Colliers: Industrial and logistics hottest asset class in CEE

The industrial and logistics sector in the CEE-17 has become one of the most sought-after asset types since 2019, after offices and residential according to Colliers International, CMS and Randstad. According to the report, the lack of land and property in attractive locations are among the biggest challenges to investors, along with the availability and reliability of utilities, connectivity to transport infrastructure, the availability and skills of the labor pool, and access to investment incentives. It found that the industrial markets across the CEE-17 region are all at different stages of maturity, both in terms of size and the pace of development. However, the total supply of modern stock is well over 50 million sqm in total. From this supply, the current availability can be categorized as low, with the majority of markets recording vacancy rates of below 5 percent.

“Demand from the I&L sector in the CEE region over the past few years has overall been strong and has been driven by the 3PL, retail and distribution sectors, followed by the light production, automotive and FMCG sectors," says Kevin Turpin, Regional Director of Research, CEE. "During the pandemic and looking forward, we do expect to see some changes to the order and volume of this demand with sectors such as e-commerce, data centers and specialist storage increasing their requirements. Despite this, the CEE region has a long industrial tradition and remains very attractive to manufacturers ranging from the full spectrum of automotive parts, through to aerospace, metals and plastics, complex electronics, home appliances, food, beverages, pharmaceutics and medical equipment”.