Last updated: April 2026
1. What is logistics real estate investment intelligence?
Logistics real estate investment intelligence is a valuation methodology that combines occupier-side operational expertise with real estate investment analysis. It evaluates properties by modelling how a building's characteristics affect a tenant's total supply chain costs — using 42 site variables and 65 occupier scoring profiles — to identify which tenants will pay premium rents and commit to long-term leases. Unlike traditional broker comparables, which compare headline rents of similar buildings, investment intelligence determines a property's value based on its economic utility within the tenant's supply chain.
2. How many types of logistics properties exist?
Logivalue's valuation framework identifies 95 distinct logistics property types across 14 categories. Major categories include cross-dock facilities (throughput-optimised for parcel carriers), last-mile hubs (urban proximity for e-commerce delivery), cold chain warehouses (temperature-controlled for food and pharma), and city delivery centres (scarce urban locations for same-day delivery). Each type has different cost structures, tenant requirements, and rental economics. Prologis research has independently argued for richer segmentation, defining four consumption-side categories: Last Touch, City Distribution, Multi-Market Distribution, and Gateway.
3. Why are broker comparables insufficient for logistics real estate?
Broker comparables compare headline rents of buildings with similar size, location, and age — but they do not account for supply chain economics. Two warehouses at the same rent can have vastly different operational value to different tenant types. A cross-dock operator on razor-thin margins has fundamentally different rental economics than a last-mile hub, which according to Savills Investment Management commands a 45% rental premium over standard prime logistics. Comparables provide a useful market baseline but miss the operational layer that determines which tenants will pay the most.
"Comparables tell you what the market is charging. Supply chain cost simulation tells you what the tenant will actually pay — and why. Both are valuable, but only the second gives you the intelligence needed to identify premium rent opportunities."
— Raimund Paetzmann, Occupier-Side Strategist, Logivalue
4. What is supply chain cost simulation in real estate?
Supply chain cost simulation evaluates real estate deals by modelling how a building's characteristics affect a tenant's total logistics costs — including transport, labour, automation requirements, and throughput capacity. It uses 42 site variables and 65 occupier scoring profiles to determine each tenant type's willingness-to-pay for a specific building. The output is a ranked list of tenant types by achievable rent, with the optimal use case identified. The spread between the best-case and worst-case tenant for a single building can exceed 30%.
5. What variables determine logistics property value?
Logivalue evaluates 42 site variables across four categories: location (proximity to distribution networks, labour markets, transport hubs, and end consumers), building specification (clear height, floor loading, dock doors, column spacing, automation readiness), operational suitability (temperature control capability, cross-dock feasibility, throughput capacity, power supply), and market dynamics (local supply scarcity, permitting constraints, tenant demand by type). According to the CBRE European Logistics Occupier Survey 2025, labour availability has become the most decisive location factor.
6. How constrained is the European logistics market?
Europe's logistics real estate market faces severe structural supply constraints. According to Prologis Research (2025), the EUR 500 billion market has a supply gap exceeding EUR 150 billion, with normalised development requiring approximately eight years to reach equilibrium. Vacancy rates are anticipated to drop below 5% by 2026. Regulatory hurdles, infrastructure bottlenecks, and environmental requirements have doubled entitlement timelines across much of Europe. Take-up reached 28.1 million sqm in 2025 — 8% above the pre-pandemic average.
7. What is occupier-side expertise in real estate?
Occupier-side expertise means understanding real estate from the tenant's operational perspective — how a building functions within a supply chain, what specifications matter for different operations, and what drives a tenant's willingness-to-pay. Logivalue's team brings direct operational experience from Amazon (40+ fulfilment centres delivered across Europe), Zalando, and DHL, with EUR 1.2 billion+ in logistics CAPEX managed. This operational knowledge enables more accurate valuation than market-side analysis alone, because it predicts what tenants will actually pay based on their economics.
"Occupier-side expertise is not about knowing what the market charges. It is about knowing what a specific tenant type will pay for a specific building — because you have operated that type of building yourself and understand the economics from the inside."
— Carl-Friedrich zu Knyphausen, Managing Director, Logivalue
8. How does use case identification affect property value?
Use case identification determines the highest-value operational purpose for a logistics building. The spread between the lowest-value and highest-value use case for a single building can exceed 30% in achievable rent. A building marketed generically attracts standard tenants at market rent. The same building positioned for its optimal use case — such as a last-mile hub (45% premium), cold chain facility (10-15 year leases), or automation-ready fulfilment centre — attracts tenants whose operations depend on that building's specific characteristics.
9. What is the difference between traditional valuation and occupier-side analysis?
Traditional valuation compares headline rents of similar buildings using location, size, and age as primary inputs. It treats logistics as one asset class. Occupier-side analysis models total logistics costs from the building using 42 site variables and 65 occupier scoring profiles, distinguishing 95 property types across 14 categories. The approaches are complementary: comparables provide a market baseline, while occupier-side analysis identifies which specific tenant types will pay the most for a specific building — and quantifies the CAPEX required to attract them.
10. How can investors achieve premium rents in logistics real estate?
Investors achieve premium rents by matching properties with the tenant types that extract the most operational value from each building's specific characteristics. This requires four steps: identify the optimal use case through supply chain cost simulation, align building specifications with target occupier requirements, invest in targeted CAPEX modifications where the rental uplift justifies the cost, and select locations with strong catchment area fundamentals — deep labour pools, transport connectivity, and consumer reach. For portfolio-level optimisation, this analysis identifies systematic repositioning opportunities across multiple assets.
For a comprehensive exploration of these topics, see our complete guide to logistics real estate valuation.
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