04.03.2025

Ruhr region: REALOGIS analyses the market for logistics and industrial properties for the full year 2024

• Continued decline of take-up
• Existing properties and brownfield sites dominate the market
• Big boxes responsible for almost 70%, business parks increase slightly
• Industry ranking: Logistics/Distribution remains unchallenged in 1st place
• Ranking of size categories: Contracts from 5,001 m² responsible for 80% of take-up
• Prime rents in the Ruhr area increase by 7%
• Outlook: Developments in the multi-user segment coming soon

Düsseldorf, 4. März 2025 - In 2024, all market participants in the Ruhr region signed contracts for a total of 345,600 m² of logistics and industrial space for rent and owner-occupation. This is the conclusion reached by Realogis, Germany's leading consultancy for industrial and logistics properties and commercial land, in its latest market report.

This means that the market fell by 104,800 m² or 23% compared to the previous year's result of 450,400 m². Looking at the last five years as a whole, the take-up in 2024 represents the weakest annual result. The market has been below its usual level since 2022 and was 39% below its current five-year average of 567,100 m² last year.

The market for logistics and industrial space in the Ruhr region was exclusively a rental market in 2024, with owner-occupied space accounting for 27,000 m² or 6% in the previous year.

"In 2024, transactions in existing properties and brownfield sites dominated the market," reports Bülent Alemdag, Managing Director of Realogis Immobilien Düsseldorf GmbH, which is responsible for all three NRW markets of Düsseldorf, Cologne and the Ruhr region. Existing properties increased by 54,400 m² or 27% compared to the previous year, meaning that a total of 256,200 m² was newly let (FY 2023: 201,800 m² or 45%). This enabled them to increase their market share to 74% or 29 percentage points in terms of proportionate importance.

The brownfields category also made gains. In contrast to the previous year, transactions in revitalised, former brownfield sites totalled 89,400 m² or 26% (FY 2023: 0 m²). This means that they contributed slightly more than one in four square metres taken up. Of particular note are the major deals signed by Euziel for 38,300 m² of warehouse space, EDA Cloud for 30,080 m² and Flexispot with 20,000 m², which together accounted for almost all of the take-up in the category.

In contrast, lettings in new-build properties on greenfield sites were absent in 2024. In the previous year, they still accounted for the majority of take-up with 248,600 m² or 55%.

In terms of building type, big box properties again accounted for the lion's share of total take-up. In 2024, modern logistics buildings accounted for 237,800 m² or 69% (FY 2023: 326,800 m² or 73%). The biggest driver of take-up was Euziel, which alone took almost 64,000 m² in the Essen and Duisburg submarkets in two markets.
  CompanyTake-upIndustryType Euziel 38,300 m² E-Commerce New building (brownfield) EDA Cloud 30,080 m² Logistics/Distribution New building (brownfield) Euziel 25,600 m² E-Commerce Existing building Shaoke 22,500 m² Logistics/Distribution Existing building Flexispot 20,000 m² E-Commerce New building (brownfield)
Rentals in properties that cannot be allocated to business parks or big boxes remain in second place with 79,700 m² or 23%, coming from 105,400 m² or 23%.

Rentals in business parks totalled 28,100 m² or 8% (FY 2023: 18,200 m² or 4%), although they were the only category to slightly increase both their importance and absolute take-up.

Sector ranking: Logistics/Distribution remains unchallenged in first place
Realogis observed the highest level of activity from companies in the Logistics/Distribution category in 2024 as a whole. Contract signings totalled over 168,600 m² or 49%. The major agreements signed by EDA Cloud (30,080 m²) and Shaoke (22,500 m²) accounted for a total of 52,580 m² or 31% of take-up.

However, coming from 232,800 m² or 51%, this was the largest decline of all take-up by sector at -64,200 m² or -28%. For the most important sector in the market area in the past, the result is also reflected in the level of the 5-year average, which currently stands at 268,425 m² and was undercut by 37%.

"The Logistics/Distribution sector still has to reduce the grey vacancy rate. At present, some of its existing customers are still struggling with insolvencies or are unable to fulfil the forecast growth rates and consequently cannot fill the space they had to rent speculatively with new customers," says Bülent Alemdag.

Retail companies again took second place with 126,800 m² or 37% (FY 2023: 111,800 m² or 25%). The three major deals signed by e-commerce companies Euziel (38,300 m² and 25,600 m²) and Flexispot (20,000 m²) contributed two thirds of take-up, totalling 83,900 m². They therefore also made a significant contribution to take-up in the e-commerce sub-category within the overall retail category, which totalled 109,620 m² and accounted for 87% of take-up. Take-up by traditional retailers totalled 16,900 m² or 13%, down 54,400 m² or 76% from 71,300 m² or 64% in the previous year. Overall, the retail sector was able to increase by 15,000 m² or 13% compared to the previous year, but the 5-year average of currently 237,100 m² (5-year average) was undercut by almost half (-47%).

Ranking of the size categories: Contracts for 5,001 m² and more responsible for 80% of take-up
Contracts for large spaces over 10,001 m² continue to be of the greatest importance for the market in the Ruhr region. They accounted for 237,800 m² or 69% of take-up in 2024 (FY 2023: 326,900 m² or 73%). While there were two deals for over 50,000 m² in the previous year, the largest deal in 2024 as a whole was significantly smaller at 38,300 m². Back