Warehouse take-up in the Midlands is up 500% if the first quarter of 2021 is compared with the first quarter of 2020.

Research from Knight Frank showed that for premises larger than 50K SF there were 19 transactions totalling 4.34M SF during Q1 2021 in the Midlands. The figure splits into 2.14M SF in the West Midlands and 2.2M SF in the East Midlands. This level of take-up is five times that recorded in the first quarter of 2020.

Deals helping the numbers to surge included Pets at Home taking 670K SF at Redhill Business Park, Stafford; Primark leasing 423K SF at Magna Park, Lutterworth; and Ceva signing up to 300K at DIRFT, Daventry.

Availability has fallen by 2.75M SF to 8.23M SF in the first three months of the year. Floorspace under speculative construction also dipped, down to 2.73M SF.

“The existing availability currently relates to just eight months' supply remaining — and that reduces to under six months assuming that the stock currently under offer completes," Knight Frank Midlands Head of Industrial James Clements said.

“We can expect a critical shortage of supply later in the year as secondhand premises are leased, and there is a gap whilst the next wave of speculative development comes through."