Czech Industry Maintains Growth as Export Orders Strengthen

Czech industrial production continued to expand in July 2026, supported by automotive manufacturing, energy and several technology-related industries, although weaker domestic demand and declining employment point to an uneven recovery.

Industrial output increased by 3.1% year-on-year, marking the eighteenth consecutive month of annual growth, according to the Czech Statistical Office. Compared with June, however, production declined by 1.1%.

Motor vehicle manufacturing and electricity, gas, steam and air-conditioning supply made the largest contributions to annual growth. Production also increased in electrical equipment, basic metals and computer, electronic and optical products. Chemicals, rubber and plastics recorded moderate declines, while mining remained under pressure.

“Industrial production in July increased again, year-on-year. A y-o-y growth was recorded by industry already for the eighteenth successive month,” said Radek Matějka, Director of the Agricultural and Forestry, Industrial, Construction, and Energy Statistics Department at the Czech Statistical Office.

New orders provided a stronger indication of external demand, rising 7.2% from July 2025. Orders from international customers increased by 15.7%, while domestic orders declined by 6.6%. Compared with the previous month, total new orders were 3.2% lower.

Automotive manufacturing, electrical equipment and computer, electronic and optical products generated much of the annual increase in orders. Other transport equipment moved in the opposite direction, partly because of a strong comparison period in 2025.

Employment continued to lag behind production. The average registered workforce across Czech industry was 1.0% smaller than a year earlier, indicating that higher output has not translated into broader industrial hiring.

The latest available European comparison also shows Czech manufacturing outperforming the wider market. In June, Czech industrial production was 3.8% higher year-on-year, compared with growth of 0.6% across the EU27. German industrial output declined by 0.5% over the same period.

For the Czech industrial and logistics property sector, continued production growth and particularly the increase in foreign orders provide a supportive economic backdrop for manufacturing, supplier and distribution operations. The sharp difference between international and domestic orders nevertheless shows that the current expansion remains heavily dependent on external demand.

With monthly production and orders both declining in July despite strong annual comparisons, the figures point to continued industrial resilience rather than an accelerating recovery.

Source: CSO

AI Is Turning Warehouses and Freight Networks Into Intelligent Operating Systems

Artificial intelligence is beginning to change logistics at a deeper level than simply improving route planning or automating administrative work. Across freight brokerage, warehouses, fulfilment centres and international supply chains, companies are increasingly attempting to build intelligence directly into the systems that decide how goods are priced, routed, stored, monitored and delivered. At Ai4 2026 in Las Vegas, executives working across logistics, data science and emerging computing technologies described an industry where the principal constraint is increasingly not the capability of AI models themselves, but the fragmented information and legacy systems surrounding them.

The discussion brought together Karthikeyan Ilangovan, Vice President of Data Analytics and AI/ML at MODE Global; Pouya Dianat, Chief Product Officer at Quantum Computing Inc.; and Arjun Srinivasan, Senior Vice President of AI and Data Science at ShipStation Global. The panel was moderated by Brendan Baker, partner at Rackhouse Venture Capital. Their discussion highlighted an important shift for the logistics industry. AI is moving from analysing operations after events have happened towards influencing decisions while goods are still moving through the supply chain.

That distinction matters because logistics operates in an environment where relatively small disruptions can quickly create expensive consequences. Weather, port congestion, customs delays, capacity shortages, geopolitical events and equipment failures can alter transportation costs and delivery schedules within hours. Traditional forecasting models remain important for pricing, route planning and demand prediction, but companies increasingly want systems capable of combining information from many different sources and responding as conditions change.

MODE Global, for example, operates across a supply chain involving numerous technology providers, carriers and other partners. A shipment travelling internationally may pass through ports, customs authorities, warehouses, transport companies and different technology platforms before reaching its destination. The challenge becomes particularly significant for temperature-sensitive products such as pharmaceuticals. Moving a container successfully between two ports does not necessarily mean the logistics operation has succeeded if the cargo subsequently remains in customs for several weeks.

AI therefore has potential value not simply in predicting the scheduled arrival of a shipment, but in identifying emerging problems throughout the journey and recommending alternative actions before those problems become expensive. The difficulty is obtaining reliable information quickly enough. Ilangovan argued that model development itself is no longer necessarily the most difficult part of logistics AI. Data quality and integration can present much larger obstacles.

International transportation remains highly fragmented. Some shipments provide sophisticated real-time information, while others move through systems where visibility remains incomplete. Different companies operate different enterprise platforms, transportation-management systems and data standards, creating gaps between individual stages of the supply chain. AI cannot eliminate those underlying problems simply by placing a language model over them.

For logistics companies, building an effective AI operation therefore starts with creating a reliable data foundation connecting transportation-management systems, enterprise software, customer information, carrier data and external information such as weather and market conditions. Freight pricing demonstrates how that information can be used.

ShipStation Global operates across parcel and freight services, connecting shippers with transportation capacity. Pricing a shipment requires balancing the rate charged to the customer with the amount paid to the carrier while maintaining sufficient margin for the intermediary. Historical transportation data can establish how particular routes have previously been priced, but current conditions can change the answer. Weather, available capacity, fuel costs, regional demand and broader economic conditions can all affect what it costs to move the same shipment at different times.

AI and predictive analytics allow logistics companies to combine more of these variables when determining prices. The potential result is an increasingly dynamic freight market where pricing resembles other digital marketplaces. Rather than relying primarily on relatively static tariffs and manual judgement, companies can continuously reassess supply, demand and operating conditions.

Warehouses provide another major opportunity. Distribution facilities already contain substantial automation, but the next phase increasingly combines robotics, computer vision, sensors and AI to monitor the physical operation of the building itself.

Srinivasan described previous work involving predictive maintenance in Amazon warehouse environments, including efforts to identify potential conveyor-system problems before equipment failed. The commercial logic is straightforward. Modern fulfilment centres contain extensive conveyor systems and automated handling equipment. When critical machinery stops, the interruption can affect thousands of orders and workers throughout the building.

Instead of waiting for equipment to fail, sensors and computer-vision systems can identify changes suggesting deterioration. Maintenance teams can then investigate before a breakdown interrupts operations. Advances in vision-language models could expand these capabilities considerably.

Cameras already installed throughout warehouses can potentially become intelligent sensors capable of recognising damaged equipment, incorrectly handled products, inventory discrepancies or unsafe conditions. Drones and autonomous robots could eventually perform some inspections without requiring employees to manually examine large facilities. This could change the economics of warehouse maintenance.

Historically, facility operators have often balanced preventive maintenance schedules against the risk of unexpected equipment failure. AI offers the possibility of moving towards maintenance based more closely on the actual condition of equipment. For warehouse owners and occupiers, that could translate into less downtime, more predictable operating costs and higher utilisation of increasingly expensive automation systems.

The significance for industrial real estate is substantial because warehouses themselves are becoming more technologically intensive. Location, clear height, loading capacity and transport access remain fundamental property characteristics, but occupiers increasingly also depend on power availability, connectivity, automation infrastructure, sensors and sophisticated software systems. A modern logistics facility is consequently becoming both a building and a technology platform.

Computer vision is also creating new possibilities for handling individual products. This is particularly relevant in businesses where goods cannot easily be treated as identical units. Luxury products, second-hand merchandise, customised orders and returns may require inspection, authentication or individual handling.

Ilangovan discussed his previous experience at Neiman Marcus, where specialised products and luxury goods created warehouse processes very different from conventional high-volume retail distribution. AI-enabled visual systems can potentially help identify product condition, classify items, verify characteristics and direct goods towards the correct handling process.

That could become increasingly important as reverse logistics expands. Online commerce has generated enormous volumes of returns, creating warehouses dedicated partly or entirely to inspecting products and determining whether they should be restocked, repaired, discounted, recycled or discarded. Computer vision could automate part of that decision-making process, particularly for apparel, electronics, luxury goods and other categories where condition affects resale value.

Yet one of the most important conclusions from the panel was that new AI applications cannot simply replace the underlying systems on which logistics companies depend. Transportation-management systems remain the operational backbone of much of the freight industry. They contain orders, carrier information, shipment records, pricing and other data required to move goods.

