A huge increase in urban logistics property space is required across key centers in Europe in the next few years to meet the exponential growth of e-commerce and the resultant need for last mile delivery in cities, according to a new research report from Cushman & Wakefield.

JLL´s Czech Supply Chain Activity Index marks further strong growth in Q3 2017, supporting continued robust occupier demand. The Index rose by 1.1% in Q3 2017, significantly above its long-term trend. As such, it maintained the strong growth patterns seen over the past three quarters.

Accelerate Property Fund, a JSE-listed real estate investment trust, has announced it will acquire a portfolio of five single-tenanted, long-lease, light industrial properties in Poland for €41.9 million from Panattoni Europe.

Noerr has advised IDI Gazeley on the sale of its European division. In October Global Logistic Properties (GLP), Asia’s biggest warehouse operator, entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Gazeley, a premier developer, owner and operator of modern logistics facilities in Europe for approximately €2.4 billion.

The market for industrial and logistics space in Poland has been growing dynamically for more than a decade. CBRE and Panattoni Europe, with the strong support from research agency Analytiqa, decided to examine how businesses operating in the logistics sector view the current market situation, what are their development plans and expectations regarding growth across the entire sector.

Poland’s warehouse supply hit a record high at the end of Q3 2017. The industrial stock totalled 12.86 million sqm, which represented an 18% rise year-on-year. Tenant demand remained robust on the country’s core warehouse markets, driven largely by logistics operators whose share in total take-up amounted to 45%. The vacancy rate slipped down by 0.8 percentage points year-on-year while headline and effective rents remained largely unchanged, reveals Cushman & Wakefield.

Stage Capital has sold a 151,000 sqm portfolio of Czech logistics assets to CBRE Global Investors for €125 million. The portfolio includes four standing assets and development land with planning permission for one more asset.

Goodman has begun construction of a modern warehouse of over 32,000 sqm for BMW Group in Świecko, Poland. The facility will be a logistics centre for replacement parts to serve the Polish and East German market. It will be Goodman’s first development for BMW Group in Poland, and its fourth project for the automotive giant in Continental Europe.

Polish developer MLP Group will build a new logistics park in Romania. The development project will be executed near Bucharest on an 18.8 ha plot of land. The target total area of this complex of facilities will be approx. 80,000 square meters of modern warehousing space.

Demand on Romania's industrial and logistics market reached 456,000 square meters in the first nine months of 2017, close to the level recorded for the whole last year when it cumulated 463,000 square meters, according to JLL: