Mike Brown is an Associate Director in the Advisory and Transactions services team at CBRE, specialising in the industrial and logistics sector. Mike advises a number of national and local clients on the disposals and acquisitions of both single-let and multi-let industrial properties, as well as providing development advice. Before joining CBRE in 2021, Mike had worked in the Industrial and Logistics team for JLL in their Glasgow office. “I joined JLL as a commercial graduate in 2016, accepting a permanent position in the industrial and logistics team within JLL in 2017 and passing my APC in 2018”. How is the Scottish Commercial Property Marketing looking for 2022? “The industrial sector in Scotland, especially within the central belt, has performed extremely well during the course of 2021, and I expect to see continued growth throughout 2022. Landlords in the sector have taken great confidence from strong levels of take up, and when paired with the ever decreasing vacancy rates we are seeing strong rental growth across the entire market. CBRE’s West Scotland Quarterly Market Snapshots show that there has been significant growth within multiple key market indicators, and we are happy to share this information upon request. E-commerce has been a key driver of the market, accelerated by the lasting effect of the rise in internet sales during the Covid-19 pandemic. We will see this sector continue to drive demand nationally in 2022. We will also start to see sustainability playing a greater role within the sector, whether it be through new developments or occupier requirements adapting to include ESG criteria. Going into next year the hope is that developers can take confidence from the strong market conditions and speculatively develop high quality industrial and logistics space. Unpredictable construction costs in the wake of global supply chain issues are proving to be an area for concern; but in spite of this we are beginning to see exciting developments push forward. Fingers crossed the cost to build stabilises and we can truly unlock the potential that the industrial sector offers Scotland”.