The problem is fragmentation. Large logistics groups may operate several transportation-management platforms because businesses have grown through acquisitions or because different systems specialise in different modes of transport. Parcel delivery, international freight, full truckload and less-than-truckload transportation can all have different technological requirements.

Some platforms are modern and accessible through APIs. Others rely on older integration methods that have existed for decades. Srinivasan described transportation-management systems as systems of record that are unlikely simply to disappear. What may change is the intelligence built around them.

Instead of replacing every existing platform, logistics companies can create a data and AI layer capable of accessing information across several systems. AI agents can then perform tasks that previously required employees to move manually between applications. That could gradually transform the role of the transportation-management system.

The traditional platform remains the authoritative source of transaction data, while an AI layer increasingly becomes the interface through which employees interact with that information and execute workflows. In practical terms, an employee might no longer need to open several systems to find a shipment, check its status, identify a carrier and create documentation. An AI agent could retrieve the necessary information, prepare the transaction and present it for approval.

Over time, some lower-risk processes could become increasingly autonomous. The panel repeatedly returned to the importance of human involvement, however. Logistics remains a relationship-driven industry, particularly in freight brokerage, where long-standing relationships between shippers, carriers and intermediaries influence how capacity is secured and problems are resolved.

Technology can automate routine processes, but replacing those relationships entirely could prove difficult. That makes organisational change almost as important as the technology.

Srinivasan argued that employees who currently perform processes targeted for automation need to be involved from the beginning. They understand the exceptions, informal rules and operational realities that may not appear in process documentation. If automation is developed separately and presented to those employees only after completion, adoption can suffer. If operational staff instead become testers and subject-matter experts during development, the resulting system is more likely to reflect how the business actually works.

Ilangovan described a similar approach based on connecting AI investment directly to measurable business problems. Rather than beginning with a technology and searching for somewhere to use it, logistics companies can identify expensive or inefficient processes and determine whether AI can improve them.

That distinction is becoming increasingly important as almost every enterprise-software vendor adds AI functionality to existing products. For logistics operators, the question is no longer whether a product contains an AI assistant or agent. The more useful question is whether the technology reduces transportation costs, improves margins, increases warehouse productivity, prevents downtime or provides better service to customers.

This emphasis on return on investment could favour logistics because many potential benefits are relatively measurable. A prevented equipment failure has a financial value. Avoiding an unnecessary truck journey saves money. Improving freight pricing affects margin. Reducing manual order processing lowers administrative costs. Predicting a shipment delay early enough to take corrective action can protect both inventory and customer relationships.

That makes logistics one of the industries where AI could move relatively quickly from experimentation towards operational deployment. Quantum computing represents a much earlier and less proven part of the discussion.

Dianat argued that quantum systems could eventually complement AI in optimisation problems involving very large numbers of possible outcomes. Logistics contains many such problems, including vehicle routing, fleet allocation, scheduling and network optimisation. The potential is significant, but commercial applications remain at an early stage. For logistics companies and property investors, AI, computer vision, robotics and conventional optimisation technologies are considerably nearer-term influences on operating models than large-scale quantum computing.

Even so, the discussion illustrates how rapidly the technological toolkit available to supply-chain companies is expanding. The longer-term consequence could be logistics networks that continuously adjust themselves.

Freight could be repriced as market conditions change. Shipments could automatically be rerouted around disruption. Warehouses could detect equipment deterioration before failure. Inventory could be repositioned according to predicted demand. AI agents could prepare transportation documentation and coordinate routine transactions between shippers and carriers.

The physical supply chain would remain composed of ports, warehouses, roads, railways, aircraft and trucks, but the intelligence coordinating those assets could become increasingly autonomous. For industrial and logistics real estate, this matters because the competitive performance of a warehouse will increasingly depend on more than the physical building.

The most productive facilities may be those capable of supporting dense automation, continuous data collection, high-capacity connectivity and increasingly intelligent equipment. This could gradually widen the operational divide between modern logistics properties and older facilities that were designed primarily as storage buildings.

Older warehouses can often be upgraded, but insufficient power, outdated layouts, poor connectivity or limited capacity for automation may restrict what occupiers can implement. AI could therefore reinforce the existing flight towards higher-quality logistics space.

At the same time, technology will not remove the fundamental importance of location. A sophisticated automated warehouse positioned far from customers, workers or transportation infrastructure still faces economic disadvantages. Instead, AI adds another layer to what makes logistics property competitive.

The warehouse of the future will need the right location and physical specifications, but increasingly it will also need the digital infrastructure necessary to connect robots, sensors, cameras, inventory systems, transportation platforms and AI agents. The transformation may ultimately be less about replacing logistics workers or existing software than about creating an intelligence layer over the physical supply chain.

Transportation-management systems will continue recording transactions. Warehouses will continue storing and processing goods. Trucks, ships and aircraft will continue moving freight. What changes is the speed and sophistication with which decisions connecting those assets can be made.

The companies able to combine reliable data, operational expertise and automation could gain an increasingly important advantage. In that environment, the logistics sector’s most valuable asset may no longer be simply its physical network of warehouses and transportation capacity, but the intelligence capable of coordinating that network in real time.

Source: CIJ.World Research & Analysis Team

Poland’s Foreign Workforce Climbs Above 1.15 Million

The number of foreign nationals working in Poland continued to increase in early 2026, reinforcing the growing role of international labour in the country’s economy. At the end of March, 1.153 million foreigners were performing work in Poland, 8% more than a year earlier and 1.8% above the February level.

Ukrainian citizens remained by far the largest group, numbering 783,900 at the end of March. Their number increased by 9.6% year-on-year and they accounted for 68% of all foreign nationals working in Poland. Overall, the foreign workforce included people from more than 150 countries.

Men represented 59.9% of foreign workers, while women accounted for 40.1%. Both groups expanded over the year, with the number of men rising by 8.2% and women by 7.8%.

A significant proportion of foreign labour remains based on more flexible forms of work. Some 437,700 people, equivalent to 38% of the total, worked exclusively under contracts of mandate and related arrangements. Their number was also 8% higher than in March 2025.

Statistics Poland’s figures cover both employees in the national economy and people working under qualifying mandate and related civil-law contracts. The data therefore provide a broader picture of foreign participation in Poland’s labour market than conventional payroll employment alone.

The continued expansion of Poland’s international workforce is particularly relevant to industries that depend heavily on access to labour, including manufacturing, logistics, construction and services. A growing foreign workforce can also contribute to demand for rental housing and services in major cities and industrial regions, although the Statistics Poland figures do not directly measure the scale of this effect.

With the number of foreign workers rising substantially year-on-year, international labour is becoming an increasingly important part of Poland’s employment base and its ability to support continued economic and investment activity.

Vienna’s Data-Centre Expansion Is Creating a New Competition for Power and Land

Vienna is emerging as an increasingly important location on Central Europe’s data-centre map, but the city’s ability to accommodate the next generation of digital infrastructure may depend less on demand than on electricity. As cloud computing, artificial intelligence and increasingly data-intensive business applications drive requirements for additional computing capacity, access to sufficient power is becoming one of the most important factors determining where new facilities can actually be built.

Austria currently has approximately 100 MW of operating data-centre capacity, according to Colliers, with around 82 MW located in Vienna. That gives the capital more than four-fifths of the country’s existing capacity and establishes it as Austria’s dominant data-centre location. The development pipeline indicates considerably greater ambitions, with around 170 MW at a relatively advanced stage across Austria and another approximately 266 MW identified among earlier-stage projects. Those pipeline figures require caution. They do not mean that another 436 MW of capacity will necessarily be constructed, nor does the entire pipeline belong to Vienna. Across Europe there is an increasingly significant difference between projects that have been proposed and facilities that can realistically obtain electricity, permissions, financing and construction capacity within a commercially acceptable timeframe.

