IN Brief:
- UK Grade A big-box take-up reached 6.9m ft² in Q1 2026.
- The East Midlands accounted for 50% of total take-up during the quarter.
- Smaller units make up most available properties, despite strongest demand for 500,000ft²-plus buildings.
Avison Young has reported a strong rebound in UK Grade A big-box logistics take-up, with activity rising 37% year on year to 6.9m ft² in the first quarter of 2026.
The Q1 total was almost three times higher than the previous quarter, signalling a return of leasing momentum after a quieter end to 2025. The East Midlands remained the principal region for large-scale occupier activity, accounting for 50% of total take-up.
Availability rose to 59.7m ft² during the quarter, a 5.9% increase on the previous quarter. Speculative Grade A space accounted for 55% of availability, indicating that supply has increased, but not necessarily in the format or scale required by the largest occupiers.
The most significant mismatch is by size. Units between 100,000ft² and 399,999ft² account for around 87% of all available properties, while demand is strongest for buildings above 500,000ft². Major transactions during the quarter included MitLog Logistics at 550,000ft² and DHL at 514,193ft².
Prime headline rents across UK regions remained stable in Q1, following average growth of around 4% during 2025. The market has moved into a more mature phase, with occupiers still active but more disciplined, and landlords facing a more selective demand environment than during the immediate post-pandemic warehousing boom.
David Wilmer, principal and managing director, industrial and logistics at Avison Young, said: “The Big Box market has started 2026 on the front foot, with take-up rebounding strongly after a quieter end to last year. Momentum has returned, driven by third-party logistics operators, while the East Midlands continues to stand out as the go-to location for large-scale requirements.”
UK logistics property remains strategically important, but the market is no longer moving in one simple direction. Occupiers still need large, efficient, well-located buildings, particularly where networks are being redesigned around e-commerce, retail replenishment, manufacturing support, and outsourced logistics. At the same time, macroeconomic uncertainty and higher capital costs are making investment decisions more cautious.
The skew towards smaller available units is important because network design often depends on step-change capacity. A company looking for a 500,000ft²-plus building is rarely able to solve the same problem by taking several smaller sites. Larger warehouses support automation, stock centralisation, cross-dock flows, labour concentration, and transport efficiency in ways that fragmented footprints cannot easily replicate.
The East Midlands’ continued strength reflects its motorway access, labour pool, established logistics ecosystem, and proximity to national markets. That status is unlikely to weaken quickly, but it increases competition for the best sites and raises the importance of planning, power availability, and infrastructure investment.
The Q1 rebound points to an active but constrained market. Demand has returned, prime rents have stabilised, and 3PL activity remains a driver, but the buildings most sought after by large occupiers are still not always the buildings available. That imbalance will shape leasing negotiations through the rest of 2026.