The Bank of England base rate is 3.75 percent, held since the December 2025 cut, UK industrial vacancy ran at around 7 percent at the end of
2025 (CBRE, Knight Frank), prime distribution yields sit around 5 percent (Knight Frank), and prime rents have kept growing. In this launch episode of Warehouse Property Finance, host Georgina lays out a full 2026 market outlook on how UK warehouse, industrial and logistics property is funded, what the numbers look like now, and what the market is telling investors,
developers and owner-occupiers.
We explain the single most important idea in warehouse finance: an industrial asset is financed on the asset and its income. For let
investment stock the loan is driven by the tenant covenant, the lease and the rent, with WAULT, the interest cover ratio (commonly 1.3 to 1.6 times at a stressed rate) and loan to value all in the mix.
We then walk through the funding routes:
- Purchase and investment finance for let and part-let warehouses
- Owner-occupier finance, read on the business and EBITDA cover
- Development and logistics build finance
- Bridging for auctions, vacant possession and transitional assets
- Refinance and stabilisation loans, including releasing rental reversion
- Multi-let estate and portfolio finance
We give the indicative 2026 numbers: senior investment debt broadly 6.0 to 8.0 percent all in, LTV around 60 to 75 percent, owner-occupier up to around 70 to 75 percent, development 60 to 70 percent of cost and up to 60 to 65 percent of GDV, and bridging around 0.65 to 1.0 percent a month.
We close on the supply and energy story: speculative space under construction down around 65 percent from the peak (Savills), and the
EPC and MEES retrofit wall, with roughly 404 million square feet, about 60 percent of stock, potentially non-compliant by 2030 (Knight Frank), which is increasingly a funding event in its own right.
Our Sites Across our Network
Our views on our 2026 outlook is published across our cloud network with a different angle per platform:
- Warehouse and Industrial Property Finance: 2026 Market Outlook
- Warehouse and Logistics Development Finance in 2026
- Warehouse Refinance and Stabilisation Loans in 2026
- Owner-Occupier vs Investor Warehouse Finance in 2026
- Voids, Repositioning and Retrofit Warehouse Finance in 2026
- Warehouse Bridging Finance in 2026
- Multi-Let Industrial Estate and Portfolio Finance in 2026
Sources
Figures cited are drawn from JLL, Knight Frank, Savills, CBRE and Colliers, plus Construction Capital planning data. All figures are third-party
research-house estimates and indicative market commentary.
About
Warehouse Property Finance is the practitioner podcast on funding UK warehouse, industrial and logistics property. We help investors,
developers and owner-occupiers understand how lenders price and underwrite the sector, and how purchase, development, refinance, bridging, retrofit and portfolio funding actually work.
This episode is general market commentary, not financial advice, and not an offer of any kind. We are not FCA authorised. Commercial finance on industrial property is unregulated business lending. Where a deal needs regulated advice, it should go to a regulated firm.
Written brand author: Matt Lenzie. Host: Georgina.
For warehouse finance enquiries, visit https://warehousepropertyfinance.co.uk/
