standards, to national occupier Wolseley.
Supply
At the end of 2025, the amount of available warehouse space had risen by 5%, now standing at 11.1 million sq ft across the two regions. With 8.96 million sq ft in Yorkshire & The Humber, reflecting a vacancy rate of 10.68% and 2.17 million sq ft in the North East, reflecting a vacancy rate of 9.60%. The combined vacancy rate across the region now stands at 10.45%, up 27 basis points from the end of 2024.
In terms of unit count, there are 26 units in the 100,000–200,000 sq ft range, 14 units in the 200,000–300,000 sq ft range, four units in the 300,000–400,000 sq ft range, four units in the 400,000–500,000 sq ft range, and one unit over 500,000 sq ft.
When analysing by grade, 49% is classified as Grade A speculative development, 11% is second-hand Grade A, 9% is Grade B, and 31% is low-quality Grade C. In terms of specification, the available supply is made up of 51% of second-hand space and 49% of new speculative space.
For the region, there continues to be limited supply across the size bands, with only five units available over 400,000 sq ft. The largest immediately available building is Central A1(M) 785, a new speculative development, which totals 783,309 sq ft.
There is currently 580,399 sq ft under offer across four units, with all transactions expected to complete in Q1 2026, which will kick-start transactional activity in 2026.
Take-up
In 2025, across Yorkshire and the North East, transactional activity increased by 49%, totalling 4.59 million sq ft across 21 transactions, with 3.68 million sq ft taken up in Yorkshire & The Humber and 911,185 sq ft taken up in the North East. Take-up for 2025 is the highest amount of space transacted since 2022 and is 3% above the pre-pandemic average (2007–2019) of 4.47 million sq ft.
By unit count, there were 13 transactions in the 100,000–200,000 sq ft range, four in the 200,000–300,000 sq ft range, three in the 300,000–400,000 sq ft range, and one transaction over 500,000 sq ft. This remains the first transaction over 500,000 sq ft since 2023 and can be attributed to the leasing of Sherburn 550 by ID Logistics.
When analysing take-up by specification, 69% of space transacted was second-hand, 24% was new speculative development space, and 7% was build-to-suit space. In terms of grade, 24% involved new speculative development Grade A space, 41% involved second-hand Grade A space, 9% involved Grade B space, and 26% involved low-quality Grade C space. With Grade A space making up 65% of transactional activity in 2025, this indicates that an occupier preference for best-in-class assets remains prevalent in the market.
By occupier sector, the bulk of activity was split across two sectors, with 35% from third-party logistics (3PLs) and 33% from manufacturing companies. The remainder of activity was made up of a range of sectors, with 9% from automotive companies, 6% from retailers, and 4% from food producers. In 2025, the market saw a return of 3PLs dominating the transactional activity for the region.
Development pipeline
There are currently no units under construction in the Yorkshire and North East market following the completion of Central A1(M) 785 in Q4 2025. There is an undersupply in certain sub-markets across some size bands, creating an opportunity in the market for future development.