The city nevertheless has several characteristics that make it attractive for digital infrastructure. Vienna is politically and economically stable, has substantial existing telecommunications infrastructure and occupies a useful geographic position between Western Europe and the markets of Central and Southeast Europe. Fibre connections link the city towards Frankfurt, Munich, Zurich, Prague, Bratislava and Budapest, while additional routes provide connectivity towards southeastern European markets. These advantages allow Vienna to serve more than domestic Austrian demand and potentially form part of digital networks connecting established Western European data-centre markets with growing demand further east and south.

Vienna is competing in an increasingly crowded European landscape. Frankfurt remains one of Europe’s largest and most mature data-centre centres, supported by an extensive ecosystem of operators, connectivity infrastructure and corporate demand. Warsaw has expanded rapidly and is establishing itself as one of Central and Eastern Europe’s important digital infrastructure locations, while Prague and other regional cities are also competing for investment. Vienna does not need to replace these markets to benefit from the industry’s expansion. Its opportunity is to capture part of the additional capacity required as operators diversify their networks and established European hubs encounter increasingly difficult infrastructure constraints.

Electricity is likely to determine how much of that opportunity Vienna can secure. A modern data centre requires an unusually large and dependable electricity supply, and the challenge becomes greater as facilities designed for artificial intelligence accommodate increasingly power-intensive computing equipment. Securing land is therefore only one part of the development process. A site must also have access to sufficient grid capacity, and that electricity must be available within the timeframe required by the operator and investor.

This changes the traditional logic of industrial property development. For conventional warehouses or industrial buildings, developers have historically concentrated heavily on land price, transport access, labour availability and planning. Those factors remain important for data centres, but the availability of electricity can override almost everything else. An inexpensive development site has limited value for a large data-centre project if the required power connection cannot be delivered for many years.

As a result, two industrial plots of similar size in comparable locations may have radically different development potential if one has credible access to substantial electricity capacity and the other does not. The first could potentially accommodate high-value digital infrastructure, while the second remains conventional industrial land. This raises an important question for Vienna’s property market: could access to power eventually become embedded directly into land values?

There is evidence across European data-centre markets that power availability is becoming increasingly important in site selection and investment decisions. It would nevertheless be premature to assign a specific Vienna price premium to electricity-secured land because there is not yet sufficient transparent transaction evidence to establish how much additional value investors will consistently pay for that advantage. The direction of the market, however, suggests that a site where a developer can demonstrate a realistic route to substantial electricity capacity represents a very different development proposition from land where power availability remains uncertain.

Grid infrastructure therefore becomes part of the property investment equation. Austria’s electricity networks must accommodate not only data centres but also broader electrification, renewable generation, industrial requirements, electric mobility and changes in heating. Adding a major data centre can consequently involve much more than connecting another building. Depending on the location and scale, additional substations, transmission infrastructure or other network upgrades may be necessary.

This creates a timing problem for developers. Data-centre operators may be ready to invest, financing may be available and land may have been identified, yet a project can remain theoretical if the electricity infrastructure cannot support it within the required schedule. That is why Europe’s enormous announced data-centre pipeline needs to be interpreted carefully. Many proposed projects will face competition for electricity, land, permissions and capital before becoming operating facilities. Vienna’s growth prospects should be viewed through the same filter. The important number is not simply how many megawatts developers would like to construct, but how many can realistically be connected and delivered.

Permitting represents another important constraint. Data centres are technically complex properties that can raise questions involving energy use, noise, emergency generators, cooling systems, building scale and local infrastructure. Planning certainty can therefore become almost as important as the availability of the site itself. Local acceptance may also become increasingly relevant as facilities grow larger and consume more electricity, with municipalities weighing the economic benefits of digital infrastructure against competing demands for land and power.

This makes location selection considerably more sophisticated than purchasing inexpensive industrial land on the outskirts of a city. Developers increasingly need to understand electricity infrastructure before committing to a site. Proximity to substations, the available capacity within the local network and the timetable for obtaining additional power can determine whether a project has genuine development potential. Fibre connectivity represents the other essential component. Vienna already benefits from strong telecommunications links, but data centres require resilient connections through multiple routes to minimise the risk of disruption. Sites combining power availability with strong fibre infrastructure therefore occupy an increasingly valuable position within the digital property market.

The combination of these requirements could create a new category of industrial land. Rather than measuring a site principally by hectares and development density, investors may increasingly evaluate it according to the amount of electricity that can be delivered and the certainty surrounding that connection. In that environment, a megawatt can become almost as important to property value as a square metre.

This could have implications beyond data centres. Developers searching for large electricity connections may find themselves competing with manufacturers, battery projects, electrified logistics operations and other energy-intensive industries for the same infrastructure. Competition for grid capacity could therefore influence where different forms of industrial development occur around Vienna.

For landowners, this creates both opportunity and uncertainty. Sites near suitable electricity infrastructure may attract interest from investors that would previously have ignored them, but proximity to a transmission line or substation does not automatically mean that sufficient capacity is available. The value lies in deliverable power, not simply visible infrastructure. A site marketed as suitable for a data centre may ultimately be worth little more than conventional industrial land if the electricity connection remains speculative. Conversely, land accompanied by credible grid capacity, appropriate planning and fibre connectivity could become strategically valuable to operators attempting to secure future expansion.

The investment opportunity therefore extends beyond the data-centre buildings themselves. Infrastructure-ready development sites, existing industrial properties capable of redevelopment and land positioned near suitable power infrastructure could all attract increasing attention. Investors capable of understanding the technical relationship between property and electricity networks may gain an advantage over buyers evaluating sites through conventional real-estate metrics alone.

Vienna’s approximately 82 MW of existing capacity demonstrates that the city already has a meaningful data-centre industry, while Austria’s larger development pipeline indicates that investors and operators see potential for considerably more. Whether that potential becomes physical infrastructure will depend on execution. Vienna has the connectivity, geographic position and established market needed to compete for additional data-centre investment, but it cannot assume that every proposed project will receive the electricity and approvals required to proceed.

The next stage of Vienna’s data-centre market may therefore be decided away from the server halls themselves. It will be determined by substations, grid connections, fibre routes, planning decisions and the relatively small number of sites where all those requirements can be brought together. For property investors, that changes the definition of scarcity. Vienna may have industrial land available, but the land capable of supporting the next generation of power-intensive digital infrastructure is a much more limited resource. In that market, owning the right site may increasingly mean owning something more valuable than land: a credible route to the electricity that future development requires.

Source: CIJ.World Research & Analysis Team

Marseille’s Next Property Cycle Could Be Driven by What Lies Beneath the Buildings

Marseille is developing a real estate story that increasingly extends beyond the conventional measures used to compare France’s regional cities. Its office and logistics markets remain considerably smaller than Paris, and current leasing figures do not indicate a widespread property boom. Yet the Marseille metropolitan area is accumulating something potentially more important for its long-term investment position: a concentration of transport, digital and electricity infrastructure capable of supporting several different forms of real estate at the same time. The city’s position on the Mediterranean has always made the port central to its economy, but what is changing is the range of infrastructure now associated with that geography. International telecommunications connections, data centres, logistics estates, electricity-network investment, industrial development and the continuing transformation of the waterfront are increasingly overlapping within the wider Marseille-Aix-Fos area. The question for investors is whether these individual strengths can eventually combine into a property market with characteristics that distinguish Marseille from a conventional French regional city.

Digital connectivity is one of the clearest reasons this question is becoming relevant. Marseille has developed into an important European entry point for submarine telecommunications cables connecting the continent with Africa, the Middle East and Asia. That international connectivity has encouraged substantial data-centre development because operators can position computing infrastructure close to the networks carrying information between these regions. This relationship gives Marseille an advantage that cannot easily be replicated through ordinary property development. An office district can be constructed in many cities and a logistics park can be built wherever suitable land and transport connections exist, but international telecommunications routes develop around geography, network architecture and infrastructure accumulated over many years. Some of Marseille’s data-centre facilities are located within the wider port environment, creating an unusual relationship between maritime and digital infrastructure. The port therefore supports more than the physical movement of containers and commodities. The same geography has also become important to the movement of international data.

