In its latest half year North West Industrial and Logistics Market Update property specialist B8 Real Estate says the £345m figure for H1 is the best since the financial crash almost a decade ago. Tony McDonough reports

Investors spent £345m on industrial property in the North West in the first half of this year – a £100m rise on the figure for the same period in 2016.

In its latest half year North West Industrial and Logistics Market Update property specialist B8 Real Estate says this figure is the best since the financial crash almost a decade ago.

It says there were 65 transactions recorded in the North West market in the six-month period.

Key investment deals in the first half of the year included Aquilla at Huyton, let to Grupo Antolin, acquired by London Metric for £11.75m, and Deeside Industrial Estate East, a multi-let estate acquired for £41m off clients of Aberdeen.

On the occupational side letting transactions of note were Whistl at Logistics North (225,000 sq ft at £6 per sq ft) and Iceland at Premier Park, Trafford Park (15,630 sq ft at £7 per sq ft).

Simon Wood, investment specialist at B8 Real Estate, said: “The industrial investment market has been very resilient thus far to the current political climate although investor preference is for quality whether this be in terms of unexpired lease terms (ideally 10 years-plus) or strong property fundamentals.”

The report states that although speculative funding has been limited, the lack of supply has seen some funds and developers commit to further SME speculative developments including Mere Grange in St Helens and Alchemy in Knowsley.

Jon Thorne, agency specialist at B8, added: “In H2 we expect to see three new speculative big box units start on site providing an additional 488,000 sq ft to the 1.12m sq ft of new build space still remaining.

“Although the numbers are large this is still less than 12 months take-up and we are still seeing good levels of demand across the region.