In the first three quarters of 2025, the industrial and logistics real estate market in Central Germany increased its take-up by 40 per cent year-on-year to 370,300 square metres. The market activity was dominated by owner-occupiers, who accounted for 206,100 square metres. These are the results of a recent analysis by the global real estate service provider CBRE. The Central Germany market area examined includes the regions of Leipzig/Halle (118,500 square metres, down 40 per cent), A4 Saxony (164,100 square metres, up 721 per cent), A4 Thuringia (46,000 square metres, up 26 per cent) and Magdeburg (41,700 square metres, up 317 per cent).
"Despite the initially considerable increase in take-up, market activity is still at a low level and is dominated by restrained demand," says Mirko Baumann, Team Leader Industrial & Logistics East Germany at CBRE. "On the Dresden market, increasing demand is encountering a limited supply of space. This shortage of space is currently being tackled by developers with a number of new projects. In Leipzig, the mood is subdued, but there is market activity. In Magdeburg, positive signals are being seen, as new perspectives are emerging for the huge area, which is now not used by Intel after all."
The big-box vacancy rate in Central Germany was recently 7.5 percent. Compared to the end of the third quarter of 2024, this is an increase of three percentage points, but a decrease of 1.6 percentage points over the course of the quarter. "The vacancy rate is likely to have passed its peak, as many project developments have now been completed and the pipeline of new projects is rather low. In addition, project developers are currently focusing on built-to-suit developments due to the vacancy," explains Baumann. Take-up of new buildings also fell by 14 per cent to 189,900 square metres.
With the exception of the A4 Saxony market area (up two percent to 6.10 euros per square meter), prime rents fell slightly everywhere: minus three percent to six euros in Leipzig/Halle, minus three percent to 5.80 euros in the A4 Thuringia area and minus four percent to 5.50 euros in Magdeburg.
The largest share of take-up was accounted for by manufacturing companies at 52 per cent (up 13 percentage points). They were followed by transport and logistics companies with 30 percent (minus 4 percentage points) and retail companies (including online retailers) with 18 percent (minus 9 percentage points).
Forecast for the full year 2025
" Since there are no signs of a year-end rally, take-up of 500,000 square metres is realistic for the Central German industrial and logistics real estate market as a whole in 2025," Baumann expects.
