Take-up of 230,500 square metres – 89 per cent increase compared to the same period last year
Hamburg's industrial and logistics real estate market achieved take-up of 230,500 square metres in the first half of 2025. This corresponds to an increase of 89 percent compared to the same period last year. Both quarters had take-up of more than 100,000 square metres each – in the past two previous years, not a single quarter had reached a corresponding level. This development was driven not least by various owner-occupier transactions, which led to an unusually high share of 47 percent overall, compared to only 14 percent in the same period last year. Four of the five largest deals in the first half of the year were also for owner-occupancy. New buildings accounted for a stable share of take-up of 43 per cent. These are the results of a recent analysis by the global real estate service provider CBRE.
"The high take-up does not correspond to a rapid increase in the dynamics of the Hamburg market – because the necessary decision-making processes for owner-occupier transactions were initiated some time ago. However, we are only now recording them with the start of building construction," says Frank Freitag, Head of Industrial & Logistics Hamburg at CBRE. "Nevertheless, it is also true that we can undoubtedly speak of an excess demand in Hamburg again. Because the vacancy rate is almost zero percent. If space comes onto the market, it is already let before it can be assigned to the vacancy rate. For potential tenants, this means that moves or expansions must be planned well in advance."
Despite the excess demand, average rents for logistics space declined slightly (down four percent to 7.23 euros per square metre compared to the same period last year). The reason: most recently, space in older existing properties has been rented out, for which the rent level is lower. The prime rent, on the other hand, remained stable at 8.50 euros.
Manufacturing companies accounted for the largest share of take-up in the first half of 2025 at 35 percent (up six percentage points), followed by transport and logistics companies (down 22 percentage points to 30 percent) and retail companies (including online retailers) (up nine percentage points to 26 percent).
Outlook for the rest of the year
"The take-up of space in the past two years will be exceeded in 2025, so that take-up of 350,000 to 375,000 square metres is possible for the year as a whole," Freitag predicts. "In view of the scarce land areas, a dynamic can only be achieved through existing areas that become available."
Hamburg logistics market: Take-up of space (letting and owner-occupancy)
