Take-up of life sciences-related space across the Golden Triangle has picked up pace over the past three months, according to Savills.
Levels of transactional activity across offices and labs hit 982,000 sq ft for the first nine months of this year, up by 4% on the same period last year. More than 300,000 sq ft of space was transacted in Q3 alone.
The market has moved back to a positive direction after data for H1 2023 showed a 16% year-on-year decrease in leasing activity across the key markets of Cambridge, Oxford and London.
Cambridge remains the most in-demand market across the Golden Triangle for life sciences occupiers, with take-up topping 413,000 sq ft over the nine-month period and 189,000 sq ft in Q3 alone.
The figures were boosted by the letting of the whole of BioMed’s building 960 at Babraham Research Campus, totalling 38,000 sq ft, to Mosaic, Adrestia and Xap, prior to practical completion.
Oxford has also seen “good” levels of activity, according to Savills, recording 387,000 sq ft of take-up at the end of Q3 2023. The activity was mostly driven by transactions across the laboratory space, which accounted for 269,000 sq ft, the highest total ever recorded in the city in a single quarter.
Key deals saw Oxford Gene Technologies taking two recently completed buildings of 12,000 sq ft at Oxford Technology Park and Ryze Hydrogen taking the whole of North Bailey House, measuring 24,000 sq ft. The latter has now come on the market with a price tag of £26m.
In London, take-up of life sciences-related space totalled 175,000 sq ft to date, of which 55% was lab space. The largest transaction in the past three months saw hVIVO take 39,049 sq ft of space at 40 Bank Street in Canary Wharf, E14, to expand its challenge clinical trials facility.
Tom Mellows, head of UK science at Savills, said: “We continue to see positive levels of demand across the Golden Triangle, specifically in Oxford and Cambridge where take-up remains at record highs. While London appears more muted, this is largely due to a lack of purpose-built stock, coupled with the market’s immaturity when compared with the triangle’s other cities.
“Overall, things remain positive for the sector, and we expect to see an uptick in activity in 2024 once key developments complete in all three locations.”
Looking ahead, Savills expects take-up to top 1.3m sq ft by the end of 2023, just shy of 1.39m sq ft recorded for 2022.
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