Savills Investment Management has acquired two Grade A logistics assets totalling around 97,600 sq m — roughly 1.05 million sq ft — in Dettelbach, Germany, in an off-market transaction the manager ranks among the largest in the German logistics investment market in 2026.

The seller was AEW. Neither party disclosed the price. Both facilities are fully let on long-term leases, one to a German fashion retailer and the other to a global logistics service provider, giving the buyer immediate income stability from day one.

The site's location does much of the commercial work. Dettelbach sits near Würzburg in Lower Franconia, directly at the intersection of the A3 and A7 motorways — the junction where Germany's dominant east-west corridor meets its principal north-south axis. For occupiers, that means single-day road access to the Rhine-Main conurbation, Nuremberg and the northern ports. For an investor, it is the kind of infrastructure pin-up that supports long-term rental growth and low vacancy risk, which partly explains why the assets were fully committed before changing hands.

The buildings carry further credentials. Completed in 2023, both were developed on a brownfield site and hold DGNB sustainability certifications — increasingly a condition of tenancy for pan-European retailers and 3PLs with their own carbon reporting obligations.

The deal expands Savills IM's European Logistics strategy to 21 assets across seven countries. In Germany specifically, the portfolio now stands at three properties, following the earlier purchase of a logistics complex in Verden, Lower Saxony. The manager is clearly weighting Germany more heavily after a period in which the market — like most of European logistics real estate — was throttled by higher financing costs and diverging buyer-seller price expectations.

Tim Ulrich, head of transactions Germany, Austria & Switzerland at Savills IM, framed the purchase as evidence that the logjam is starting to clear. "This transaction ranks among the largest logistics transactions in Germany this year and demonstrates that attractive investment opportunities can still be realised in a persistently challenging market environment," he said. He added that Savills IM was seeing "initial signs that the transaction market is beginning to regain momentum".

For shippers and forwarders, the signal matters beyond property circles. Institutional capital returning to German logistics assets typically precedes renewed speculative development, and the Dettelbach junction sits squarely on the corridor used by freight moving between Benelux ports and Central and Eastern Europe. More institutional-grade, DGNB-certified capacity at that node broadens the options for occupiers seeking consolidation hubs with strong motorway access.

For landlords and competing investors, an off-market deal of this scale — struck without a formal marketing process — suggests prime, fully let German logistics stock is moving again, but selectively, between parties willing to agree terms privately rather than through auctions.

If Ulrich's read on momentum proves correct, expect further large-ticket German logistics trades in the second half of 2026 as pricing gaps narrow and prime, income-producing assets near major motorway junctions attract the first wave of returning capital.