The expansion of digital infrastructure introduces another requirement: electricity. Large data centres can require power connections far beyond those needed for ordinary commercial buildings, meaning the availability and timing of grid capacity can determine whether a development site is genuinely viable. Electricity-network planning is consequently becoming increasingly relevant to the Marseille property market. Around 500 MW of additional capacity is being prepared in the Plan-de-Campagne area between Marseille and Aix-en-Provence to accommodate growing digital infrastructure requirements. The wider Fos-sur-Mer industrial zone is also the focus of major electricity-network planning intended to accommodate industrial electrification and proposed energy-intensive projects.

For real estate, this potentially changes the meaning of a well-located site. Conventional property analysis concentrates heavily on land price, road access, public transport, construction rights and proximity to customers. Infrastructure-intensive development introduces another layer. A site can possess excellent motorway access and large amounts of developable land but still be unsuitable for a major data centre or industrial facility if sufficient electricity cannot be delivered. The same applies to digital connectivity. Fibre availability, network resilience and proximity to international connections can materially affect the suitability of a site for data-centre development. Locations where land, electricity, fibre and transport can all be combined are therefore likely to be considerably more difficult to reproduce than ordinary development land.

This creates the possibility of a broader infrastructure corridor stretching across Marseille, Aix and Fos. Each part of the metropolitan region provides different characteristics. Central Marseille offers density, services, transport and international connectivity. Aix has a substantial employment and commercial base. Areas between the two cities provide larger development opportunities. Further west, Fos combines port infrastructure, industrial land, logistics facilities and major electricity requirements. The Port of Marseille Fos remains fundamental to this geography. More than 3 million square metres of logistics space is located within roughly 30 kilometres of Fos, supported by major logistics areas such as Distriport and La Feuillane. These locations provide large concentrations of warehousing connected to maritime freight, road and rail infrastructure.

Further expansion and improvement of the port’s logistics capacity continues to be considered. This matters because the investment case for warehouses around Fos is closely linked to infrastructure that cannot simply be moved elsewhere. Proximity to a major port can reduce parts of the transport chain and support distribution operations serving France and wider European markets. Current property statistics nevertheless require caution. Marseille’s industrial and business-space market is not experiencing exceptional leasing growth, while the broader French logistics market has been adjusting after the rapid expansion of previous years. Infrastructure strength should therefore not be confused with immediate occupier-market strength.

The same distinction is particularly important for offices. Aix-Marseille recorded approximately 48,000 square metres of office take-up during the first half of 2026, significantly below both the corresponding period in 2025 and recent historical averages. Marseille accounted for most of that activity, but the metropolitan market remained subdued overall. These figures undermine any argument that Marseille is already experiencing a conventional commercial-property boom. They also make the city’s infrastructure story more interesting. If Marseille’s future depended entirely on office leasing, the investment case would currently look relatively modest. Instead, its longer-term potential increasingly depends on whether infrastructure investment creates additional economic activity capable of supporting several property sectors.

Euroméditerranée provides an important connection between these two worlds. The regeneration programme has transformed large areas close to the port and north of Marseille’s historic centre, introducing offices, housing, hotels, commercial space, public facilities and improved urban environments into districts historically shaped by maritime and industrial activity. Approximately 780,000 square metres of office space has already been completed within the wider regeneration area, with a longer-term objective approaching 1 million square metres. A substantial proportion of the stock is relatively modern, providing Marseille with a concentration of commercial property more suited to institutional requirements than much of the city’s older office inventory.

This proximity between regeneration and infrastructure could prove increasingly important. Port activity can support maritime, logistics and professional services. Industrial investment around Fos can generate requirements from engineering and supply-chain businesses. Digital infrastructure can support telecommunications, technology and network-related companies. Euroméditerranée provides one of the locations where businesses associated with those activities could potentially occupy modern commercial space. The connection should not be exaggerated. Data centres themselves generally create far fewer permanent jobs per square metre than conventional offices, and building additional computing capacity does not automatically produce substantial office demand. The wider economic value depends on whether related businesses, services and investment develop around that infrastructure.

The same caution applies to industrial announcements around Fos. Proposed investments should not be treated as completed factories or guaranteed sources of property demand. Major industrial and energy projects can take years to secure financing, permits, electricity connections and construction approvals. Some will proceed more slowly than originally expected and others may change substantially before completion. What matters for property investors is that the infrastructure required to support these activities is increasingly shaping development decisions today.

This is particularly visible in the competition for suitable land. Logistics developers, industrial companies, data-centre operators and energy projects can all require large sites with strong transport connections and access to substantial electricity capacity. These requirements are not identical, but they increasingly overlap. That could eventually make certain locations around Marseille and Fos strategically more valuable. The premium would not necessarily come from the amount of land alone but from what can realistically be connected to it. A large plot with motorway access, high-capacity electricity, fibre and proximity to the port has a fundamentally different development profile from an equally large site without those characteristics. Whether that difference translates into a measurable land-value premium across the Marseille region remains to be demonstrated, but infrastructure availability is increasingly likely to influence investment decisions.

This could also affect how investors assess older industrial land. Previously developed sites with existing infrastructure can become attractive if they allow new uses to be introduced without the same degree of greenfield development. Brownfield locations may therefore attract interest from logistics, industrial and digital developers where planning and environmental constraints can be resolved. Institutional investment will still require considerably more than infrastructure potential. Investors need occupiers, predictable income, transparent valuations and sufficient market liquidity. Marseille does not currently provide those conditions across every property sector to the same extent as Paris, while Lyon retains a deeper conventional regional office and investment market.

Marseille therefore does not need to compete with either city on identical terms. Paris will remain France’s dominant institutional property market because of its scale, corporate concentration and international liquidity. Lyon has an established position as one of the country’s deepest regional commercial markets. Marseille’s potential advantage is different because its investment proposition increasingly involves infrastructure that is difficult to reproduce elsewhere. A major Mediterranean port is geographically fixed. International subsea cable routes develop over decades. High-capacity electricity networks require major investment and long planning periods. Large logistics estates depend on extensive land and transport infrastructure. Euroméditerranée represents years of coordinated regeneration rather than a single development project.

Bringing these elements together could eventually produce an investment market where conventional property and infrastructure-linked real estate increasingly overlap. That could mean data centres and powered industrial land attracting one type of capital, logistics facilities another, and offices, hotels and residential property benefiting indirectly where the wider economy generates sufficient demand. The decisive issue will be execution. Additional electricity capacity has to become available rather than remain planned. Proposed data centres need to reach construction and operation. Industrial projects around Fos must move from announcements to functioning businesses. Logistics development needs occupiers. Euroméditerranée must continue attracting companies, residents and investment.

If those developments progress together, Marseille could become increasingly difficult to classify simply as another regional property market. Its investment identity would instead be built around infrastructure connecting physical trade, digital information, electricity, industry and urban development. That does not mean Marseille is about to overtake Paris or Lyon for institutional property investment. Current market evidence does not support such a conclusion. Nor does the city’s infrastructure pipeline guarantee rising rents or property values. What it does provide is a combination of long-term economic assets that few other French metropolitan areas possess in the same form.

For property investors, that changes the question. Marseille no longer needs to be assessed simply according to whether its offices are cheaper than Lyon’s or whether its logistics yields compare favourably with Paris. The more important consideration is whether the infrastructure accumulating between Marseille, Aix and Fos can support forms of economic activity and real estate that other French cities cannot easily reproduce. If it can, Marseille’s next property cycle may ultimately be determined less by the buildings already standing there than by the networks, power capacity, port infrastructure and international connections running beneath and around them.

Source: CIJ.World UK Research & Analysis Team

India’s Next Industrial Property Cycle Is Being Built Around Manufacturing Ecosystems

fletcher@cijeurope.com
8 September 2026
CIJ - Spotlight, Logistics, Manufacturing

India’s industrial property market is beginning to undergo a transformation that could change how manufacturing real estate is developed, financed and operated. The traditional model of providing industrial land, basic factory buildings and warehouse space is gradually being supplemented by larger developments capable of supporting much more of a manufacturer’s operational requirements.

