Article
Leasing enquiries picking up in Auckland industrial market
Leasing activity in Auckland’s industrial market is picking up pace, with a clear rise in enquiries from occupiers planning their next property moves this year.
September 29, 2025
Media Contact
Dan Scott
Marketing and Pitch Director, New Zealand
This follows a quiet period that began in late 2023 and continued through 2024, as many industrial and logistics occupiers paused expansion plans in response to softer consumer spending.
I’ve observed a significant increase in tenant enquiry in 2025, with renewed decision-making activity in the market as occupiers consider options for expanding their leased footprint.
There is a lot more energy in the market as tenants resume discussions about leasing decisions and seek to understand what their next move looks like. Occupiers are now eyeing upcoming growth opportunities and are looking to place themselves in an optimal position to capture the recovery in consumer spending.
Our team is also in discussions with a number of logistics operators who are currently using third-party storage and distribution solutions but are now looking to lease their own warehouse space.
Larger occupiers who may be carrying excess capacity in their facilities are also actively looking to mitigate overheads and sublease unused space, continuing the trend of the past couple of years.
Following the Covid-era logistics boom, subleasing became an area of opportunity for industrial and logistics operators as some larger occupiers looked to shrink their physical footprint and rationalise property costs in the face of reduced customer demand. This trend is still very much part of the industrial market, with occupiers considering a wider range of opportunities including subleasing and taking their own dedicated space.
Subleasing often provides greater flexibility around the amount of space occupied, timing of occupation and lease length, which can be a valuable option for occupiers as the market emerges from the downturn.
There is a definite change in the market this year as occupiers go into planning mode and analyse upcoming customer demand expectations. Larger logistics providers are looking to fill the holes in their facilities and more occupiers are seeking to lease their own space, creating a volume of enquiry which we haven’t seen for some time.
Vacancy in Auckland’s industrial market has risen since the post-Covid boom, a period when availability dropped to near zero across all quality grades. According to CBRE Research, the overall vacancy rate stood at 1.6% in December, with the next survey results due in the coming weeks.
However, industrial space that is available for lease but still physically occupied is not counted in CBRE’s vacancy surveys. This additional space is estimated to add around 1% to the market’s overall availability.
The return of some speculative building activity without tenant pre-commitment, as well as occupiers shifting to new premises and leaving ‘backfill’ vacancies in their old facilities, has contributed to the increase in vacancy.
With construction costs now slightly more favourable and occupier demand increasing, a number of well-funded developers are progressing with spec build projects. This follows a couple of years of very little speculative activity.
James Kirkpatrick Group, Fernbrook, Goodman and Argosy are all actively progressing with spec build projects this year, on both greenfield and brownfield sites.
Zoltan Moricz, our Head of Research view is expecting prime industrial vacancy to have a small increase of 0.3% in 2025, before gradually decreasing from 2026 onwards.
With tenant relocations creating backfill vacancies along with some ongoing occupancy consolidation will be the main contributors to the slight increase to the vacancy rate this year, with the gradual improvement in consumer spending expected to result in a reversal of this trend from next year.
I’ve observed a significant increase in tenant enquiry in 2025, with renewed decision-making activity in the market as occupiers consider options for expanding their leased footprint.
There is a lot more energy in the market as tenants resume discussions about leasing decisions and seek to understand what their next move looks like. Occupiers are now eyeing upcoming growth opportunities and are looking to place themselves in an optimal position to capture the recovery in consumer spending.
Our team is also in discussions with a number of logistics operators who are currently using third-party storage and distribution solutions but are now looking to lease their own warehouse space.
Larger occupiers who may be carrying excess capacity in their facilities are also actively looking to mitigate overheads and sublease unused space, continuing the trend of the past couple of years.
Following the Covid-era logistics boom, subleasing became an area of opportunity for industrial and logistics operators as some larger occupiers looked to shrink their physical footprint and rationalise property costs in the face of reduced customer demand. This trend is still very much part of the industrial market, with occupiers considering a wider range of opportunities including subleasing and taking their own dedicated space.
Subleasing often provides greater flexibility around the amount of space occupied, timing of occupation and lease length, which can be a valuable option for occupiers as the market emerges from the downturn.
There is a definite change in the market this year as occupiers go into planning mode and analyse upcoming customer demand expectations. Larger logistics providers are looking to fill the holes in their facilities and more occupiers are seeking to lease their own space, creating a volume of enquiry which we haven’t seen for some time.
Vacancy in Auckland’s industrial market has risen since the post-Covid boom, a period when availability dropped to near zero across all quality grades. According to CBRE Research, the overall vacancy rate stood at 1.6% in December, with the next survey results due in the coming weeks.
However, industrial space that is available for lease but still physically occupied is not counted in CBRE’s vacancy surveys. This additional space is estimated to add around 1% to the market’s overall availability.
The return of some speculative building activity without tenant pre-commitment, as well as occupiers shifting to new premises and leaving ‘backfill’ vacancies in their old facilities, has contributed to the increase in vacancy.
With construction costs now slightly more favourable and occupier demand increasing, a number of well-funded developers are progressing with spec build projects. This follows a couple of years of very little speculative activity.
James Kirkpatrick Group, Fernbrook, Goodman and Argosy are all actively progressing with spec build projects this year, on both greenfield and brownfield sites.
Zoltan Moricz, our Head of Research view is expecting prime industrial vacancy to have a small increase of 0.3% in 2025, before gradually decreasing from 2026 onwards.
With tenant relocations creating backfill vacancies along with some ongoing occupancy consolidation will be the main contributors to the slight increase to the vacancy rate this year, with the gradual improvement in consumer spending expected to result in a reversal of this trend from next year.