Light industrial finance in the East of England

Around a fifth of the East of England lies below mean sea level, and the region includes the lowest point in the country at Holme in Cambridgeshire. We arrange the full range of light industrial finance across the East of England, from the commercial mortgages that buy and hold a unit or an estate to the bridging, development, mezzanine and equity behind a refurbishment, a trade park scheme or a yard. Industrial market data is published nationally and regionally by Gerald Eve (Newmark), MSCI and Savills, so the figures above are presented as clearly-labelled benchmarks, with the regional figures attributed to their sources, while the planning and housing-transaction data is genuinely local for the towns we track.

Prime rents in this region run from £22.00 per sq ft in Hemel Hempstead and £21.50 in Crawley down to £10.00 in Colchester and Ipswich, on South East and East of England all-grades averages of £13.14 and £11.66 (Gerald Eve, Q3 2024). The bulletin counts 56 schemes in the regional pipeline but only 1.5m sq ft under construction across two large regions, so the supply squeeze that drove the post-2020 rental run is structural rather than cyclical. Equivalent yields of 5.15 to 5.60 percent keep the region firmly on institutional buy lists, and trade counters remain the largest occupier segment at around a quarter of space. We arrange estate acquisitions, refurbishment programmes and owner-occupier purchases here in roughly equal measure, and lender appetite is the deepest outside London.

Nationally, forecast multi-let rental growth runs at 4.6% (Gerald Eve (Newmark), Multi-Let Winter bulletin 2024, 2024 to 2028 forecast), against an expected peak void rate of 9.8% (Gerald Eve (Newmark), Multi-Let Winter bulletin 2024, 2024 expected peak) and MSCI industrial vacancy of 9.4% (MSCI UK Quarterly Property Index, Q4 2025 results, Dec 2025). That tight supply picture for small units is the backdrop to every regional appraisal we run.

Development activity is visible across the region: we track 33 recent industrial planning applications in the East of England through council planning registers, part of a national feed covering more than 100 local authorities.

Benchmark figures from Gerald Eve (Newmark), Multi-Let Winter bulletin 2024; MSCI UK Quarterly Property Index, Q4 2025 results. Regional commentary draws on Gerald Eve (a Newmark company) (Multi-Let, Winter bulletin, 2024).