■ In our post Brexit research paper entitled "Reasons to be cheerful.....?" Savills research suggested that three key areas to keep a watching brief on were retailer Christmas performance, the automotive sector and Government infrastructure investment. As these indicators would be leading indicators for the health of the logistics market.
■ On the whole, the Christmas period was a strong one with many retailers reporting strong sales growth on a like-for-like basis. Online retail stands to be the net beneficiary as in November the ONS recorded the highest proportion of online sales ever, at 18.3% of the total market.
■ Quite how retailers react to this remains to be seen as there does not seem to be a one size fits all approach. Indeed, in the short-term supply may increase slightly, especially given Tesco's recent announcement that they will close a number of distribution centres across the country to gain greater efficiencies.
■ With a number of large deals currently awaiting planning permission, and continued strong demand, we are forecasting take-up for 2017 to remain above the long term average, whilst the Nationwide vacancy rate remains around 6%.
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