Sheds and beds

Rising demand for delivery is creating a space crunch in cities. In the UK, each newly-built home built requires 70 square feet of warehouse and logistics space to supply its delivery needs. Faster deliveries are pushing these depot locations closer to customers' homes where industrial land is scarce. One solution is a new building type which combines housing and logistics space. The "sheds and beds" approach has been used in London. One building combines 500 units of student housing atop a 4000 square meter builders' supply warehouse. Post-pandemic, investors piled in on similar projects elsewhere. This indicates that the rapid building out urban logistics networks in the next few years are likely to come into direct conflict with housing, but interest and ability to mix these uses is high and has the potential for returns that will allow the market to lead the way, provided sufficient carrots and sticks are put in place.