Market report Hamburg half year 2025

The market for logistics, warehouse and industrial space for rent and owner-occupancy in Hamburg showed a significant recovery in the first half of 2025, with space take-up of 205,400 m² achieved by all market participants.

After three consecutive half-years of decline, the positive development means that the result lags behind the current 5-year average of 227,080 m² by just 10 %.

Exceeding the 200,000 m² mark in the first half of 2025 shows a recovery trend on the Hamburg market compared to the weak previous half-year.

For the first time, new-build properties on former brownfield sites accounted for more than half of the total space take-up. The three major leases involving Körber Technologies, Scan Global Logistics Group and Garpa Garten & Park Einrichtungen GmbH totalled 73,250 m², accounting for 67 % of the 109,200 m² take-up in this category.

This was followed by rentals involving existing properties with 96,200 m², which accounted for 47 % of total space take-up. Compared to 115,000 m² in the same period last year, the decline was 18,800 m² or 16 %, which was due, among other things, to a lack of large-scale leases.

New-builds on greenfield sites played no role at all in the first six months of 2025, after space take-up had already slumped from 68,000 m² in the first half of 2023 to 25,000 m² in H1 2024.

The Hamburg market has been tenant-driven to date, but in the first half of 2025 there has been a more balanced ratio between tenants (71 %) and owner-occupiers (29 %). Compared with the first half of 2024, take-up by tenants rose by 13,100 m² or 10 % from 132,000 m² to 145,100 m² in H1 2025. Rentals by owner-occupiers developed much more dynamically: with an increase of 52,300 m², they totalled 60,300 m² in the first half of 2025 – roughly 7.5 times the previous year's figure (H1 2024: 8,000 m²).

The importance of owner-occupiers in Hamburg's logistics, warehouse and industrial space market has grown noticeably by 23 percentage points compared with the same period last year. Owner-occupiers currently account for around one-third of total space take-up, while tenants make up slightly more than two-thirds.

In terms of building types, the big-box category took the top spot in the first half of 2025, accounting for half of total take-up with 103,100 m². This represents an increase of 62,100 m² or 2.5 times the figure for the same period last year (H1 2024: 41,000 m²).

Business parks slipped to second place with 68,800 m² and a 34 % share. In the first half of 2024, they were still in first place with 99,000 m² and a 71 % share. This corresponds to a decline of 31 % or 30,200 m².

Rentals in properties that cannot be assigned to either big-box properties or business parks are regaining importance after two years of irrelevance and, with 33,500 m², accounts for 16 % of total space take-up.

Despite growth in the first half of 2025, the East region fell back to second place in the ranking: at 81,600 m² and a share of 40%, space take-up was 9,100 m² or 13 % above the previous year's figure (H1 2024: 72,500 m² or 52 %). The 5-year average of 70,100 m² was exceeded by 16 %. 42 % or 34,300 m² of the space take-up in the East region was accounted for by the largest rental in the first half of 2025, involving Körber Technologies.

The West region remains in third place, contributing only 5 % to space take-up with 10,500 m². The 5-year average of 26,440 m² is currently missed by 60 %. The North region remains at the bottom of the table with 8,900 m² and 4 % of total take-up. Here too, the 5-year average of 31,780 m² was again not reached, falling short by 72 %.

The southern region, with the Port of Hamburg and its connection to Hanover/Bremen, and the eastern region, with Billbrook and the adjacent Rothenburgsort as Hamburg's second-largest contiguous commercial area, continue to dominate the market. They further expanded their importance by 7 percentage points to 91 % of space take-up.

The 5-year average of 119,080 m² was slightly missed by 3 %. This means that space take-up by Logistics/Distribution companies in the past six months came closer to its typical level measured against the 5-year average than in the corresponding period of the previous years, H1 2024 and H1 2023. These fell short of their respective space take-up averages by 21 % and 23 % respectively.

Second place in terms of space take-up went to the Manufacturing sector with 45,500 m² or 22 %, up from 20,000 m² or 14 %. In absolute terms, this represents the second-highest growth of all sectors at 25,500 m², which is more than double (+128 %). The result is largely driven by Körber Technologies' lease involving 34,300 m², which contributed three-quarters of the sector's take-up. The current 5-year average has been exceeded by 12 % (H1 2025: 40,660 m²).

The Retail/Wholesale sector, which previously ranked second, is now in third place with 42,100 m² or 21 %, up from 23,500 m² or 17 %. Almost half of this result is attributable to the major lease with Garpa Garten & Park Einrichtungen GmbH (19,350 m² or 46 %). As in the same period last year, rentals in the "Traditional retail" segment led the way with 21,900 m² or 52%, followed by "E-Commerce" with 20,200 m² or 48 %.

The collective category "Supply/Others" remains in last place with 2,400 m² or 1%, down from 10,000 m² or 7%.

Larger areas between 5,001 and 10,000 m² rose from 51,500 m² or 37 % to 55,600 m² or 27 % year-on-year, dropping from first to second place. They were the only size category to exceed their 5-year average: currently at 18 %, this stands at 47,020 m².

Medium to large spaces between 3,001 and 5,000 m² remain in fourth place with 23,200 m² or 11 %, down from 25,000 m² or 18 %. Smaller spaces between 1,000 and 3,000 m² are almost at the same level as the same period last year with 28,100 m² or 14 % (H1 2024: 28,500 m² or 20 %). Micro-sites under 1,000 m² came in last with 6,400 m² or 3 %, contrary to their performance in the previous half-year, when they were the second-largest category with 35,000 m² or 25 %.

Outlook

The further development of the logistics and industrial property market in Hamburg depends on various factors. These include, for example, political decisions on possible military action, US tariffs and, of course, the overall economic and industrial situation in the country. The current trend is upward, meaning we expect additional space take-up of 100,000 to 150,000 m² by the end of the year, limited by a lack of construction projects and available existing space.