Market observers insist demand for flex industrial assets is strong, but there are reasons for the discrepancy.

A recent report from research firm Real Capital Analytics (RCA) comparing investment trends over the past decade, shows an 83 percent jump in industrial sales last year compared to the 10-year average, with warehouse sales up 95 percent and sales of flexible industrial facilities up by about half that amount, by 43 percent.

Year-over-year, warehouse sales volume rose by 17 percent in 2019, to $90.6 billion. Flex industrial sales volume totaled nearly $21.5 billion—only slightly more than the previous year’s $21.1 billion.

While the gap in sales between the two industrial sub-sectors is huge, Al Pontius, senior vice president and national director for office and industrial assets with brokerage firm Marcus & Millichap, says, “We’re seeing a healthy increase in investment in the flex space,” though “there is clearly an investor preference for warehouse space in the e-commerce revolution.”