Bristol’s industrial property market is heading for a record year as its biggest-ever logistics development gets under way and a rash of speculative schemes are poised to start.
Homeware retailer The Range bought the 55-acre site at Severnside earlier this year to build a 1.2m sq ft distribution centre – the size of around 15 Wembley stadiums.
Work on the scheme – one of the largest of its kind in the UK – has now started and, along with a stream of other developments across the region, means the sector has shrugged off any pre-Brexit slowdown to end the year on a high. 
As a result, research by international property agents Cushman & Wakefield shows take-up volumes in the region jumped to 2.3m sq ft in the third quarter and, following a strong H1, could lead to a record year.
Strong take-up means there has been an 18% fall in availability across the South West this year, the report says.
However, the region has one of the strongest development pipelines in the UK with close to 3.4m sq ft across five schemes, proposed to complete over the next three years.
The report said industrials occupiers and investors had shrugged off Brexit fears, with e-commerce driving demand for well-connected urban fringe big box space.
Philip Cranstone, Cushman & Wakefield associate in its Bristol industrial & logistics team, pictured, said: “2016 has been a bumper year for the South West, with big box logistics operators and discount retailers finally turning their attentions to the region.
“The Range deal has clearly had a huge impact, but it was not the sole contributor with several deals in Bristol, Gloucester, Ross-on-Wye, and more recently Swindon where four large transactions concluded over the summer, shrinking existing building supply in the town considerably.
“The latter part of 2016 and early 2017 is also expected to be strong, in part due to the proposed commencement in development of Lidl distribution centres in Bristol and Exeter, and facilities for DPD Geopost and Davies Turner among other occupiers.
“The proposed speculative schemes in Bristol will begin to come out of the ground later in 2017, and it is hoped that other developers will make commitments to speculatively develop in other areas, in particular along the M4 corridor between Bristol and Swindon.”
E-commerce was a significant driver of this activity. he said, with strong demand for logistics space in urban fringes as occupiers seek so-called last-mile fulfilment. Retailers, supermarkets and third-party logistics providers were all very active in this market and particularly keen on modern, big box space.
The Range depot is expected to open in 2017 and will supply the whole of the South of England. It has the potential to be expanded further to 1.3m sq ft.
The strong industrial market is coinciding with a buoyant city centre office market in Bristol.
In October Bristol Business News revealed that demand for office space in central Bristol had been so strong in the first nine months of the year that take-up had already exceeded the total for the whole of 2015.
And with a number of large inquiries in market, the total for this year was expected to easily beat the five-year average. At the same time, they expect the buoyant demand and dwindling amount of Grade A space to lead to a new record rent for the city.
