Industrial and trade parks: The market is becoming more professional, and businesses are becoming the decisive factor.
- Feb 23
- 4 min read
Updated: Mar 10
PRESS RELEASE
February 23, 2026
Industrial and trade parks: The market is becoming more professional, and businesses are becoming the decisive factor.
• Small units dominate the market – around 64 percent of rental demand is for spaces up to 3,000 square meters.
• Business parks achieve 9 to 18 percent higher rents compared to traditional logistics and light industrial sites.
• Professional property and asset management is becoming a key factor for institutional investors
February 23, 2026 – The market for commercial and industrial parks has developed into an independent and structurally growing segment. This development is primarily driven by the continued high demand for small, flexibly usable spaces in urban and well-connected locations.
During the webinar "Business Parks: Growing Market Segment or Short-Term Hype?" organized by RUECKERCONSULT, with company representatives from Colliers, GreenPlaces, SQUARE PARKS, and PGIM, it became clear that the segment is becoming more professional on both the user and investor sides. According to Colliers, around 64 percent of recent leases in the industrial and logistics sector were for spaces up to 3,000 square meters. Units between a few hundred and approximately 3,000 square meters are particularly in demand, offering flexible usage options for tradespeople, technology-oriented companies, production-related businesses, and e-commerce providers.
Demand is structurally driven
Christian Kah, Head of Industrial & Logistics Germany at Colliers, says: “We see a clear structural demand for small-scale spaces in urban environments. This demand is driven by changing value chains, on-demand production, and the desire of many companies to operate closer to their sales markets.”
Henning Nietz, Managing Director of SQUARE PARKS, adds with regard to location and property criteria: “We are observing a permanent shift towards urban new-build business parks with flexible, expandable units. Companies are increasingly placing value on location quality, energy availability and digital infrastructure.”
Markus Eberhard, Managing Director of GreenPlaces, confirms this trend and also observes demand at the municipal level: “Many regions are undergoing economic transformation. This creates a concrete need for functional, modular spaces that enable growth – especially for small and medium-sized enterprises.”
Companies that spend a long time searching for suitable locations. Business parks with small, flexible rental units are the ideal solution to support this transformation in a needs-based manner.”
Progressive institutionalization: Operations and management move into the foreground.
To make the sector more attractive to institutional investors, professionally organized asset and property management of multi-tenant properties is crucial. At the same time, the segment offers stable and diversified cash flows thanks to its mixed-use development. Kah says: "We're seeing premiums of up to 18 percent for prime rents and 9 percent for average rents compared to traditional logistics – yet accessibility and on-site management are more important to many tenants than a simple price comparison."
Nietz says: “The ongoing operation is crucial for maintaining value. Compared to traditional big-box logistics, the higher management intensity is offset by the broad user base and the potential for alternative uses of the space. Professional asset and property management is therefore an integral part of the business model.”
Eberhard adds: “Standardized, modular-serial construction helps to better control and streamline construction time and costs. At the same time, adapting to local demand profiles remains crucial. We see that concrete user inquiries often arrive early, making pre-leasing possible in specific cases.”
The industry sees this segment on its way to becoming its own asset class.
During the webinar, participants were asked about their assessment of the market positioning of commercial and industrial parks, with 102 people taking part. The majority of respondents, around 54 percent, see the segment either as an independent asset class (15 percent) or on its way to becoming one (39 percent). Another 37 percent classify commercial parks as an integral part of logistics or light industrial real estate. One percent consider commercial and industrial parks to be a purely cyclical market segment. Just under eight percent were unable to give a clear assessment due to a lack of market transparency.
Christian Kah puts the current market perception into perspective: “For a long time, business parks were not assigned to a clearly defined asset class. In particular, transactions in the small-scale segment of plots under 3,000 square meters were not always reported separately in the statistics. However, with increasing market standardization, transparency improves – this is an important prerequisite for further institutional establishment.”
Press contact
RUECKERCONSULT GmbH
Susanne Franz
Wallstrasse 16, 10179 Berlin
Tel: +49 151 276 165 64
Email: franz@rueckerconsult.de
About Colliers International Germany GmbH
Colliers' real estate advisors are located in Berlin, Dresden, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Cologne, Leipzig, Munich, Nuremberg, and Stuttgart. Their services include advising on the purchase, sale, and leasing of commercial properties in the office, retail, hotel, industrial, and logistics asset classes; the purchase and sale of land; the purchase and sale of residential properties, including mixed-use buildings and residential capital markets; and the purchase and sale of agricultural and forestry properties. The Occupier Services division offers strategic consulting to companies on all real estate matters. Additional services include property valuation and financing advice. Colliers International Group Inc. (NASDAQ, TSX: CIGI) operates globally with approximately 24,000 professionals in 70 countries. Learn more at: www.colliers.de
About GreenPlaces
GreenPlaces develops modular, sustainable, and affordable business parks in convenient locations and leases them to SMEs and startups. These energy-efficient commercial properties, built using environmentally sustainable timber construction, offer the regional economy space for innovation and healthy growth. By connecting businesses at the site, the GreenPlaces community creates added value and synergies for positive business development. Founded in Lausanne in 2017, GreenPlaces currently has eleven completed and managed locations in Switzerland and six in Germany. The company plans to expand its portfolio to 80 business parks by 2030, the majority of which will be located in Germany.
About SQUARE PARKS
SQUARE PARKS is a sister company of the long-established Hamburg-based ADOLF WEBER real estate and project management company and specializes in the development of commercial and industrial parks in urban areas throughout the DACH region (Germany, Austria, and Switzerland). The company focuses exclusively on the construction of flexible, light industrial spaces, particularly suitable for small and medium-sized enterprises.
SQUARE PARKS is suitable for companies, craft businesses, and start-ups. In addition to project development, SQUARE PARKS also handles the asset and property management of completed projects, thus ensuring a long-term partnership and value stability. With a focus on ESG-compliant construction methods, high spatial flexibility, and sustainable usage concepts, the company develops future-oriented projects. The business model offers investors the opportunity to participate in value creation through joint venture structures, even in the early development phase.