• Rental and owner-occupancy market down 33.7%
• More than 60% of all new contracts for new buildings
• Cologne the only market in NRW with two owner-occupancy contracts
• Sector ranking: Commerce crashes

Cologne, 2 September 2022 – The market for business parks and industrial and logistics properties in the Cologne metropolitan region has failed to match the strong figures for the first half of the previous year. According to Realogis – the leading consulting firm for industrial and logistics properties and business parks in Germany, with more than 70 experts – the region experienced a decline of 33.7% to 129,200 m² of rental and owner-occupancy space in the first half of 2022.

“The half-year result achieved by all market participants is nonetheless a good result following the absolute record in the previous year,” commented Bülent Alemdag, the Managing Director of Realogis Immobilien Düsseldorf GmbH, who has been operating in Cologne, Düsseldorf and the Ruhr area with his team for 14 years. Within the last five comparative periods, the take-up achieved between January and June 2022 is only just behind H1 2018’s 135,000 m², and thus the third-strongest of the past five first half-years. This is also shown by the five-year average of 119,791 m², which this time was topped by 8%.

Rentals and owner-occupancy in new buildings account for the biggest share of the current result at 77,900 m² (60.3%), followed by rentals in existing properties at 51,300 m² (39.7%).

Among the three top NRW markets, only Cologne had any owner-occupancy deals: Siewert & Kau has taken up 23,000 m² for development and use, and the logistics company Offergeld has taken up around 14,000 m². More than 90,000 m², and thus approximately 70% of all new use in the Cologne market area, is taking place in properties owned by third parties.

Big boxes – i.e. large spaces upwards of 10,000 m² mainly used for logistics and with a maximum office share of 20% – made the biggest contribution to total take-up at 103,600 m² (80.2%), while business parks are responsible for 11,100 m² (8.6%). Leases for standalone or partial areas not located in either big boxes or business parks account for 14,500 m² (11.2%).

Like on other top NRW markets, most of the contracts in Cologne have terms of between five and ten years (70% of the total number of contracts). Around a seventh (approximately 15%) of deals were for terms of either one to four years or more than ten.

The largest project development is in Düren, where Logic Green is speculatively developing 30,000 m², which is expected to be finished in the first quarter of 2023. This space has already been let by Realogis to the user Hammer GmbH & Co. KG.

Logistics/distribution overtakes commerce
Unlike in the same period of the previous year, commerce is no longer the top-ranking sector, this honour instead goes to logistics/distribution. With a share of 82,300 m² (63.7%), it dominated take-up in the first half of 2022 (coming from spot 2 with 40,950 m² (21%)). It is therefore currently gaining most impressively in relative significance (up 42.7 percentage points).

Four of the top five deals counted towards this. Together, they account for take-up of 82,300 m², alone responsible for 82% of take-up in the logistics/distribution sector.

Lessors with highest take-up

Retail claimed 34,000 m² and thus 26.3% of total take-up in the first half of 2022. It has plummeted year-on-year, losing 100,000 m² of take-up in absolute terms or a relative share of 46.7 percentage points. The biggest contribution within the sector came from e-commerce with 32,300 m² (95%), while conventional retail lost took up just 1,700 m² (5%).

In third place is manufacturing with currently just 11,000 m² or 8.5% (H1 2021: 9,750 m² or 5%). In last place is the miscellaneous “Other” category with 1,900 m² (1.5%).

Prime rent increases by 17%
Following the extremely moderate increase in prime rents in the previous first half-year of 0.9% to EUR 5.85/m² in H1 2021, prime rents have risen faster than ever before over the past half-year. They have increased by 17% to the current high-to-date of EUR 6.85/m². The five-year average of EUR 5.76/m² has also been topped by a significant 18.9%.

REALOGIS press contact:
SH/Communication – Public Relations Agency
Silke Westermann
Press
Fritz-Vomfelde-Strasse 34, 40547 Düsseldorf
Tel: +49/211/53 88 3-440
e-mail: s.westermann@shcommunication.de

REALOGIS company contact:
REALOGIS Holding GmbH
Silja Schuppler
Marketing
Rundfunkplatz 4, 80335 Munich
Tel: +49/89/51 55 69 17
e-mail: s.schuppler@realogis.de
www.realogis.de

REALOGIS. No. 1 for industrial and logistics properties

The REALOGIS Group is Germany’s leading player for the consulting and brokering of industrial, logistics and commercial properties. Founded in 2005 as a pioneer for the asset class of logistics and industry, the owner-operated group has enjoyed healthy growth, is crisis-resistant and knows the German market like no other. In 2021 Realogis generated nearly 1,3 million m² of usable space alone in the letting segment. The net commission revenue of all services in the financial year 2021 are EUR 25 million.

In 2021, REALOGIS also won the German Real Estate Prize in the “Commercial Player” category, which honours companies for their outstanding commitment, creativity, innovative strength and sustainability.

Realogis is represented in the country’s seven top logistics locations of Berlin, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt am Main, Hamburg, Leipzig, Munich and Stuttgart, while a dedicated organisational unit ensures transparency in around 15 additional regional logistics markets. 70 real estate professionals advise national and international companies from the fields of logistics, e-commerce, retail and industry as well as private and institutional investors. Quick, flexible, regional, customer-oriented and with a high volume of transactions.

REALOGIS four core competencies are arranging highly creditworthy tenants for new and existing properties, assisting investors with property investments and project development of greenfields and brownfields, outstanding service for locating or selling sites, and the development and implementation of holistic property strategies.

In short, REALOGIS creates more room for its customers’ success in every sense. Further information: https://www.realogis.de