It continues to be a bull market in for owners and developers of warehouse space.

That was affirmed by recent data from real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield, as detailed in its Q3 report on activity in industrial real estate, most of which is warehouse space.

As seen in the graphic below, so-called "net absorption" (amount of warehouse space leased minus any space that is abandoned) is higher already through Q3 than for each of the past three full years.

And more than 200 million square feet of new space has already been delivered through three-quarters of the year.

Source: Cushman & Wakefield

Asking rents continue to march higher (though the overall average cost per square foot varies dramatically across dfferent markets) while vacancy rates are falling, at just 4.1% nationally.

The report says the market absorbed 140.7 million square feet (msf) in Q3 2021, the most
space ever absorbed in a single quarter of any year reported by Cushman & Wakefield, breaking the previous record from last quarter (126.4 msf).

This brought the year-to-date (YTD)  absorption total to 365.9 msf, 98.0% above the same period in 2020, and the most absorption ever recorded in a single year with another quarter still to come.

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