For the first time in several years, quarterly absorption was higher than completions. It wasn’t by a large margin, but it was enough to push occupancy slightly up, now at 83.2%. The shift in dynamics is driven by a depleting construction pipeline. Looking at the purple bars, you can see that from 2022 to 2025, an average quarter delivered nearly 5 million square feet of new life science space. 2026 completions are well below that average. The wave of construction is finally over and a lot of what is still delivering is user-developed or single tenant build-to-suit, which won’t add additional vacancy. Leasing activity and investor sentiment is starting to pick up, so the occupancy low point reached in 2025 may be the inflection point of the current cycle. Those interested in purchasing life science real estate ought to be watching closely now. If there is momentum behind this turning point, a lot of struggling properties have the potential to gain a lot of value from where they are now.
