Light industrial finance in the North West

The North West contains the Lake District, home to Scafell Pike, England's highest peak, and Windermere, the largest natural lake in England. We arrange the full range of light industrial finance across the North West, 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.

Manchester prime multi-let rents reached £16.00 per sq ft at Q3 2024, the highest in the UK outside London and the South East, with Warrington at £13.50 and Liverpool at £11.50 on a regional all-grades average of £7.63 (Gerald Eve). The region holds the strongest development pipeline in the country at 6.5m sq ft with 1.5m sq ft under construction across 23 schemes, yet that still amounts to around three months of supply at current take-up rates. Prime equivalent yields of 5.25 percent price the region inside most regional markets, and MSCI data to December 2025 shows standard industrial outside the South East delivering a 9.4 percent total return, the best of any property segment. We see the widest mix of borrowers here, from estate aggregators to owner-occupier manufacturers, and we fund both stabilised estates and speculative small-unit schemes.

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 34 recent industrial planning applications in the North West 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); MSCI / IPF (UK Quarterly Property Index, Q4 2025 results, Feb 2026).