London Heathrow remains most expensive industrial location: C&W

London Heathrow remained the world's most expensive industrial location in 2009, followed by Tokyo and Hong Kong, according to Cushman & Wakefield's Industrial Space Across the World report published on Tuesday. Asia Pacific saw the biggest rental falls, while South America emerged as the most resilient region.

London Heathrow topped the league of the 49 most expensive global locations with an occupancy cost of EUR 200 m² per year, around one third more expensive than second placed Tokyo at EUR 152 m² per year. Hong Kong was in third position at EUR 146 m² per year.

Industrial rental performance in the European market was polarised between Western Europe which recorded only a 3% fall through the year and Central and Eastern Europe which saw a fall of over 12%. The Baltic nations of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia all saw rents tumble by over 30%, with large manufacturing locations such as Russia and Ukraine seeing declines of 21% and 22% respectively. Ireland suffered the biggest fall in Western Europe with a 20% decrease.

Despite the marked fall in rents over 2009, there were signs that values were stabilising toward the end of the year, Cushman & Wakefield said. The firm expects 2010 to see some rent increases toward the end of the year, the extent of which will be driven by the speed in recovery of global export activity.