Home delivery boom kicking off property scramble

London

THE home delivery boom is upending the real estate market. At the turn of the century, shoppers could wait as long as 28 days for delivery of goods they had bought online. The compression of that window to 24 hours or less is revolutionising logistics and turning industrial warehouses into desirable assets.

Singapore-listed Global Logistic Properties on Monday said that it will buy warehouse owner Gazeley for US$2.8 billion. The deal follows two recent multibillion-euro transactions in European logistics, where China's sovereign wealth fund CIC and Singapore's GIC purchased warehouse groups Logicor and P3, respectively. All are betting on the future of online retailing, which requires three times as much warehouse space to fulfil orders as bricks-and-mortar businesses, according to Aberdeen Asset Management.