The warehousing and distribution end of the property market has expanded steadily here in recent years, driven by the influx of multinationals and the growth of local companies.

Accumulated along the M50 corridor and other primary routes, these firms provide services for large and small companies that don't want to have to do their own warehousing and product handling.

"Over the past four or five years, there has been a steady rise in the number of warehousing and distribution companies," explains Mr Caleb Kyle, director of Lisney's commercial division.

"My feeling is that 'just-in-time' servicing is certainly what has driven the market and we have seen its consolidation over the last few years; this has really been driven by the manufacturing sector."

What this means in practice is that timely delivery must be guaranteed if production is to run smoothly. This in turn has opened up opportunities for warehousing companies to subcontract these services to manufacturers, who can concentrate on production, "outsourcing" warehousing, handling and shipping. "They give a logistics service," according to Mr Bill Tuite, industrial director of Jones Lang LaSalle.

Mr Tuite is familiar with one warehousing company which services Intel in Leixlip. It is contracted to field incoming requests for parts and then get them out of the warehouse and into the factory within 90 minutes.

The arguments in favour of outsourcing hold true even if the service provider only handles warehousing and distribution of finished products.

It represents customer service of importance to the manufacturer, who wants guarantees that goods will arrive on time and in good condition.

"It is a highly competitive sector," Mr Kyle said. The service companies "are always looking how to improve delivery times and storage facilities". These firms are now demanding purpose-built "high bay" warehousing units with vertical space of up to 50 ft. This allows them to stack raw or finished materials vertically and retrieve them using automated "picking" systems.

The property side of this divides several ways, he said, with size and sophistication being key factors. Size of unit depends on a company's own strategy, he said. Some want huge warehouses located outside urban areas and then bring smaller amounts of product to warehouses closer to the market. Others want a large local facility so everything can be done at a single location.

The market trends are towards company consolidation - with frequent buyouts and takeovers a key way to grow a company's size and markets - and purpose-built warehousing units, Mr Kyle said.

All of the big companies are moving towards high bay warehousing and units "very much geared for the warehousing and distribution sector", he said. "What you are finding is that a lot of the distribution companies have a strong preference for design and build options, where they can control to a certain extent their inflow and outflow process."

This means that many companies now consult with the site developer before any building begins, to ensure they get what they want from the warehouse design. He also views it as "absolutely central that you try to be near the M50".

Mr Tuite views the warehousing and distribution sector as "a piece of the industrial market, segregated by size. It has gone through rapid growth and its operational requirements have changed. Ten years ago there were very few dock levellers. Now they all have dock levellers." Further change is coming however, particularly in the food distribution sector, he believes. "Restructuring is going to take place in the grocery trade," he said. "It is coming, it will be in operation within two years." Tesco, he added, had already bought a site for this in Santry.

Restructuring means that supermarket chain operators will open up very large central warehouses and ask their large bulk suppliers to deliver to this location.

A fleet of lorries will then deliver from this location to individual stores.

The new approach was also likely to have a high degree of time sensitivity, he added. Goods will be due to arrive at the central warehouse at a given time, when a bay will be guaranteed to be open and waiting. If the delivery doesn't make it, the bay will then be taken over by the next scheduled delivery.

This should force food manufacturers and suppliers to work to the established just-in-time approach to stock handling.