Italian logistics grows (1.7 billion in 2024) but lags behind its European partners

The logistics real estate market is growing in Europe. In 2024, total investment volumes exceeded EUR 41 billion, an increase of 25 per cent compared to 2023. However, half of the allocations are concentrated in just two countries: the United Kingdom (13.5 billion) and Germany (7 billion). In Italy too, the sector has grown, with €1.75 billion, or 17.5% of total real estate investments, up 2.9% compared to 2023 and confirming its attractiveness with €650 million in investments in early 2025. Yet we chase. Not only London and Berlin. But also France, which, thanks to a rebound of around 80%, has exceeded €4.5 billion in investments, the Netherlands' €3.5 billion and Spain's almost €2 billion.

These are some of the figures that emerged in Milan from the "2025 Report on the Logistics Real Estate Market", edited by Scenari Immobiliari in collaboration, for the third year running, with Sfre, a project & construction management company specialising in logistics and light-industrial real estate.

Rents for prime logistics real estate (state-of-the-art, with high quality standards and located in prime locations) increased on average by 2% across the continent. In Germany these rents increased by an average of 5%, in the UK, despite slowing expansionary dynamics, they increased by around 6%, a growth rate above the compound annual average for the period from 2015 to 2020. Net prime yields averaged between 4.2% in Germany and 7.4% in Romania, with the Netherlands and France among the countries where rates expanded slightly during 2024.

"The European logistics sector," said Francesca Zirnstein, managing director of Scenari Immobiliari, "is today faced with two opposing drivers. On the one hand the high levels of volatility reached by the market, and on the other hand the consolidation of signs of stabilisation in some components of the market itself. The acceleration imparted by the digital transformation to this sector is leading to its further evolution, with artificial intelligence, automation and real-time 'visibility' now essential to maintain adequate levels of competitiveness within the industry. The push of recent EU regulations in the direction of greater environmental and social sustainability of the sector. Logistics and industrial regeneration are pushing towards sustainability through the evolution of industrial areas. The sector's size, conformation, ageing, and regenerative potential make it possible to create future social, environmental, and economic value in those places, areas, and buildings that will once again become part of the country's productive skeleton and support companies, communities, and territories.

"Urban and industrial regeneration," commented Filippo Salis, CEO and founder of Sfre, "represents one of the most stimulating challenges for real estate today, not only in environmental terms, but also in social and economic terms. As stakeholders in the logistics sector, we have the duty - and the opportunity - to actively contribute to the redevelopment of disused territories, transforming them into new sustainable production hubs, integrated with the urban fabric and capable of generating shared value".