The transition is far from complete. A substantial proportion of India’s industrial stock remains relatively basic, while the most sophisticated projects are concentrated among major government-backed industrial cities and institutional private developers. Nevertheless, these developments provide an indication of where the market is heading.

Manufacturers increasingly require more than a building and road access. Reliable electricity, industrial water, wastewater treatment, telecommunications, employee transportation, security and logistics connections can determine whether a factory operates efficiently. For more advanced industries, the requirements become considerably more demanding. This creates an opportunity for industrial property developers to provide infrastructure before occupiers arrive rather than leaving individual manufacturers to develop it themselves.

The concept is particularly important as India’s modern industrial and logistics market expands. Grade A industrial and warehousing inventory reached approximately 300 million sq. ft. in 2026, almost twice the level recorded five years earlier.

Leasing has continued to increase alongside the expansion of stock. During the first half of 2026, approximately 36.2 million sq. ft. of industrial and logistics space was leased across India’s eight largest markets, representing growth of around 18% compared with the corresponding period a year earlier. Warehousing continued to account for the majority of activity, but industrial space itself approached 12 million sq. ft. of leasing and increased by approximately 36%.

This distinction matters because manufacturing facilities require considerably more complex infrastructure than conventional warehouses. A logistics building principally needs suitable access, loading facilities, fire protection, adequate electricity and efficient internal movement of goods. A manufacturing plant may additionally require high-capacity power, specialist water systems, treatment facilities, worker transport and complicated environmental infrastructure.

For some advanced industries, the availability and reliability of these services can be more important than the underlying cost of land. The competitiveness of industrial property is therefore increasingly determined by what surrounds the factory as much as the building itself.

Manufacturers appear ready to expand. Research conducted among manufacturing and logistics executives during 2025 found that close to nine out of ten respondents expected to increase their operations. At the same time, businesses continued to identify shortcomings in industrial facilities, logistics infrastructure and workforce availability.

For developers, this creates an opportunity to remove some of the difficulties companies encounter when establishing new production facilities. A manufacturer entering a prepared industrial development can potentially avoid constructing independent utility infrastructure, negotiating multiple service arrangements and solving basic connectivity problems before production begins.

The value proposition increasingly becomes speed. The faster a company can move from selecting a location to operating a factory, the more competitive the industrial development becomes.

India’s national industrial-corridor strategy increasingly reflects this approach. Large industrial developments are being planned around highways, dedicated freight routes, airports, ports and other major transport infrastructure. Instead of simply subdividing land into industrial plots, the objective is to create large manufacturing districts with infrastructure already available.

Several early projects demonstrate that the concept is no longer purely theoretical. Dholera in Gujarat, Shendra-Bidkin in Maharashtra, the integrated industrial development at Greater Noida and Vikram Udyogpuri in Madhya Pradesh have reached stages where industrial activity is taking place.

Dholera provides one of the clearest examples of the new model. The development combines industrial land with roads, electricity distribution, telecommunications, water infrastructure, sewage treatment and facilities capable of handling industrial wastewater. These services are planned across the development rather than being created separately by every manufacturer.

A central management facility also allows infrastructure and public services to be monitored electronically, while parts of the water and utility system can be managed through digital technology. This creates a substantially different environment from a conventional industrial estate.

The arrival of major semiconductor investment at Dholera demonstrates why this matters. Advanced electronics manufacturing requires exceptionally reliable electricity and water infrastructure together with sophisticated environmental and logistics systems. Companies investing billions of dollars in manufacturing facilities cannot make location decisions primarily on the basis of inexpensive land.

The ability of a location to provide reliable infrastructure becomes part of the investment decision. AURIC at Shendra-Bidkin provides another example of this evolution.

More than 3,000 acres of industrial land had been allocated by 2025, with automotive, electric mobility and other manufacturing investments among the businesses establishing operations within the wider industrial city. Digital utility management and centralised infrastructure are part of the development, while training facilities are being introduced to support the workforce required by manufacturers.

The wider masterplan also incorporates residential, commercial and recreational uses. This is potentially one of the most important changes in industrial development.

Factories cannot operate without workers, and the availability of employees increasingly depends on the quality of the environment surrounding major employment locations. Industrial areas situated far from established cities can struggle with recruitment if workers face long journeys or lack suitable housing and everyday services.

Future industrial developments are therefore beginning to incorporate employee accommodation, transportation and social infrastructure into their planning. This could gradually change the relationship between industrial property and residential development.

Instead of factories being separated from the communities that support them, major industrial locations could evolve into employment centres surrounded by housing, retail, healthcare, education and other services.

Private developers are already demonstrating parts of this model. Large professionally managed industrial developments in Chennai and other manufacturing regions increasingly provide serviced industrial land together with utilities, security, logistics support and environmental infrastructure.

Some developments combine employment areas with residential and social uses, allowing industrial activity to become part of a broader urban environment. Institutional industrial developers are also introducing technology into park operations.

Digital meters can monitor electricity and water consumption. Electronic gate systems can manage trucks and visitors. Sensors can support infrastructure maintenance, while centralised security systems can monitor large sites more efficiently.

Artificial intelligence is beginning to appear in selected security and operational applications, but it would be premature to describe AI-controlled industrial parks as the normal model across India. The more significant development is the gradual collection and use of operational data.

An industrial landlord capable of monitoring utilities, traffic and maintenance across an entire estate can potentially operate the property more efficiently than a collection of individually managed factories. Occupiers can also benefit.

Manufacturers increasingly need detailed information about energy and water consumption, both to control costs and to meet corporate environmental objectives. Digital infrastructure can make that information easier to collect.

Sustainability is consequently becoming closely connected to industrial infrastructure rather than remaining simply a building certification exercise. Large manufacturing developments can consume substantial amounts of electricity and water. The ability to generate renewable energy, reuse treated water and manage resources more efficiently can therefore have direct financial benefits.

Some of India’s newer industrial developments already incorporate wastewater reuse, rainwater management and solar generation. Private industrial operators are installing rooftop solar systems and digital utility monitoring, while selected parks have introduced electric-vehicle charging supplied through renewable electricity generated on site.

These facilities can help developers compete for international manufacturers whose corporate environmental requirements increasingly influence location decisions. For a multinational company, selecting a factory location can involve comparing India not simply with another Indian state but with manufacturing locations elsewhere in Asia.

Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia are all competing for investment in electronics, automotive manufacturing, advanced engineering and other strategic industries. Industrial real estate consequently becomes part of India’s international competitiveness.

A company considering a new factory needs to understand how quickly land can be secured, approvals obtained, utilities connected and construction completed. Delays can represent substantial costs. A prepared industrial location capable of providing infrastructure from the beginning can reduce that uncertainty.

This is one reason India’s newest national industrial-park programme could have substantial implications for property development. The government approved approximately ₹33,660 crore in 2026 for an initiative intended to support the creation of 100 investment-ready industrial parks.

The programme aims to provide prepared sites and supporting infrastructure rather than simply identifying industrial land. The scale is significant because it could extend the integrated development model into locations that currently lack institutional-quality industrial property.

However, these future parks remain primarily a development pipeline rather than completed stock. The programme was still at an early implementation stage during 2026, meaning its success will depend on project selection, infrastructure delivery and the ability to attract genuine manufacturing demand.

For investors, this creates both opportunity and execution risk. India has already demonstrated through projects such as Dholera and AURIC that large integrated industrial developments can be created. The challenge is reproducing that quality across a much wider range of locations.

The private sector can play an important role. Institutional developers can differentiate themselves from traditional industrial estates by providing better infrastructure, professional property management and services that reduce operating difficulties for tenants.

Not every development needs the same facilities. A semiconductor cluster has very different requirements from an automotive park, pharmaceutical manufacturing centre or conventional engineering estate.

The next stage of India’s industrial property market could therefore involve greater specialisation. Electronics clusters may require testing facilities, clean infrastructure and specialised training. Pharmaceutical locations can require sophisticated environmental systems and laboratories. Automotive parks can benefit from supplier networks and large logistics areas.

Industrial property can increasingly be designed around the industry it intends to attract. This creates a different investment model from conventional speculative warehousing.

