Certain sectors experienced record sales during the pandemic which increased their industrial requirements to meet consumer demand – from online retailers to household improvement companies.
With the connectivity benefits that the A31 trunk road out of the BCP area brings, Dorset has a lot to offer these manufacturing, distribution, logistics and e-commerce businesses, as the flurry of recent deals here demonstrates.
Since the merger with Cowling & West six months ago, Vail Williams has acted on over 165,000 sq ft of industrial property transactions across the region, including the letting of a 40,000 sq ft industrial unit in Poole to cosmetics retailer Lush.
Interest from owner occupiers and investors in smaller freehold industrial properties has also gone up significantly across the region, as we’ve seen with the recent sale of seven brand new industrial units at Hoburne Enterprise Park, Ringwood, where we acted for Hoburne Development.
Indeed, such is the level of industrial property demand, that the price to acquire premises and their associated rental yields, have increased in the past 12 months.
This was the case recently, when we sold a 3,820 sq ft industrial investment on the Ferndown Industrial Estate for full quoting price, at just under half a million pounds, in an off-market deal.
Whilst this is all good news for the regional economy where manufacturing, retail and health are all big employers, and where it expected that employment will grow by more than 11,000 between 2019-29[1], unless supply of high-quality industrial premises increases, businesses will suffer as a result.
With the delivery of over 200,000 sq ft of much-needed industrial supply in the pipeline, the developers of Bedrock Park, Ferndown Industrial Estate, Westcroft Business Park and Three Legged Cross, are responding to occupier demand.
Nevertheless, given the level of enquiries we are seeing, much more is needed if we are to ensure the regional economy can emerge from the pandemic on the front foot.
We are pleased to have been appointed to market the two speculative industrial schemes at Bedrock Park and Westcroft Business Park, both of which are expected to bring high-quality industrial premises to market in the next six to nine months.
To discuss your industrial needs as an occupier or for help with delivery of an industrial scheme, contact Bryony Solan.
[1] https://mapping.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk/statistics-and-insights/Reports#desc