Third-party logistics and e-commerce firms snap up nearly half of Singapore's warehouse space

E-commerce is thriving in the world's busiest transshipment port.

Third-party logistics and other logistics companies, which consist of freight forwarders, transport agents, supply chain, logistics support companies, delivery service, storage service and e-commerce, emerged as the top occupier warehouses in Singapore, taking up 44% of the country’s total space, according to a report from Colliers.

“Singapore has been the location of choice for e-commerce players to establish their footprint when entering the region. The emergence of e-commerce in recent years has had a positive spillover to the 3PL and logistics sector in Singapore,” Trisha Song, head of research for Singapore at Colliers International said in a statement.

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Tenants from the manufacturing sector account for a third of the space, followed by distributor companies (10%), food, chemicals and pharmaceuticals sector (6%), oil, marine and energy (5%), with IT and technology sector taking up the least space (5%).

There are about 117 million sqft of total warehouse space in Singapore, of which over 80% are located in the East and West regions.

With a small population of just 5.7 million, the city has one of the highest warehouse space in Asia at 20 sqft per capita but lower than Japan and US, according to Colliers. The property firm expects property supply to ease, with annual expansion averaging 1.5% of warehouse total stock over 2019-2023.