A developer is no longer simply constructing buildings that can be leased interchangeably to multiple logistics companies. Instead, the developer can create a long-term industrial platform containing land, buildings, utilities, environmental infrastructure and shared services.

Park management can then continue after construction. Security, landscaping, utilities, maintenance, traffic management and common infrastructure can remain under centralised professional control.

For investors, that operating platform can become part of the value of the asset. A well-managed industrial park with established occupiers, reliable infrastructure and limited available land can be more difficult to reproduce than an individual warehouse.

Successful manufacturing clusters can also create economic activity beyond their boundaries. Major factories attract component suppliers. Suppliers create demand for warehouses and logistics services. Workers require housing, shops, hotels, healthcare and transportation.

Industrial investment can consequently generate multiple layers of property demand. This is already visible around established automotive and manufacturing corridors in Chennai, Pune, Bengaluru and Delhi-NCR, where industrial expansion has contributed to wider residential and commercial development.

Large industrial parks can therefore evolve into regional property markets rather than remaining isolated manufacturing locations. That has important implications for institutional capital.

As industrial estates become larger, professionally managed and supported by long-term occupiers, they can become more suitable for investors seeking scalable real estate platforms. The opportunity extends beyond warehouse ownership.

Capital can potentially participate in factory buildings, infrastructure, logistics facilities, renewable energy systems and supporting commercial property around major manufacturing locations.

India’s challenge is not that its manufacturing output has failed to grow. The more persistent problem is that manufacturing has struggled to increase its share of the economy as rapidly as successive governments have targeted.

Improving the physical environment in which manufacturers operate can form part of the response. Companies that can establish factories faster, obtain reliable utilities and connect efficiently with suppliers and transport networks face fewer barriers to expansion.

Industrial real estate therefore becomes part of manufacturing policy. The strongest industrial developments of the next decade are unlikely to be judged simply by the amount of land sold or warehouse space completed.

Their competitiveness will increasingly depend on the reliability of power and water, transport connections, digital systems, environmental infrastructure, workforce access and the quality of long-term management.

India is still some distance from making this model standard across its industrial property market. That is precisely why the opportunity is significant.

Government-backed developments have demonstrated that integrated industrial cities can work, while institutional private developers are showing how technology, environmental infrastructure and professional management can improve individual industrial parks.

The next challenge is scale. If India’s proposed new industrial parks successfully reproduce these characteristics across a wider range of manufacturing corridors, industrial property could become a considerably more sophisticated institutional asset class.

The warehouse will remain an important part of that market, but it will no longer define it. India’s next generation of industrial real estate is increasingly being built around the factory, the infrastructure and the workforce as one connected investment ecosystem.

Source: © CIJ.World India Research & Analysis Team

Zondacrypto Crisis Exposes Poland’s Crypto Enforcement Challenge

The collapse of Zondacrypto has developed into one of Poland’s most significant cryptocurrency investigations, combining allegations of financial misconduct, the bankruptcy of its Estonian operator and an increasingly contentious debate over how digital-asset businesses should be supervised.

The exchange originated as BitBay, established in Katowice in 2014, before moving operations abroad and eventually adopting the Zondacrypto name. The disappearance of co-founder Sylwester Suszek in March 2022 subsequently became part of a wider investigation into circumstances surrounding the business.

The case accelerated during 2026 as Polish prosecutors expanded their investigation. On 3 September, prosecutors announced charges against three additional suspects involving alleged participation in an organised criminal group, financial damage to Zondacrypto operator BB Trade Estonia OÜ, money laundering and misappropriation. All three denied the allegations. The accusations remain subject to criminal proceedings and do not constitute findings of guilt.

Problems were also developing around the company’s regulatory status in Estonia. The country’s Financial Intelligence Unit restricted BB Trade Estonia’s activities in May before revoking its virtual-currency licence on 29 June. The regulator said the company had failed to comply with requirements imposed on it and had not responded adequately to a supervisory order.

The situation culminated on 27 August when an Estonian court declared BB Trade Estonia bankrupt. Creditors were instructed to submit claims to the appointed trustee, with the first creditors’ meeting scheduled for 17 September.

Beyond the investigation itself, the affair has become entangled with Poland’s argument over cryptocurrency regulation. The government has used problems in the sector, including Zondacrypto, to support its case for stronger domestic supervision and customer safeguards. President Karol Nawrocki and opponents of the government’s approach have argued that the proposed framework places excessive burdens on legitimate businesses.

The regulatory position is more complicated than a choice between regulation and no regulation. MiCA already establishes an EU-wide framework for crypto-asset service providers, and following the end of Poland’s transitional period in July 2026, registration under the country’s previous virtual-currency regime is no longer sufficient to provide crypto services. A valid MiCA authorisation is now required.

Poland has nevertheless struggled to complete its accompanying national legislation. Parliament passed another crypto-assets law in May, but Nawrocki vetoed it on 11 June. Parliamentary proceedings following the veto remained unfinished according to the Sejm’s legislative record.

This leaves an important distinction at the centre of the debate. MiCA determines much of the European regulatory framework, while national legislation establishes important elements of domestic supervision and enforcement. The government argues that stronger powers and penalties are necessary to protect customers and combat abuse. Critics contend that imposing requirements beyond what is necessary to implement European rules could make Poland less attractive to legitimate crypto businesses.

Zondacrypto demonstrates why customer protection and effective supervision matter, but the allegations surrounding one exchange do not establish that the cryptocurrency industry as a whole presents the same risks. Nor do political claims surrounding the investigation amount to evidence of wrongdoing unless supported by prosecutors and ultimately tested through the courts.

The more important question is whether Poland can create an enforcement system capable of identifying problems before they develop into major losses while remaining competitive within Europe’s common crypto market.

The Zondacrypto affair has therefore become more than a story about the failure of an exchange. It is now a test of whether Poland can combine MiCA, domestic supervision and effective enforcement into a system that protects customers without unnecessarily driving compliant businesses and investment elsewhere in the European Union.

Source: WEI

Karel Stránský Rejoins Colliers to Support Czech Industrial Business

Karel Stránský has returned to Colliers Czech Republic as a strategic consultant within its industrial team, bringing back a professional relationship with the company that began three decades ago.

Stránský originally joined Colliers in 1996 and helped develop its industrial property activities in the Czech market. By 2009, he had worked on transactions involving more than three million sqm of industrial properties and development land, representing occupiers, investors and developers.

His career later became increasingly international. In 2011, Stránský moved to Colliers Corporate Solutions in London, where he advised multinational industrial occupiers. His assignments subsequently covered 17 countries across Europe, North America and Asia and included projects involving different stages of corporate property strategy and operations.

His client experience at Colliers has included companies such as Prologis, Goodman, CTP, DHL, DSV, Bridgestone, Knorr-Bremse, Kimberly-Clark and Schenker, among others.

Between 2024 and 2025, Stránský worked with CTP as Group Business Development Director, adding experience from the developer side of the industrial property sector to his advisory background.

“Karel Stránský brings a combination of strategic thinking, deep market knowledge, international experience and long-standing client relationships to our local operations. As a strategic consultant to the industrial team, he will support the company’s growth ambitions, contribute to key client relationships and help strengthen Colliers’ position in the Czech industrial and logistics real estate market,” said Katarína Brydone, Managing Partner of Colliers in the Czech Republic.

In his new position, Stránský will focus on strategic advisory work, client relationships and business development as Colliers continues to expand its activities within the Czech industrial and logistics property market.

Milan’s Office Boom Is Leaving Older Buildings Behind

Milan’s office market is producing an apparent contradiction. Companies leased less space during the first half of 2026, yet rents for the city’s best buildings continued to climb and availability in its most desirable business districts remained exceptionally limited. Prime rents in the city are now generally assessed at around €830 to €850 per sq m annually by major property advisers, with the most exceptional central space capable of reaching higher levels. At the same time, total leasing during the first six months of the year fell substantially compared with previous periods.

