Build-to-suit activity returns to the market in 2025.
Despite lower take-up figures, current availability presents many redevelopment opportunities, and there is a return to new speculative development. Strong occupier demand remains for large-scale, high-quality logistics space in key cities and principal motorway networks.
Jack Davies, Director, Industrial
Indurent Park Newport — Phase 2 has kicked off with the construction of a new speculative unit, Indurent N115.
Supply
The amount of available warehouse space at the end of 2025 has increased by 6%, now totalling 2.46 million sq ft. This is reflected in a vacancy rate of 3.09%, which has increased by 18 basis points (bps) from 2.91% at the end of 2024. Based on the average five-year annual take-up, there is currently 1.50 years of supply in the market.
In terms of unit count, there are five units in the 100,000–200,000 sq ft range, one unit in the 200,000–300,000 sq ft range, two units in the 300,000–400,000 sq ft range, and one unit over 500,000 sq ft.
When analysing by grade, 7% of space is Grade B and 93% is low-quality Grade C. There remains an occupier preference for best-in-class assets; therefore, the current available supply in Wales presents opportunities for redevelopment of existing low-quality sites to meet this occupier demand, together with opportunities for future speculative development.
Currently, there is over 1.44 million sq ft under offer across three units. If these units complete in 2026, take-up will see an uptick similar to those seen over the last five years, and the vacancy rate will fall.
Take-up
In 2025, transactional activity has fallen by 73% in comparison to 2024; take-up totalled 618,210 sq ft across four transactions. This fall in take-up follows two record-breaking years in 2023 and 2024, where take-up totalled 2.37 million sq ft and 2.27 million sq ft, respectively. This reinforces that due to the size of the market, there will be variations in transactional activity.
When looking at unit count, for the four transactions, all units were in the 100,000–200,000 sq ft size bracket.
In terms of specification, 23% of the space transacted involved build-to-suit (BTS) space and 77% involved second-hand space. 2025 marks a resurgence in BTS activity, which can be attributed to the space taken by Amazon at ABP Business Park. By grade, this equates to 23% second-hand Grade A space, 28% Grade B space, and 49% of low-quality Grade C space.
By occupier sector, 28% was taken up by manufacturing companies, followed closely by automotive occupiers at 25%, and online retailers at 23%. The remaining 24% of activity was taken up by local councils for redevelopment.
Development pipeline
The speculative development pipeline has broken ground, with N115 Indurent Park Newport now under construction, totalling 115,045 sq ft, which is due for completion in Q4 2026. There also remains significant land available for BTS opportunities at multiple ports across South Wales; therefore, the market may see an uptick in future speculative development.