Warehouse Capacity: Is Europe Ready for Peak?

Every year, the same conversation happens during the same week of September. Someone runs the numbers on inbound volume against available pallet positions, and the answer comes back tighter than expected. Then the scramble starts.

The difference this year is that the market has less slack than it did twelve months ago, and the buffer that used to absorb a late decision is thinning out.

If your Q4 capacity plan is still a draft, this is the moment to finalise it.

Key Takeaways 

• European logistics vacancy could fall below 5% as new supply hits a nine-year low.
• Western corridors such as Brussels to Antwerp are close to full (2.33% vacancy). CEE has more room (up to about 8%) but demand is strong.
• Grid power is now a site-selection constraint, not a detail.
• Contracted space beats verbal commitments. Space secured in August costs less and offers more choice than space secured in November.

How Tight Is the European Warehouse Market Going Into Q4?

European logistics take-up has been recovering steadily. Through 2025, quarterly take-up stabilised between 5 and 6 million square metres, still below the 9.6 million square metre peak recorded in Q4 2021, but a clear improvement on a difficult 2024. Forecasts point to continued moderate growth.

The more interesting number is on the supply side. Only around 3.8% of total European logistics stock was under construction by mid-2025, and twelve-month rolling completions are expected to hit a nine-year low as the development pipeline stays muted. A growing share of completed space is already committed before it opens.

Prologis research estimates Europe needs roughly €150 billion of new logistics space just to meet current consumption levels. The forecast is that European vacancy could fall below 5% if supply pipelines stay constrained and economic growth holds, which would make Europe one of the tightest logistics markets in the world. Prologis also describes power as the new location factor in its 2026 outlook.

None of this is a cliff. It is a slow squeeze, which is precisely why it catches people out. Nothing dramatic happens until the week you need space and there is none available in the corridor where you need it.

Where Is the Pressure Concentrated: Western Europe or CEE?

The averages hide a lot. Utilisation rates remain high in France, Germany, and the Netherlands, leaving very little room for overflow inventory when peak-season volume arrives. In some Western European corridors, availability is effectively nil. Vacancy along Belgium’s Brussels-to-Antwerp corridor stood at 2.33% at the end of 2025.

Central and Eastern Europe reads differently. Vacancy runs higher, at up to around 8% in Poland and the wider CEE region, but absorption is enormously strong, driven by nearshoring from Western Europe. Poland recorded roughly 1.6 million square metres of gross take-up in Q1 2026, up around 40% year-on-year, with net take-up rising by approximately 75%. The vacancy rate stood at 7.2%, with new supply of about 650,000 square metres.

That combination matters more than either figure alone. This is not a market absorbing renewals. New leases and expansions made up a significant share of activity, which means the demand has genuine depth. The Česká republika a Rumunsko have both posted strong annual take-up growth as well.

Read together, the picture is of a region with real available capacity and real competition for it.

Why Is Electricity Now a Warehouse Site-Selection Issue?

There is a newer bottleneck that has moved from a technical footnote to a genuine site-selection issue: electricity.

Väčšina európskych elektrických sietí je na hranici svojich kapacít alebo je ich kapacita úplne vyčerpaná. Keďže distribučné centrá sú čoraz automatizovanejšie a čoraz elektrifikovanejšie, ich energetické potreby prevyšujú možnosti dostupných prepojení. Zabezpečenie dostatočnej kapacity siete pre moderné a automatizované skladové priestory sa teraz považuje za kľúčové a na niektorých trhoch je práve táto obmedzenosť rozhodujúca pre to, či je lokalita vôbec životaschopná.

For anyone planning capacity that involves automation, refrigeration, or electric vehicle charging infrastructure, power availability needs to be on the checklist alongside floor area and dock doors. It is not a detail that gets sorted out later. The same power constraint is shaping where life science manufacturers build, as we cover in Kde sa v strednej a východnej Európe buduje farmaceutický priemysel.

Čo vlastne žiadajú okupanti

Where demand is strong, it is concentrated on a fairly specific building profile. Occupiers have consistently favoured high-specification stock: clear heights of 10 to 12 metres, strong floor loading, generous yard depth, and a design that meets environmental certification requirements.

Existuje aj iný dôvod okrem preferencií. Veľká časť súčasnej trhovej aktivity odráža to, že spoločnosti sa posilňujú namiesto toho, aby expandovali a presťahovali sa z starších, menej efektívnych budov do skladových priestorov, ktoré sú skutočne vhodné pre automatizované, energeticky náročné činnosti. Očakáva sa, že čistá absorpcia sa úplne nezotaví skôr ako v roku 2027, práve preto, že podiel nových lízingu je kompenzovaný tým, že sa priestory uvoľňujú v iných častiach spoločnosti.

The practical implication: the weakest assets are becoming more exposed, and the best assets are getting taken. If your Q4 plan depends on finding well-specified space in a strong corridor at short notice, you are competing for the smallest part of the market. Browse CTP’s logistics and warehouse solutions for build-to-suit and ready-to-occupy options.

Five Questions to Answer Before Peak Season

1. Aká je vaša skutočná predikcia maximálneho objemu predaja, a nie minuloročná suma plus určitý percentuálny podiel?

Vývoj nákladov na prebytok sa uskutočňuje tak, že plánovanie v čase vrcholov vychádza z predchádzajúcich ročných predpokladov.

1. Kde je vaša rezervná kapacita, fyzicky?

Kapacita pre pretečenie vody, ktorá sa nachádza dva krajiny od vašej potreby, je len položkou v účte, nie riešením.

1. Máte kapacitu siete pre to, čo prevádzkujete?

Ak pridávate automatizáciu alebo reguláciu teploty, pred potvrdením čohokoľvek ďalšieho overte napojenie na napájanie.

1. Je váš priestor na prípadné použitie zmluvne dohodnutý alebo len diskutovaný?

Na trhu, kde sa objem dokončených bytov dostal na deväťročný minimálny rekord, je slovný dohovor v novembri veľmi málo hodnotný.

1. Ako bude vyzerať budúci rok?

If your peak requirement is becoming structural rather than seasonal, short-term overflow arrangements are an expensive way to solve a permanent problem.

Should You Secure Warehouse Capacity Early?

Trh nie je v kríze. Počet prenajímateľných jednotiek rastie miernym tempom, voľné priestory v regióne strednej a východnej Európy zostávajú dostupné a predpovedá sa, že rast nájomného v rokoch 2026 až 2027 bude udržateľný a v rozmedzí približne 2% ročne.

But the direction of travel is clear. Supply is constrained by rising construction costs, planning restrictions, and grid capacity limits, none of which can be resolved quickly. Nearshoring continues to anchor demand in Central and Eastern Europe as production networks diversify away from Asia. And occupier surveys suggest that 47% intend to increase their footprints, against just 4% planning to reduce them.

Securing space in August costs less and gives you more choice than securing it in November. That has always been true. It is simply more true in a market where the pipeline is thinning.

Potrebujete kapacitu ešte pred špičkovým obdobím? Overenie dostupnosti across more than 270 locations in the CTPark Network, from the North Sea to the Black Sea.

Author – CTP Research Team
Last updated  – 16 October 2026