Rather than signalling broad weakness, this combination points towards an increasingly divided office market. Modern, efficient buildings in central locations remain difficult to secure, while older properties elsewhere can face a very different level of demand. Approximately two-thirds of Milan’s first-half leasing involved higher-quality, environmentally efficient offices, suggesting that companies are not simply reducing their property requirements but becoming much more selective about where they locate employees and what standard of workplace they are willing to accept.

Hybrid working has strengthened this change. When employees spend fewer days in the office, companies have less reason to maintain large quantities of mediocre space simply to provide desks. The office increasingly needs to justify the journey to work. Location, public transport, restaurants, amenities, natural light, terraces, collaborative areas and overall building quality can therefore influence property decisions more heavily than they did when attendance was effectively compulsory five days a week.

The result is that Milan can simultaneously have a shortage and a surplus of offices. There is a shortage of modern space in the locations most sought after by large companies. At the same time, the city contains older buildings that may technically be available but do not meet occupiers’ current requirements. Adding those properties to vacancy statistics does little to solve the shortage experienced by companies searching for high-quality space.

This distinction is increasingly important for investors. A strong Milan office market no longer guarantees that every office building benefits equally from rising rents. Two properties separated by only a few kilometres can experience very different demand depending on their age, energy performance, accessibility and amenities. For owners of older buildings, the central question is becoming how much money must be invested before their properties can compete again.

The answer can involve substantial expenditure. Heating and cooling systems may need replacing, façades and insulation upgrading, lifts modernising and common areas redesigned. Floorplates may need adapting for more flexible working patterns, while terraces, bicycle facilities, showers, meeting areas and other amenities can be required to match newer developments. Energy performance adds another layer because large corporate occupiers increasingly have their own environmental targets and property requirements.

Refurbishment consequently becomes an investment calculation rather than simply a maintenance decision. Spending heavily on an older building makes sense when the resulting property can command sufficiently higher rents, achieve stronger occupancy and recover the capital through a higher valuation. Some buildings can make that transition successfully, particularly properties in strong central locations where the underlying location is difficult to reproduce.

Other buildings face a harder problem. Structural limitations can restrict ceiling heights, natural light, floorplate flexibility or mechanical systems. Extensive works may be technically possible but economically difficult to justify. If the finished building still cannot compete with newer offices, the owner risks spending substantial capital without achieving the necessary rental premium.

This creates the possibility of a growing group of properties caught between the prime and redevelopment markets. They may be too expensive to purchase purely as redevelopment opportunities but too outdated to compete effectively without significant additional investment. These buildings could become one of the most important challenges facing Milan’s office investment market over the next several years.

The difference should increasingly appear in valuations. Investors buying a modern, well-let building in a strong location can underwrite relatively predictable rental income and future demand. Older properties require much more complicated assumptions about refurbishment costs, leasing incentives, construction periods and future rents. A building requiring several years of work also exposes the investor to market conditions when the refurbishment is completed rather than when the property is acquired.

The strongest offices may therefore continue appreciating even while weaker properties struggle, creating an increasingly wide value gap inside the same city. Building quality could become almost as important as traditional location. Location itself is also being redefined, with Milan’s CBD and Porta Nuova remaining exceptionally attractive because they combine transport, amenities, corporate visibility and modern office stock. Limited availability in these areas strengthens landlords’ negotiating position and helps explain why prime rents can rise even when citywide leasing volumes decline.

The same conditions do not necessarily exist in peripheral submarkets. An older building outside the strongest locations may face both a quality disadvantage and a location disadvantage, making refurbishment more difficult to justify. For some properties, changing use could provide an alternative.

Milan continues to experience demand for housing, hotels and student accommodation, creating potential destinations for office buildings that no longer make economic sense in their existing form. Mixed-use redevelopment can also offer opportunities where sites are large enough. Conversion, however, is not a universal solution. Deep floorplates can make it difficult to provide sufficient natural light, structural layouts can restrict room configurations and planning requirements can add significant cost.

The economics therefore need to be considered property by property. Some obsolete offices will become successful residential or hospitality developments. Others will remain offices because conversion costs are too high, even if their competitive position within the office market continues to weaken.

Financing could accelerate the separation. Banks and other lenders increasingly need to consider the future competitiveness and environmental performance of properties securing their loans. A modern building with strong tenants can present a relatively straightforward financing proposition, while an older property requiring extensive capital expenditure creates additional risk.

Owners approaching refinancing may therefore face very different outcomes depending on the quality of their buildings. Strong assets could attract competing lenders, while weaker ones may require additional equity, refurbishment commitments or more conservative valuations. This could create acquisition opportunities for investors capable of undertaking complicated repositioning projects.

The consequences extend beyond individual transactions. If capital concentrates on the best buildings while older stock becomes progressively harder to finance, Milan could experience a gradual restructuring of its entire office inventory. Some buildings will undergo major renovation, others will be demolished and replaced, some will change use, while a remaining group may continue operating as lower-cost offices serving companies that prioritise affordability over premium specifications.

The approximately €830 to €850 per sq m rents achieved at the top of Milan’s office market therefore do not describe the value of office space across the city. They describe the price companies are prepared to pay for a scarce category of property that increasingly meets a specific combination of location, efficiency, amenities and environmental performance.

Falling overall take-up should also be interpreted carefully. Companies leasing less space does not necessarily mean they have become indifferent to offices. In some cases, they may simply be unable to find sufficient suitable space in the locations and buildings they want.

This is the contradiction at the heart of Milan’s current office market. The city does not necessarily need more offices in aggregate. It needs more offices capable of satisfying the standards increasingly demanded by occupiers.

For investors, that distinction changes the opportunity. The question is no longer simply whether Milan offices will experience rental growth. It is which buildings will participate in that growth and how much capital will be required to bring the rest back into competition. Milan’s next office cycle may therefore be defined less by vacancy than by obsolescence, with the winners being the buildings companies actively compete to occupy and the challenge being what happens to everything else.

Source: CIJ.World Research & Analysis Team

Germany’s Old Industrial Sites Are Becoming the New Logistics Development Pipeline

Germany’s next generation of logistics properties may increasingly be built where factories, workshops and industrial complexes once stood. As competition for undeveloped land intensifies and planning authorities place greater emphasis on reusing existing commercial areas, former industrial sites are becoming an increasingly important source of development opportunities. Previously developed sites accounted for approximately 45% of German logistics construction completed during 2025. In half of the country’s 24 principal logistics regions, redevelopment projects represented the majority of new supply, while several markets recorded shares significantly above that level. Around seven million square metres of additional logistics projects are currently planned on previously used land. This suggests that redevelopment is moving from a specialist strategy into the mainstream of Germany’s industrial and logistics property market.

The shift is particularly important because Germany remains one of Europe’s largest logistics markets while suitable development land around its strongest transport corridors is becoming increasingly difficult to secure. Warehouses compete with housing, manufacturing, data centres, energy infrastructure and environmental objectives for a limited supply of land. Municipalities also have competing priorities. Logistics development can create employment and local tax income, but large distribution facilities generate truck movements and consume significant amounts of land while often employing fewer people per square metre than manufacturing or other commercial activities. Consequently, gaining approval for entirely new logistics locations can be difficult, particularly around major metropolitan areas.

Existing industrial land offers an alternative. Germany has spent more than a century building manufacturing infrastructure across regions such as the Ruhr, Lower Saxony, Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria and parts of eastern Germany. As traditional industries restructure, some of those sites are becoming available for new uses. For logistics developers, the attraction can extend far beyond the land itself. A former factory may already have motorway connections, heavy-duty access roads, electricity infrastructure, drainage, water connections and established commercial planning status. Some properties also have rail access or are located close to inland ports. Creating the same infrastructure on undeveloped land can take years.

The Ruhr region demonstrates how this transition can work. The area combines one of Germany’s largest concentrations of former industrial property with exceptional access to population, motorways, railways and inland waterways. Large redevelopment projects are already turning former industrial land into modern logistics and commercial space. In Dortmund-Dorstfeld, a major redevelopment covering approximately 278,000 square metres is transforming an established industrial location into a new logistics and commercial district. Around 130,000 square metres of logistics, business and light-industrial space is ultimately planned for the site. The project’s importance lies not only in its size but also in what it represents. Rather than extending logistics development farther onto undeveloped land, substantial new capacity is being created inside an existing industrial area with established transport connections.

