Market report Frankfurt half year 2025

The Frankfurt market for logistics, warehouse and industrial properties for owner-occupation and rental took up 220,600 m² of space by all market participants in the first half of 2025.

As in the football business, contracts in the logistics property sector can also be terminate prematurely. Due to the prematurely released space, several more contracts were signed in the first six months than expected at the beginning of the year.

Existing properties dominated the market with a share of 70 % or 155,400 m². Coming from just 19 % or 40,200 m², their take-up has more than tripled. Over the last five years, this is the highest figure observed for rentals in existing properties on the Frankfurt market. The major rentals by Pirelli and the Adam Hall Group together accounted for 23,500 m² or just 15 % of take-up.

New-build properties on greenfield sites followed with 24 % or 53,100 m², coming from 122,600 m² or 58 %. This result marks the sharpest decline of all categories by 69,500 m² and is equivalent to more than a halving (-57 %). Alnatura and Sinotrans Air Transportation were the biggest takers of space with a total of 35,900 m² and 68 % respectively.

Lettings in new-build properties on former brownfield sites continue to rank last with 12,100 m² or 5 % (H1 2024: 47,100 or 22 %). They also fell significantly by 35,000 m², meaning that only around a quarter of the previous year's level has been reached. DB Schenker accounted for a significant share of the take-up with 9,540 m² or 79 %.

The delta in new-builds in the first half of 2025 - i.e. both on greenfield sites and on former brownfield sites - was more than offset by new contracts for existing space.

The user side is more interested in tenancies and is reluctant to build owner-occupied properties. As in the same period of the previous year, space take-up by tenants exceeds those by owner-occupiers, albeit with increasing clarity.

In the differentiation between tenants and owner-occupiers, the Frankfurt region was an almost pure rental market at 98 % or 215,600 m². In the same period of the previous year, 34,100 m² or 16 % were attributable to owner-occupier.

In terms of building type, big-box properties remained largely stable, while business parks and other properties almost swapped take-up. Accordingly, business parks were the most sought-after properties in the first half of the year with 90,400 m² or 41 % (H1 2024: third place with 52,600 m² or 25 %). Their growth was significant at +37,800 m² or +72 %.

Big-box properties remain in second place with 72,200 m² or 33 %, showing almost a sideways movement (H1 2024: 70,300 m² or 34 %).

The previously top-ranked other properties dropped to last place with 58,000 m² or 26 % (H1 2024: 87,000 m² or 41 %) and were the only building type to record a decline with -29,000 m² or -33 %.

Subletting remained stable at around 17 % or 36,800 m² (H1 2024: 17 % or 36,700 m²), almost identical to the same period of the previous year.

Rhine-Main North was once again in second place with 24,600 m² or 11 %. However, take-up in the region slumped by a significant 27,500 m², which is equivalent to a halving (-53 %). However, according to the 5-year average, take-up in the same period last year was well above the typical level for the region. The major take-up by the Adam Hall Group contributed to the current result with 9,500 m² or 39 %.

The Frankfurt city area follows in third place with 19,600 m² or 9 %, coming from fourth place with 4,700 m² or 2 % in the same period of the previous year (+14,900 m² or +317 %). 

Rhine-Main East is in fourth place with 10,200 m² or 5 % together with Mainz/Wiesbaden (also 10,200 m² or 5 %). For this region, this represents a drop of one rank: coming from 43,600 m² or 21 %, the largest drop in take-up of all regions is -33,400 m² (-77 %). For Mainz/Wiesbaden, fourth place means a rise of one place, coming from 3,300 m² or 2 % (+6,900 m² or more than tripling). Rhine-Main West remains in last place with 6,900 m² or 3 %, up from 2,200 m² or 1 % (+4,700 m² or also more than tripled).

With the exception of the Rhine-Main East region - whose average take-up was 51,800 m², a significant 80 % shortfall - all submarkets exceeded their respective 5-year averages. All other regions exceeded their respective figures by at least 10 %, with the Frankfurt city area outperforming its average for the last five first half-years by 43 %.

This was followed only just behind by the previously third-placed Retail/Wholesale sector with 77,600 m² or 35 %, coming from 28,900 m² or 14 %. It increased by a significant 48,700 m² compared to the previous year, which is more than double the previous year's take-up. Half of this is attributable to lettings by Alnatura and Pirelli, totaling 41,200 m² or just over half of take-up in the Retail/Wholesale sector (53 %). The 5-year average was exceeded by 24,660 m² or 6 %, after the previous year's typical level was missed by a significant 68 %.

The lion's share was once again contributed by the "traditional retail" sub-category with 73,500 m² or 95 %, which increased by +46,800 m² compared to the same period of the previous year and thus almost tripled (H1 2024: 26,700 m² or 92 %). By contrast, companies focusing on "e-commerce" only took up 4,100 m² or 5 % of space, up from 2,200 m² or 8 % (+1,900 m² or almost double).

Within the Retail/Wholesale sector, the take-up of space in traditional retail is significantly 61 % above the typical level (average of the last five first half-years), while the total take-up of e-commerce is below average (falls short of the average by 66 %). 

In third place is the industry Manufacturing with 41,500 m² or 19 %, followed by 66,900 m² or 32 %. Although this is the clearest delta in the comparison of 25,400 m² or 38 % in the first half of 2024, it still represents an above-average result, as the 5-year average was exceeded by 31 %. Just under a quarter of the take-up (23 %) is attributable to the 9,500 m² signed by the Adam Hall Group.

The last place was once again taken by the collective category "Other" with 23,500 m² or 11 %, coming from 15,000 m² or 7 % (growth of 8,500 m² or +57 %).

The previously second-placed category between 5,001 and 10,000 m² climbed to the top spot and, with a result of 92,100 m² or 42 %, saw the most significant increase of all space units with +33,700 m² or +58 %. It not only exceeds the previous year's result of 58,400 m² or 28 %, but is also a significant 52 % above the average of the last five first half-years. The agreements concluded by DB Schenker, the Adam Hall Group and Sinotrans Air Transportation accounted for a total of 30 % (or 27,740 m²).

Space units between 3,001 and 5,000 m² moved up one place to second place with 53,400 m² or 24 % (H1 2024: 48,550 m² or 23 %).

Smaller spaces between 1,000 and 3,000 m² are still in penultimate place with 31,500 m² or 14 %, up from 24,750 m² or 12 %. Micro-space of less than 1,000 m² remains in last place with 2,400 m² or 1 %, down from 7,200 m² or 3 %.

Outlook

The market is moving. The retail sector in particular is still very strong in terms of needed space. This is a good signal for both property owners and project developers of new-build properties. As always, we expect the Frankfurt market for logistics and industrial space to pick up more strongly in the second half of the year. We expect the full-year result for 2025 to be slightly above last year's figure of 423,300 m².