PRESS RELEAS NAI apollo group publishes first quarterly report on the logistics property and warehouse market in the Rhine- Main region for 2015
- Weakest first quarter compared to previous record years, with 105,830 sqm - Absence of owner-occupier projects reduces take-up - The above 10,000 sqm cluster retains its leading position due to two large contracts - Current market developments still indicate a return to normal market levels in 2015 Frankfurt, 15 th April 2015 According to an analysis conducted by the NAI apollo group, the market for logistics and warehousing space in Frankfurt/Rhine-Main* made a subdued start to the year. With total take-up by owner-occupiers and tenants amounting to 105,830 sqm, the first quarter of 2015 came last in a comparison with the previous two years (Q1 2014: 190,300 sqm; Q1 2013: 156,700 sqm). The overall result also fell heavily on a sequential basis by 53.0% (Q4 2014: 225,050 sqm). However, take-up was higher than in the respective first quarters of 2012 and 2011 (Q1 2012: 93,400 sqm; Q1 2011: 105,000 sqm). Michael Weyrauch, Managing Partner and Head of Logistics at the NAI apollo group, said: The first quarter of 2015 has already confirmed forecasts made by NAI apollo group at the end of last year that this year s market development would be at a similar level to the period from 2011 to 2013. An important reason for this is the absence to date of large owner-occupier projects, which strongly influenced the market in the previous record years. For example, in the first quarter of 2014 such projects accounted for 47.3% of space take-up solely because of Fiege Logistik Holding Stiftung & Co. KG s 90,000-sqm building project in Dieburg. At the same time, however, large lease contracts already announced for the coming months mean that 500,000 sqm could again be achieved in 2015. The main source of take-up in the first three months of 2015 was the lease signed by a retail company for 19,000 sqm in a warehouse development in VGP-Park, Rodgau, says Weyrauch. Merlin Logistics GmbH was in second place after signing a lease for more than 16,000 sqm in Mainz-Kastel, which represented the largest contract in an existing building. Next is a deal signed by ALD Vacuum Technologies in a new development in Hanau. This building, to be completed by project developer Dietz AG this year, will include 9,300 sqm of office and technical space as well as 7,000 sqm of warehousing and production space. In total, 30.2% of take-up in the first quarter of 2015 relates to pre-lettings in new buildings; leases in existing buildings account for 69.8%.
The two large deals mean that the above 10,000 sqm cluster accounted for a volume of 35,000 sqm or a 33.1% share of take-up and was therefore able to defend its leading position from last year. However, it lost some of its dominance following a decline of 31.5 percentage points compared to the first quarter of 2014 and 8.9 percentage points compared to 2014 as a whole due to the absence of large owner-occupier projects, says Dr. Konrad Kanzler, Head of Market Research at the NAI apollo group. The segment up to 1,500 sqm again accounted for the highest number of contracts, with 18 leases generating take-up of 17,640 sqm (Q1 2014: 20 deals with 15,800 sqm). In a comparison of the different industries, the order of ranking was identical to last year but with some slight changes in percentage shares. The transport, storage & logistics group accounted for the largest share of take-up at 51.9% or 54,970 sqm (2014: 51.8%), which was almost unchanged from the previous year. While trade lost 8.9 percentage points and accounted for 24.5% or 25,880 sqm (2014: 33.4%), industrial companies increased their share significantly to 21.4% or 22,670 sqm (2014: 10.0%). Along with the new corporate headquarters of ALD Vacuum Technologies, several lease contracts signed by industrial companies for between 1,000 sqm and 5,000 sqm contributed to this result, says Kanzler. Within the market area, the South remained the most popular location. The South-East (36,040 sqm) and South-West (17,560 sqm) sub-markets accounted for a combined 50.7% share of space take-up in the first three months of the year. However, this also signified an 8.5 percentage point decline in market share compared to the whole of 2014. In contrast, the Wiesbaden-Mainz sub-market was able to make the strongest gains, accounting for 21.3% (2014: 3.7%) of take-up. This was due to two lease contracts signed by two logistics companies for a total of 22,500 sqm.
* NAI apollo group defines the Frankfurt/Rhine-Main market for warehousing and logistics space as all relevant and available warehouse and logistics space between the cities of Butzbach in the north and Worms in the south, as well as between Bingen in the west and Aschaffenburg in the east. Frankfurt am Main forms the central point of the market described. About NAI apollo group NAI apollo group (www.nai-apollo.de) is the leading network of independent real estate consultancy companies in Germany. For more than 25 years now, its partners have been advising national and international companies with lasting success. Its range of services encompasses the divisions Investment, Letting, Evaluation, Research, Construction Management, Asset and Property Management and Corporate Finance in the segments Office, Industrial, Residential and Retail. With offices in Frankfurt am Main, Hamburg, Berlin, Stuttgart, Munich, Ulm / Neu-Ulm, Dusseldorf, Essen and Mulheim an der Ruhr, NAI apollo group employs around 150 people throughout Germany, including MBA graduates, engineers, legal attorneys, economists, bankers, real estate economists and chartered surveyors. Partners to NAI apollo group are apollo real estate service GmbH & Co. KG, corealis Commercial Real Estate GmbH, Cubion Immobilien AG as well as Objekta Immobilien Kontor GmbH and Völckers & Cie Immobilien GmbH. As an exclusive German partner of NAI Global, the owner-managed real estate services group NAI apollo group, founded in 1988, has global access to more than 6,700 real estate specialists. The world's largest network of owner-managed companies for professional and top quality property consulting has 375 partner offices. NAI offices are responsible for more than $ 20 billion worth of transactions every year, and in the field of asset and property management they manage more than 38 million square metres of property (as of: April 2015). Media contact: NAI apollo group press office: Silke Hoffmann Fritz-Vomfelde-Straße 34 D-40547 Düsseldorf (Seestern)
Tel: +49/211/53883-440 Fax: +49/211/53883-112 Mail: s.hoffmann@shcommunication.de Corporate Contact NAI apollo group: Dr. Marcel Crommen MRICS Managing Director Grüneburgweg 2 60322 Frankfurt am Main Germany Tel: +49 (0)69-97 05 05-0 Fax: +49 (0)69-97 05 05-5