Sold | large logistical real estate investment | Garbe

GARBE Industrial Real Estate Netherlands has acquired a 71,000 sqm logistics development in the southern Netherlands’ ‘market hotspot’ of Breda/Roosendaal, close to the Belgian border, for around €70 million.

The asset was purchased on behalf of one of GARBE’s investment funds, GARBE Logistikimmobilien Fonds Plus II “GLIF+II”. The final transaction price is contingent on occupancy at completion and handover by the developer/builder Bouwbedrijf Vrolijk in early 2022.

It is one of the bigger deals in the logistics property market this year. The largest deal is the recent sale of Amsterdam Logistic Cityhub for 307 million euros.

Scarcity

Maurits Smit, Managing Director GARBE Industrial Real Estate Netherlands, said: “Very high demand for warehouse space in the Dutch logistics market is being met by insufficient new supply, resulting in rental growth and ongoing yield compression. The asset we have acquired near Breda is located in one of of the top logistics ’hotspots’ in the Netherlands, with excellent highway accessibility to the major ports of Rotterdam and Antwerp and the entire Benelux region. Owing to the lack of available space in the region we anticipate rapid tenant uptake of the remaining units in the coming months.”

The state-of-the-art logistics facility lies close to Breda on the A16 motorway which links the northeast of Rotterdam to the Belgian border near Hazeldonk. The asset comprises four units, making it suitable for single or multi-tenant use, of which two, totalling approximately 25,000 sqm, are let to BCT Treehub for 15 years.

Business Centre Treeport

The logistics warehouse is the first asset to be developed at the Business Centre  Treeport, a 62-hectare business park created primarily to foster and boost collaboration in the tree cultivation sector in the surrounding Rijsbergen area, which is one of the leading locations in Europe for arboriculture. BCT is a cooperative consisting of 115 tree nurseries, suppliers, consultants and other companies associated with the sector as well as being a co-founder of Business Centre Treeport.

Rent increases

Although prime logistics rents have grown by 38% since 2017 to average about €7.50 per square metre for top quality properties around Amsterdam and Rotterdam, a recent GARBE Industrial ‘Country Scope’ research report on the Netherlands noted that the strongest average annual rental growth over this five year period could be seen in regional locations such as Eindhoven (+3.7%), Venlo (+3.5%), and Tilburg (+3.25%).

Strong demand and rising rents are also driving the emergence of new logistics zones across the country where development land is available, particularly in the northern and eastern areas around Almere, Zwolle, and Deventer/Enschede – but also in the central Tiel/Geldermalsen and western Waddinxveen regions.

Driving forces

According to GARBE’s research, the boom in e-commerce is fuelling the big expansion in the Dutch industrial/logistics investment market which has generated +7% annual growth, or +9.9 million square metres in logistics space inventory (on average) between 2016 and 2020. Other strong demand factors are also playing a part in underpinning the robust market conditions, such as UK companies actively relocating their distribution facilities to the Netherlands since Brexit in order to stay within the EU’s Customs Union, the GARBE report concluded.

Consultants involved

Drees & Sommers acted as technical advisor for GARBE Industrial while Greenberg Traurig provided legal counsel. Bouwbedrijf Vrolijk was legally advised by Schaap Advocaten & Notarissen and commercially by De Lobel & Partners – real estate experts who also took care of lease negotiations with BCT Treehub.