Prologis' Research team releases “Persistent Disruption” that explores the shift logistics customers are making from "just in time" to "just in case" – or a permanent shift toward resilience. This shift will create powerful demand tailwinds in logistics real estate and could prolong or worsen the current shortage of space.
“During Q3, we saw a record low of 3.0% in vacancies in Europe. This trend already pointed towards an increasing demand for space and for inventory stock up early on. In the UK, due to Brexit, the urgency to build supply chain resilience has been somewhat expected but we also saw that the disruption was more severe than predicted In Europe, demand to build inventory has been traditionally low. This is now slowly changing and leading to shortages.
Both across Europe and the UK, findings show that the demand for logistics space and to increase inventories will continue as part of customers’ aim to build resilience.” - Eva van der Pluijm-Kok, Director, Research & Strategy
Research key takeaways include:
- Robust inventory-to-sales ratios are key to the future supply chain. Disruptions in the flow of goods will persist beyond the pandemic, driven by structural forces in climate, geopolitics and labor.
- Higher inventories will require substantially more logistics real estate or more to fix the shortage and build in resilience. Logistics real estate leasing is not yet reflecting this demand because companies need to first focus on immediate inventory challenges.
- Gateway locations are poised to benefit as the first step on the consumption end of supply chains. Because these locations generally have high barriers to new logistics development, demand is expected to outstrip supply.