Amazon has snapped up more than five times as much warehousing space as its nearest retail rival this year, according to new research.

The US online titan has secured 4m sq ft of distribution centre space across the UK alone in 2017, data from property agency Savills has revealed.

The next fastest-growing retailer was Lidl, which took 754,000 sq ft.

Amazon’s rapid expansion outpaced any other business in the UK, despite taking significantly less than the 8m sq ft of space it secured last year.

Major car manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover and logistics firm Eddie Stobart took around 1.5 m sq ft each – a figure still dwarfed by Amazon’s land grab.

The etailer’s expansion accounted for 20% of the 19.7m sq ft of new warehouse stock in the UK so far in 2017.

Fellow online retailers are following Amazon’s lead, collectively signing 12.2m sq ft of distribution centre space this year, compared to just 1.5m sq ft in 2008.

Savills director of research Kevin Mofid said the levels were “unprecedented”.

He added: “You had a point about 10 years ago when the grocers – Tesco, Sainsbury’s and so on – were very active, and they took a lot of space, but it was nowhere near this level.”