These Cities Led Industrial Rent Growth in Q1
Rents for logistics space in San Francisco, New York City, and Washington D.C. clocked in at more than $10 per square foot.
San Francisco, New York City, and Washington D.C. posted the highest average industrial rents in the country in the first quarter of the year, with each clocking in at more than $10 per square foot for logistics space.
Overall, nine markets showed average asking rents higher than the national average, according to new research from Colliers—though most of those are within areas where pricing is always at a premium. But three—Columbus, Seattle, and Detroit—showed year-over-year asking rent increases of more than 10%. (Columbus was the clear frontrunner with an increase of more than 15%, while Denver showed a decrease of 5%.)
Breaking down the data on a quarter-over-quarter basis shows even greater nuance among markets, with Baltimore posing gains of nearly 10% over Q4, followed by Denver and Seattle. On the flip side, Dallas-Ft.Worth, Kansas City and South Florida all showed decreases quarter-over-quarter.
On average, US asking rents have increased for three straight years and were at $7.28 per square foot at the end of Q1. That’s a 2.8% uptick over Q4 2020 data and a 5.4% increase year-over-year. Meanwhile, Midwestern cities like Minneapolis, Cleveland, and Indianapolis—as well as Denver and the NYC metro area—all showed lower year-over-year asking rates in Q1.
But overall, Colliers notes that record low vacancies in most markets are pushing rates ever higher. Until the first quarter of 2021, supply had steadily outpaced overall demand for two years, but that flipped in the first quarter as demand surpassed supply by more than 15.8 msf.