Take-up of science-related real estate across the ‘golden triangle’ of London, Oxford and Cambridge reached 954,000 sq ft in 2024 – down 34% on 2023 and 21% below the five-year average, according to the latest data from Savills.
The company attributed the decline to the weaker funding market, which is impacting occupier demand for laboratory space.
While take-up in Oxford reached 153,794 sq ft in Q4 2024, three times higher than the previous quarter, total take-up for the city in 2024 reached 443,208 sq ft – 24% down on 2023.
Cambridge also witnessed a fall in annual take-up, with just 338,845 sq ft of space transacting in 2024. In London, take-up fell 17% in 2024 to 166,149 sq ft largely due to the underperformance of the venture capital funding market.
Savills said more than 115,000 sq ft of laboratory space is currently under offer in London, the majority of which is due to complete in early 2025.
The company estimates there is currently more than 1.23m sq ft of active and upcoming requirements for life science real estate space across the golden triangle.
Tom Mellows, head of UK science at Savills, said: “Despite 2024 being a challenging year for the golden triangle science markets, there are promising signs of recovery as we start 2025. Both London and Cambridge experienced lower lab take-up than previous years due to the weakened funding environment in the first three quarters, which led to occupiers delaying real estate decisions.
“Nevertheless, Q4 saw strong levels of activity with a significant amount of space under offer in both cities, whilst Oxford showed continued resilience with a number of high profile deals. Consequently, this, and the improving funding market means we are confident that 2025 will perform in line with, if not above, the five-year average.”
