Despite growth in the industrial property sector, the market for warehouses outside industrial estates has slowed, as large users like e-commerce companies increasingly invest in their own facilities, according to property consultancy Cushman & Wakefield Thailand.
Phongphan Phloiphet, director of logistics and industrial, said warehouses outside industrial estates were in oversupply in the third quarter, with some recording vacancy rates as high as 30-40%.
“Competition among logistics players over the past 1-2 years has driven down service fees, putting pressure on warehouse rental rates. Some operators have exited the market, leaving an oversupply of space,” he said.
Large e-commerce companies, which are major warehouse users, have increasingly invested in their own facilities rather than relying on third-party operators, further increasing available warehouse space.
Mr Phongphan said the warehouse market saw heavy investment over the past three years, largely driven by Chinese investors.
Supply expanded rapidly to meet the high demand from e-commerce during the pandemic, leading to the current oversupply situation.
Additionally, ready-built warehouses (RBWs) have faced pressure from the US tariffs, which caused developers to hold back new RBW launches in the third quarter of 2025, as they awaited greater clarity on import duties.
As of the third quarter this year, Thailand’s RBWs market tallied roughly 6 million square metres, with a vacancy rate of 17.2%, down from 19% in the second quarter due to no new RBW supply being launched during that period.
The highest vacancy rate was in the eastern zone, particularly Samut Prakan, which recorded a vacancy rate of 21.5% across roughly 3.51 million sq m of space.
This was followed by the Eastern Seaboard zone with a 16.3% vacancy rate of some 1.6 million sq m and the Central zone at 14.2% of 881,497 sq m.
New RBW supply is also in the pipeline, totalling around 459,000 sq m from five projects — four in Samut Prakan, and one in Bangkok — scheduled for completion between the fourth quarter of 2025 and the fourth quarter of 2028. Four of these projects are located in industrial estates.
“New investment in warehouses should be approached with caution, particularly for those outside industrial estates, where demand is largely driven by factories within the estates, which are currently on the rise,” Mr Phongphan noted.
In the third quarter of 2025, serviced industrial land plots (SILPs) within industrial estates tallied 221,458 rai, with the vacancy rate falling to 7.13% from 8.69% in the previous quarter.
The average land price edged up to 8.04 million baht a rai, compared with 7.87 million baht a rai in the second quarter. Meanwhile, an additional 16,297 rai of new SILPs were under construction.
The highest average land prices were recorded in Samut Prakan, Chachoengsao, and the northern part of Chon Buri, ranging between 12-14 million baht a rai.
In the lower areas of Chon Buri and Rayong, they ranged from 5.5-7.5 million baht a rai while in Ayutthaya prices averaged around 6 million baht a rai.