REALOGIS: Lettings of existing buildings dominated Frankfurt's industrial and logistics real estate market in the 1st half of the year

The REALOGIS Group, Germany's leading consulting firm for industrial and logistics real estate as well as commercial properties, has announced in the 1st edition of the REALOGIS Group. In the first half of 2026, the rental and owner-occupier market for industrial and logistics properties in the greater Frankfurt area recorded a total take-up of 245,400 m². Of this, 221,600 m² or 90% was hall space, 13,200 m² (6%) office space and 10,600 m² (4%) mezzanine space. Take-up of warehouse space was thus almost at the level of the same period last year of 220,600 m² and exceeded the current 5-year average of 194,820 m² by 14%.

The five largest deals by Siemens, MSK Pharmalogistic, FedEx, Weetech and IEDAU International totalled 107,760 m² or 44% of total take-up.

Julian Petri, Managing Director of REALOGIS Immobilien Frankfurt GmbH, comments: "The logistics market was clearly characterised by available existing properties. For the remainder of the year, we expect demand for space to remain stable, without a significant upturn in the supply of new buildings. Modern, short-term space in good locations therefore remains scarce, which keeps the rent level at a high level."

As at the end of 2025, the prime rent was €8.50/m² (H1 2025: €8.30/m²). It thus maintained its most recent record level and was 7% above the current 5-year average of €7.92/m². In a long-term comparison, there is still an upward trend, albeit with less momentum. After rent increases of 4% in each of the years 2022 to 2024 and 5% in 2025, the increase in the 1st half of 2026 was lower at 2%.

In the first six months of 2026, the market was dominated by leases in existing properties. They accounted for 209,600 m² or 86% of total take-up. The deals of Siemens, FedEx, Weetech and IEDAU International together accounted for 41% of the space taken up in this segment.

New buildings on former brownfield sites took second place with 30,300 m² or 12%. The main factor here was the 22,760 m² financial statement of MSK Pharmalogistic, which accounted for three quarters of the segment's turnover. At 5,500 m² (2%), newly-built buildings on greenfield sites played only a subordinate role.

The Frankfurt metropolitan area was tenant-driven in the 1st half of 2026. A total of 239,900 m², or 98% of take-up, was accounted for by leases. Owner-occupiers contributed only 5,500 m² (2%).

With regard to the type of building, there were other properties that could not be assigned to big-box areas or business parks. They accounted for 126,200 m² or 51% of total take-up. Big box space followed with 71,300 m² (29%). Business parks reached 47,900 m² (20%).

In the 1st half of 2026, the Rhine-Main-South region remained by far the sub-region with the highest turnover. At 150,400 m², 61% of total take-up took place here. Three of the top deals in the first half of the year (Siemens, 41,000 m; MSK Pharmalogistic, 22,760 m² and IEDAU International, 13,000 m²) were in this market area and accounted for 51% of regional take-up.

Rhein-Main-Ost followed at a considerable distance with 40,000 m² or 16%. Weetech's 15,000 m² deal accounted for 38% of the region's take-up. Rhein-Main-Nord took third place with 27,300 m² (11%). Here, FedEx (16,000 m²) was largely responsible for the regional result with a share of 59%.

In Rhein-Main-West, 18,200 m² were turned-up, which corresponded to a market share of 8%. Frankfurt and Mainz/Wiesbaden brought up the rear with 8,400 m² (3%) and 1,100 m² (1%) respectively.

The industry/production sector took first place with 132,400 m² or 54%. The deals of Siemens, FedEx and Weetech totaled 72,000 m² and were thus responsible for 54% of the industry's turnover.

Logistics/freight forwarding followed in second place with 87,900 m² or 36%. The deals of MSK Pharmalogistic for 22,760 m² and IEDAU International for 13,000 m² together accounted for 41% of the industry's turnover. For the "Other" category, take-up of 14,800 m² (6%) was registered. For leases by traditional retail companies, the recorded figure was 10,300 m² (4%). In the e-commerce sub-segment, no deals were registered in the 1st half of 2026.

Large areas of 10,001 m² or more dominated the market with 130,600 m² or 53% market share. All five largest revenue generators were attributable to this size segment, generating a total of 107,760 m² or 83% of the segment's take-up.

The segment between 3,001 m² and 5,000 m² ranked behind with 51,200 m² or 21%. Areas between 1,000 m² and 3,000 m² reached 35,100 m² (14%) and took third place. Larger areas between 5,001 m² and 10,000 m² accounted for 24,200 m² (10%). Very small areas of less than 1,000 m² contributed only 4,300 m² (2%) to take-up.

Take-up: 245,400 m² Subletting: 7,200 m² Prime rent: €8.50/m² Existing properties: 209,600 m² | New building on brownfield: 30,300 m² |
New building on a greenfield site: 5,500 m² Leases: 239,900 m² | Owner-occupier: 5,500 m²