Warehouse & logistics space, explained for tenants

Prime warehouse asking rents across Central Europe run roughly €4.40-6.10 per m² per month in 2026: Prague around €6.10, Warsaw €5.40, Budapest €5.60, Bucharest €4.40, with Dubai higher at around €7.20. These are triple-net headline rents, so the all-in occupancy cost is higher once service charge and property tax are added.

Modern big-box logistics warehouses are built to 10-12 metres clear internal height, which lets tenants use tall racking and store more pallets per square metre. Older or urban units are typically 6-8 metres, which limits racking and raises the effective cost per pallet stored.

Logistics leases are longer than office leases: 5 to 10 years is standard, and build-to-suit or automated facilities often run 10-15 years. The longer the commitment, the more leverage a tenant has to negotiate rent-free months and a fit-out or racking contribution.

A big-box warehouse is a large single-purpose distribution building (typically 10,000 m² and up, 10-12 m clear height, many dock doors) for storage and distribution. A flex unit is smaller (often 500-3,000 m²), mixes warehouse, workshop and office under one roof, and suits light industrial or trade businesses that need a bit of everything.

A common rule of thumb is one dock door per 1,000 m² of warehouse for a busy distribution operation; slower-moving storage needs fewer. Cross-dock buildings put doors on two opposite sides for high-throughput flow. Too few docks throttles your throughput no matter how good the rent is.