West Sussex industrial and logistics market

West Sussex's industrial market is defined by Gatwick Airport and the A23 and M23 corridor that links the county to London. Crawley is the prime town, and Manor Royal Business District, covering around 540 acres next to Gatwick and home to over 600 businesses, is one of the largest single business districts in the South East. Gatwick adjoins Manor Royal and handles air cargo for London and the South East, giving the county an air-freight dimension that few of its neighbours can match.

The occupier base mixes air-freight logistics, manufacturing and regional distribution. Pharmaceutical manufacturer Roche sits in the county alongside specialist engineering from Austin Racing, while logistics and trade demand comes from DPD, Amazon, Royal Mail, UPS, Evri, Howdens, Jewson, Bartholomews and medical distributor EMED. The combination of airport gravity at Crawley and a chain of trade and distribution towns along the A23 and A27 gives West Sussex a coherent, infrastructure-led industrial identity.

Gatwick and Manor Royal anchor the market

Manor Royal Business District is the centre of gravity for West Sussex industry. At around 540 acres and home to over 600 businesses, it is a major employment district in its own right, and its position next to Gatwick Airport gives occupiers direct access to air cargo for London and the South East. That airport adjacency is the county's defining advantage, attracting logistics, manufacturing and service occupiers who value proximity to air freight and to the M23 link to London.

Gatwick's role as an air-cargo handler means West Sussex captures demand that would otherwise concentrate around Heathrow, and Manor Royal functions as the landside base for that activity. For investors and developers, the district's scale and the airport's draw make Crawley the clear prime location in the county, where rents and demand are strongest and where institutional capital is most comfortable committing.

The A23 corridor and the wider county

Beyond Crawley, the A23 and A27 corridors carry the county's regional distribution and trade economy. Victoria Business Park and the newer Panattoni Park Burgess Hill provide logistics space with quick access to the A23, bringing modern speculative product to the corridor between Crawley and the coast. Terminus Road is an established industrial and trade location with direct access to the A27, serving the more local, town-level demand of the coastal plain.

This spread gives West Sussex a layered market: prime air-freight and logistics demand at Crawley and Manor Royal, modern logistics product at Burgess Hill on the A23, and established trade and industrial space further south. The arrival of Panattoni Park Burgess Hill is significant because it shows developers are willing to build modern logistics floorspace in the corridor, responding to demand that cannot all be accommodated within the constrained land around Gatwick itself.

Supply, rents and yields

The regional Cushman & Wakefield benchmark for the South East and East in Q2 2025 showed prime rents near 23.50 pounds per sq ft, a prime yield around 4.9 percent, take-up of 1.63m sq ft and availability of 12.04m sq ft. West Sussex prime stock at Crawley and Manor Royal trades toward the keener end of that range, supported by Gatwick adjacency and the M23 link to London, while the A23 corridor and coastal towns sit a step behind.

Nationally, completions fell to around 16m sq ft in 2025, the lowest since 2018 (Knight Frank), prime yields held in the 5.00 to 5.25 percent range to December 2025, and the 2026 rental-growth forecast sits near 2.7 to 2.9 percent. The county's manufacturing presence, from Roche to Austin Racing, aligns it with the resilient manufacturing demand that made up around 33 percent of national take-up in 2025 (Savills), adding ballast beyond the airport-led logistics story.

Where development concentrates and what it means for value

Development in West Sussex concentrates at and around Crawley, where Manor Royal and Gatwick anchor demand, and along the A23 at Burgess Hill, where Panattoni Park has brought modern logistics product to the corridor. Land constraints around the airport and the South Downs to the south limit greenfield expansion, so the A23 corridor between Crawley and the coast is the most active frontier for genuinely new floorspace.

For asset values the airport-adjacent stock at Crawley carries the keenest pricing and the strongest reversionary rental case, given the rarity of air-freight-linked space and the depth of demand at Manor Royal. Modern logistics product at Burgess Hill offers attractive income with a clearer development pipeline, while older secondary units, trading nearer the national 6 percent secondary yield, face obsolescence pressure as occupiers demand more power, better access and improved sustainability ratings.

How we fund warehouse property in West Sussex

We arrange industrial property finance across West Sussex as an introducer to lenders, structuring debt to reflect the county's airport-led demand and its A23 logistics corridor. For investment purchases of let stock at Crawley and Manor Royal, we place senior loans that lean on strong covenants and Gatwick adjacency to secure competitive leverage and pricing, using the scarcity of air-freight-linked space to support the reversionary case.

Where transactions need pace, an off-market unit, an auction lot or a property bought with vacant possession for refurbishment, we arrange bridging that completes quickly and is built to convert into term debt once income is restored. For ground-up development, including modern logistics schemes along the A23 in the style of Panattoni Park Burgess Hill, we structure development funding that releases against build milestones and accounts for the infrastructure and access works these corridor sites can involve.

As schemes complete and let, we refinance from development or bridging onto stabilisation and then long-term investment loans, using proven income to improve loan-to-value and margin. For airport-linked assets we help evidence the durability of Gatwick-driven demand to lenders, which supports both leverage and pricing, while for corridor stock we lean on the depth of regional distribution and the county's manufacturing base. Across purchase, bridging, development, stabilisation and term funding we tailor the structure to whether an asset is airport-adjacent, on the A23 corridor or in the established coastal towns.

Outlook for West Sussex

West Sussex is well positioned thanks to Gatwick Airport, the scale of Manor Royal and modern logistics delivery along the A23 at Burgess Hill. Development will keep concentrating around Crawley and the A23 corridor, where demand is deepest and land is most available, while the airport and a solid manufacturing base provide resilient demand. With the 2026 rental-growth forecast around 2.7 to 2.9 percent, the county's airport-adjacent and modern corridor stock looks set to hold and grow value, while older secondary units carry the heavier obsolescence risk.

Market figures are South East-level benchmarks attributed to Cushman & Wakefield (Marketbeat Logistics & Industrial, Q2 2025), used as regional context for West Sussex rather than a county-specific measurement. National figures: VOA and the research houses as cited.