Prologis sees occupancy rise to record levels in Europe

US logistics specialist Prologis said on Tuesday that its European platform ended the fourth quarter with 95.8% occupancy, an increase of 90 basis points over the course of 2015.

The company signed new leasing agreements totalling 344,000 m2 in the fourth quarter and 1.05 million m2 in the full year 2015, with demand largely driven by reconfiguration of the supply chain, trade and e-commerce.

At year end, the company’s operating portfolio was 15.3 million m2, an increase of 7% over the course of 2015. Adding developments and value-add acquisitions, the portfolio was 16.4 million m2 at the end of 2015.

'Occupancy across our European portfolio is the highest on record,' said Ben Bannatyne, president, Prologis Europe. 'The UK is the strongest market followed by northern Europe. Select markets in central and eastern Europe as well as southern Europe also demonstrated impressive growth.'

In the full year 2015, Prologis started 35 developments in undersupplied markets across Europe. Totalling 745,500 m2, 59.5% of the development space was build-to-suit and 40.5% was speculative. The majority of the developments were in existing Prologis parks located in core logistics markets.