Gerald Eve has warned speculative lab development across London could slow in the near future as investors take a more cautious view.
The expectations come on the back on the consultancy’s recently launched research, LabTrack, which monitors the lab development pipeline across London’s key clusters.
The report has tracked a critically low supply of labs across the capital, despite the encouraging near-term development pipeline.
Some 1.3m sq ft of lab-enabled space is scheduled for completion across the London clusters between 2023-2025. More than 70% of these developments are in the Knowledge Quarter across 10 schemes, including Tribeca, Victoria House, 5-10 Brandon Road, 338 Euston Road and 20 Triton Square, which form a part of Regent’s Place.
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Gerald Eve’s report also suggests that 3.2m sq ft of lab-enabled space is predicted to be delivered across 12 schemes throughout the key clusters of the Knowledge Quarter, SC1, London West and London East in 2026 and 2027.
It noted that London East has the largest potential long-term pipeline due to the significant development opportunities at Canary Wharf, E14, Whitechapel, E1, and Canada Water, SE16.
In addition, it expects the repurposing of existing buildings only represents a small percentage of the supply pipeline.
Lisa Webb, partner in Gerald Eve’s planning and development team, said: “We have recently seen some of the first bespoke retrofits for life sciences projects in London being granted planning permission.
“While we expect this will lead to an increase in supply in the short term as more of these types of projects come forward, these retrofits are only likely to satisfy small and immediate occupational needs given they are, by and large, piecemeal in both location and size, leaving larger, more bespoke requirements, waiting for the bulk of the supply to come forward.”
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