Smaller projects are following the same principle. In Herne, previously used commercial land that had remained idle for several years is being returned to productive use through new logistics development. Evidence from leasing markets also shows that these projects are attracting occupiers. Across parts of North Rhine-Westphalia, newly constructed buildings on redeveloped land accounted for a meaningful share of industrial and logistics take-up during the first half of 2026. In Düsseldorf, such properties represented more than a quarter of recorded activity, while newly constructed space on previously undeveloped sites contributed virtually nothing during the period. The pattern suggests that the redevelopment model is not being driven solely by environmental objectives. Occupiers are willing to lease these properties because they are often located exactly where logistics businesses want to operate.

Location remains the fundamental advantage. Many older industrial areas were established close to major cities because factories needed workers, transport infrastructure and access to customers. Decades later, those same characteristics are extremely valuable to logistics operators. A nineteenth- or twentieth-century industrial district can therefore possess surprisingly modern location advantages.

The challenge is that redevelopment is rarely simple. Previously used industrial land can contain contaminated soil, underground fuel tanks, foundations, obsolete utilities and hazardous building materials. Decades of manufacturing activity can leave environmental liabilities that are difficult to quantify before detailed investigation begins. Remediation costs can therefore materially change the economics of a project. An apparently inexpensive industrial property can become considerably more expensive once demolition, soil treatment and infrastructure replacement are included.

Environmental responsibility can also complicate transactions. Developers need to understand what contamination exists, who is legally responsible for remediation and what environmental standard will apply to the proposed new use. The cost of clearing existing structures creates another challenge. Large factories were frequently constructed for specialised production processes. Reinforced foundations, underground infrastructure and heavy industrial equipment can be expensive to remove. Some buildings may also contain materials requiring specialist treatment. For this reason, the purchase price alone provides a poor indication of whether an old industrial property represents an attractive redevelopment opportunity. Investors increasingly need to calculate the total cost of creating a usable development site.

Yet the same property may contain infrastructure that would be extremely expensive to reproduce elsewhere. Electricity is becoming particularly important. Modern logistics buildings increasingly require greater power capacity as operators introduce automation, robotics, refrigeration systems and electric vehicle charging. Distribution centres that once required relatively modest electricity connections can now have much larger energy requirements. Securing additional grid capacity for a new development can be difficult and slow.

Former industrial sites can therefore possess a hidden advantage. Factories historically required substantial electricity supplies, and sites retaining large grid connections may be particularly attractive to modern occupiers. The value of the electricity connection could eventually rival the value of some of the buildings standing on the property.

Planning status may become equally important. Land that has already been used for industrial or commercial activity can offer developers greater certainty than an undeveloped site requiring a fundamental change of use. Redevelopment still requires planning approval and environmental assessment, but an established employment location can have an important advantage. This could gradually change how industrial land is valued.

Traditionally, developers have focused heavily on land price per square metre. In a more constrained market, the more important calculation may become how quickly and reliably that land can actually be developed. A cheaper site that requires several years of planning negotiations may ultimately be less attractive than a more expensive industrial property where commercial use is already established.

Time has financial value. Every year spent waiting for permission generates financing costs, professional fees and uncertainty. Development assumptions can also change while a project moves through the planning system. A site offering greater certainty can therefore justify a higher acquisition price even when demolition or remediation is required.

There is not yet sufficient evidence to establish a uniform price premium for German logistics redevelopment land. The market varies too widely between regions and individual properties. But the ingredients for such a premium are becoming increasingly visible. Suitable industrial land is scarce in many established logistics locations. Planning new developments can be difficult. Grid connections are increasingly important. Infrastructure is expensive to reproduce. At the same time, Germany has a substantial stock of ageing manufacturing property entering a period of structural change.

These trends could make existing industrial development rights progressively more valuable. The transformation of Germany’s automotive and manufacturing industries could accelerate the process. Factory closures and corporate restructuring may release large industrial sites over the coming years. Some will remain manufacturing locations, potentially attracting defence, robotics, battery or advanced-engineering companies. Others could become logistics developments.

The decision will increasingly depend on which use generates the greatest value from the site’s existing infrastructure. A former automotive supplier facility close to a motorway, for example, could attract competing interest from warehouse developers, manufacturers, data-centre operators and other infrastructure-intensive businesses. That competition could eventually raise values for the strongest industrial locations.

It also means that logistics developers cannot assume they will automatically acquire every redundant factory. Sites with unusually strong electricity connections may be more valuable to data centres or energy-intensive manufacturers. Properties containing specialised engineering infrastructure may be attractive to defence or advanced manufacturing businesses. Some sites may also be unsuitable for large distribution centres because they are too close to residential areas or lack adequate access for heavy truck traffic.

The future of former industrial land will therefore be determined site by site. The strongest logistics candidates are likely to combine large plots, motorway access, suitable commercial planning status, strong electricity capacity and proximity to major population centres. Properties offering rail connections or access to inland waterways could command additional interest. The weakest sites will be those where extensive contamination, demolition costs and poor transport connections outweigh the advantage of existing industrial use.

Sustainability considerations could further strengthen the redevelopment model. Reusing industrial land reduces pressure to develop agricultural or natural areas and can result in the remediation of contamination left by previous occupiers. Municipalities can therefore gain environmental benefits while bringing unused property back into economic activity. However, demolition itself carries an environmental cost. Removing large buildings and replacing them with new structures consumes materials and creates significant carbon emissions. Developers may therefore increasingly examine whether parts of existing industrial buildings can be retained.

Some former factories could be converted into urban logistics facilities, workshops or smaller industrial units rather than being completely demolished. This could produce a new generation of mixed industrial estates. Instead of replacing one factory with one enormous warehouse, developers could divide large campuses into multiple buildings serving logistics, light manufacturing, engineering and service businesses. Such developments could also be more attractive to municipalities because they create a broader employment base and reduce dependence on a single occupier.

The Dortmund redevelopment provides an early indication of this direction, combining logistics with commercial and light-industrial space rather than relying entirely on conventional large-box warehousing. For investors, this creates a strategy that is very different from acquiring an already leased distribution centre. Redevelopment requires expertise in environmental remediation, demolition, infrastructure, planning and construction. Projects can take several years and involve considerably greater uncertainty.

But the potential reward is access to locations where conventional development opportunities are increasingly scarce. Germany’s industrial history has created an enormous inventory of land in places that remain strategically important today. The factories may no longer be required for their original purpose, but the motorways, railways, power infrastructure and cities around them have not disappeared.

That is what could make these sites increasingly valuable. The next German logistics development cycle may therefore be defined less by how much undeveloped land can be acquired and more by how effectively existing industrial property can be recycled. As land becomes harder to secure, investors may gradually place greater value on something that cannot easily be manufactured: an established industrial location where infrastructure and the ability to redevelop already exist.

Germany’s warehouse pipeline could increasingly emerge from the remains of its manufacturing past. For developers capable of managing contamination, demolition and planning complexity, yesterday’s industrial land may become one of the most important sources of tomorrow’s logistics property.

Source: CIJ.World Research & Analysis Team

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Latest news

All posts by fletcher@cijeurope.com.

Czech Industry Maintains Growth as Export Orders Strengthen

AI Is Turning Warehouses and Freight Networks Into Intelligent Operating Systems

Poland’s Foreign Workforce Climbs Above 1.15 Million

Vienna’s Data-Centre Expansion Is Creating a New Competition for Power and Land

Marseille’s Next Property Cycle Could Be Driven by What Lies Beneath the Buildings

India’s Next Industrial Property Cycle Is Being Built Around Manufacturing Ecosystems

Zondacrypto Crisis Exposes Poland’s Crypto Enforcement Challenge

Karel Stránský Rejoins Colliers to Support Czech Industrial Business

Milan’s Office Boom Is Leaving Older Buildings Behind

Germany’s Old Industrial Sites Are Becoming the New Logistics Development Pipeline