The news about a working vaccine immediately benefited the real estate market. Listed real estate companies such as Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield and Kleppière, which were hit hard during the lockdown, saw their share price rise with the prospect of returning office workers and shoppers. Remarkably, the winners of the corona crisis were now losing - logistics real estate companies such as WDP and Montea, saw their share prices fall.

However hot the soup is served, a Dutch expression runs, it has cooled down by the time you eat it (meaning things are never quite as bad as they seem). Cooled down tremendously in this case. Shortly after the announcement of the vaccine, it quickly became clear that the logistics industry will be vital in the successful distribution of a potential vaccine. Regardless of the distribution issue from a healthcare, economic or ethical perspective, the logistics market is facing an their biggest challenge yet. It turns out that it is crucial to store and transport the Pfizer vaccine at an ultra-low temperature (-70 -80 ° C). Is our logistics landscape designed for this?

Vaccines have, of course, been shipped around the world before. It is not uncommon for these vaccines to be transported and stored away from (sun)light and refrigerated. This logistics chain from manufacturer to consumer is also called the Cold Chain. However, the extremely low temperature is unusual. Where vaccines usually have to be kept at a constant temperature of 2-8 ° C in the Cold Chain, we are now talking about a temperature of -80 ° C. This most likely means that the 'standard' logistics supply chain for vaccines cannot be used for the distribution of the Covid-19 vaccine.

And when the vaccine reaches the Netherlands, will we have enough logistics real estate to store the stock? Only part of the logistics real estate in the Netherlands is suitable for cold storage. Think of perishable goods such as food and flowers. Savills research shows that currently 12% of logistics real estate stock in the Netherlands is used for cold storage. This amounts to more than 4.5 million sq m of logistics space, spread over 265 locations. In practice, such extreme temperatures - as appears to be the case now- are currently not required in these locations. The question is therefore, whether the 12% of the logistics stock that is designed for cold storage is also equipped for this temperature. In addition, a large part of this stock is currently already in use and cannot simply be freed up for the storage of the new vaccine.

Is there another alternative to this active cooling of the vaccine throughout the entire supply chain? Bespoke designed packaging with dry ice could provide a solution. However, this passive cooling method has, just like the content, a limited shelf life. The temperature can only be kept constant for a certain time in such a package. Can the vaccine travel around the world in this way?

As the week progressed and more information became available about the vaccine, the companies that initially showed a strong price uplift slumped again. The funds that had benefited from the corona crisis this year recovered somewhat. The logistics sector is once again proving its vital role in this pandemic.