Over the past few years, the value of multi-let industrial estates has skyrocketed. We’ve seen land values increase, occupancy rates reach record levels and huge increases in development interest. It has been an incredibly profitable time for multi-let industrial landlords and their estates, but it has slowly been causing two big problems. One of these problems is apparent now, and the other is going to be causing problems for some years to come. Right now, demand is incredibly high for multi-let industrial units – but with long lead times on new developments and few spaces that can be converted quickly, this makes the prospect of growth through acquisition difficult. With few spaces and such high demand, it leaves many landlords competing with limited availability and as a result, recent land acquisition values have risen steeply, not to mention the development costs associated with them.

This leaves a landlords existing stock as their only real source of sustainable revenue growth in the near future. But to grow that revenue, landlords are not just able to raise rents – they need to be able to either a) provide a renewed space through renovation or b) provide additional services on top of simply renting space. The problem, long term, though is that with the price of industrial real estate being so high, there has been a huge amount of investment into new multi-let developments. These spaces take time to complete but with such a sudden increase in demand driven by the pandemic, this will see thousands of units completing at roughly the same time. This flooding of the market will decrease rent yields and increase tenant churn. The sensible option to prevent this is to invest heavily now into additional services that add value to the occupant and improve the marketability of your spaces. So, what are some of the technologies and services you can invest in today that will generate value for your residents tomorrow?

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