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The UK’s multilet industrial market is at a “turning point," with strengthening occupier activity across London, the Midlands and Scotland, as delayed leasing decisions between 2022 and 2024 begin to unwind, according to Newmark.
Its latest findings suggest early signs of stabilisation in Q3 2025 after a prolonged period of subdued take-up, which had fallen to almost half its pandemic peak, the agent said.
While overall UK multilet industrial rental growth slowed this year, it continued to outpace growth in retail and office, and over the past two years, the strongest rental increases have been outside the south-east. That follows surging uplifts in London and the south-east in 2021-22 that widened differentials between prime and secondary stock and across regions.
Newmark added that rents for good-quality secondary space have begun to close the gap with prime.
“We may be at a turning point for take-up where MLI occupiers break out of the holding pattern and commit to more space," Newmark UK partner Josh Pater said in a statement.
"Local conditions are key, for example the recent uptick in London take-up in Q3 comes off the back of rent premium erosion in the south east during the last year. Coupled with continued supply erosion, this has restored some of London’s relative competitiveness and made footloose occupiers think again before they ripple out.”
Newmark warned that the sector remains "chronically undersupplied." Of the UK’s 11.9M SF multilet industrial development pipeline, the majority remains at the planning stage, although the proportion under construction has risen from 18% in spring 2025 to 29% towards year-end, thanks partly to improved debt market conditions and growing developer confidence.
Yields have stabilised, but buyer depth remains limited, leaving pricing sensitive to bond yield volatility, according to Newmark.
“Conditions for 2026 look more positive. On the demand side, debt terms have dramatically improved with substantial new global capital for industrial and logistics which is set to deploy, and not just from the United States," Newmark UK partner Nick Ogden said. "On the supply side, pension-fund restructuring is likely to add further assets to unsold stock from 2025 and support a higher volume of deals over the next year."
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