PNK: Industrial real estate - internet trade occupies innovational warehouses (RU)

Online retailers generate 14% of the demand on the market of industrial real-estate, though despite of the deficit they are ready to buy or rent only new high-tech objects. This is the major trend of 2012 according to the participants of Christmas summit of the Guild of Managers and Developers. Experts are sure that in 2013 the final division between 'new' and 'old' A class on the market of industrial and warehouse real-estate will take place, besides, the share of Internet companies in the structure of the demand will be growing.

Head of Land, Warehouse and Industrial Partner at Cushman & Wakefield Egor Dorofeev said in his presentation that about 1,300,000 m² had been sold or rented in Moscow in 2012, and about 1,600,000 m² all over Russia. However about half of this amount are the deals with the old objects: in Moscow region around 700,000 m² of warehouse and industrial real-estate were put into operation. Thereby the market is still characterized by deficit: the share of the vacant spaces is less than 1%, while the rates are historically high – $130 per m².

The structure of the demand is relatively traditional: retailers are the leaders, followed by production companies and logistic companies. However online-retailers who according to various assessments form 14% of the demand have created a new trend.

Oleg Mamaev, Executive Director of development company PNK Group, the company with the majority of deals on the market of industrial and warehouse real-estate in 2012, said that due to the constantly growing requirements for the quality it is possible that many objects will be revaluated.

"The appearance of industrial parks corresponding to international standards in the last few years was the main drive behind the development of the Russian market. Today from one third up to half of all deals are relocations from less quality spaces into better ones. More companies are investing in the optimization of their logistics because they understand that professional buildings, effective in exploitation and economical in maintenance are much more profitable than the old ones though they may be cheaper.

"We are already signing the deals for 2013 and 2014. The major consultants and developers are not in a hurry to officially update the classification of the objects because it will significantly influence the interests of the investors. For example, somebody who has a large portfolio of warehouse property is suddenly told that this property is not A-class but maximum B plus class. But in the minds of the leaseholders and buyers this division has already happened: nowadays the terms 'old Á-class' and 'new Á-class' are generally used on the market and their definition is well known".

According to the experts the situation on the market of industrial real-estate won't change significantly in the next year. The share of Internet-companies and large retailers will grow and thereby the requirements for the quality and automatization capabilities will become tougher. All the opportunities for the growth of the rent rates and prices are already almost exhausted. It will lead to the lowering of developer's yields, and it means that it is doubtful whether there will be a significant increase in the volumes of the offer.

"In the segment of industrial and warehouse property we see a strange situation: in spite of very high demand the money is not invested here. Banks and investors traditionally assess this segment very conservatively due to the low developers yield and high risks. We all remember unsuccessful attempts to conquer Russian industrial real-estate market even of the large international players. And now against the background of the general toughening of the financial situation it is almost impossible to attract investments to this segment. That is why some announced projects are already facing the shortage of financing. Only few companies in our segment own the investment potential sufficient enough for realization of such projects as construction of the contemporary industrial parks", - said Oleg Mamaev.

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