The continued growth of e-commerce in Spain keeps driving logistics demand.
E-commerce turnover in Spain increased by 28.8% year over year in the third quarter of 2022 to €18.9 billion, according to the latest e-commerce data available from CNMC, the country's national markets and competition commission.
While e-commerce players such as Amazon have been particularly active over the past years, other operators such as supermarkets are becoming more and more important in the logistics sector.
The food store network is increasing in the main metropolitan areas in Spain and the number of e-commerce transactions is rising fast in supermarkets, hypermarkets and food stores. It went up by 21% year on year in the third quarter of 2022, accumulating over 23 million transactions from January to September 2022.
Supermarkets are therefore looking for modern, sustainable logistics facilities to feed their e-commerce activity and physical stores.
The market leader, Mercadona, for example, continues to develop its online shopping service in Spain. In 2022, it opened two new Hives, its exclusive warehouses for online sales, in Alicante and Seville. It already had operational facilities in Valencia, Barcelona and Madrid. For 2023, the company plans to open a Minihive in the west of Madrid.
Among the players with the most aggressive store expansion plans, the German supermarket group Lidl, which has 11 logistics centre in Spain, intends to increase its Spanish logistics network by 2026 by more than half a million square metres with the opening of four facilities in the provinces of Granada, Barcelona, Madrid and Tarragona.
Aldi, with five logistics platforms in Spain, is finalising the construction of a new centre in Valencia. The hub, which will have more than 30,000 square metres of floor space, will become operational during 2024. space. The company is also building another new centre in Burgos.
Wholesaler Costco has reached an agreement with Eurofund Logistics Capital Partners to develop the American company's first European logistics center in Spain.
Projects continue to move forward as demand still shows momentum.
Merlin Properties, the larger player in the Spanish logistics market, with a footprint under management over 2 million square metres in Spain is reactivating the launch of new logistics projects. The Spanish real estate investment trust, which has a land bank of 560,000 square metres, will start the construction of 180,000 square metres this year.
Logistics activity is concentrated in the large metropolitan areas such as Madrid and Barcelona while growth potential is spreading throughout the national territory in provinces such as Malaga, Seville or Zaragoza.
As interest rates start to stabilise, investors are likely to regain confidence and more activity is expected for the second half of the year. Spanish logistics is increasingly on the radar of international funds thanks to its strategic geographical position, advanced transport infrastructure and strong fundamentals, such as rising demand and limited quality supply.