New age Warehouses are now worth more than office buildings in the US

Distribution centres today are hives of activity, as e-commerce companies race to get products to your doorstep ever faster

Giant, high-tech warehouses, to be precise. These “big box” affairs are defined as having at least 200,000 square feet (18,600 square meters) and 28-foot (8.5-metre) ceilings, in a report by Colliers International Group  that calls out the surge in their value.

Colliers looked at 14 North American markets (all but one, Toronto, in the US) and found that such warehouses sold last year at an average capitalisation rate of 5.8 percent. That’s comfortably lower than the 6.7 percent cap rate for US office space, including suburban and rural properties, and neck and neck with offices in central business districts, at