Science & Innovation

January 2026 Forecast

Industry Expansion

Activity is increasingly extending beyond traditional wet lab space. Growth in adjacent sectors such as AI-driven drug discovery, quantum technologies, advanced materials, and synthetic biology is driving demand for hybrid R&D environments, as neighbouring innovation ecosystems continue to scale.

Midyear review

• Demand has extended well beyond traditional CL2 laboratory specifications, with the growth of hybrid-type spaces such as TechBoxes and AI lab-enabled space.
• In London, the most notable driver has been AI-adjacent occupiers absorbing significant volumes of lab-enabled hybrid space. In H1 Anthropic's letting of 158,000 sq ft at 1 Triton Square and OpenAI's 85,000 sq ft at Jahn Court show the scale of AI occupiers’ real estate expansions. Many are now competing for space traditionally associated with life sciences, since many of the innovation ecosystem attributes attractive to life sciences occupiers transcend broader innovation and R&D focused industries too.
• The trend extends beyond London. In Cambridge, the largest transaction in H1 was in the defence sector. Cambridge Aerospace’s commitment to TechBox-style space further evidences a more hybrid R&D model within innovation ecosystems.

January 2026 Forecast

Demand for core locations

Increasing take-up in key clusters as occupational activity is likely to pick up, particularly in Cambridge, where major occupiers are advancing searches that were deferred over the past 12–18 months. This trend is expected to reinforce the Golden Triangle as the UK’s primary science and innovation hub.

Midyear review

• Take-up across the Golden Triangle reached 570,000 sq ft in H1 2026. While this represents a step down from the record 630,000 sq ft reached in H2 2025, it is a clear improvement on the same period a year earlier, reinforcing the recovery in occupier activity.
• Cambridge has been a standout contributor, with H1 take-up of 153,000 sq ft, already 53,000 sq ft ahead of the full-year 2025 total. This reflects our anticipated release of pent-up demand from occupiers that had deferred decisions over the preceding 12–18 months.

January 2026 Forecast

Recapitalisation cycle

Capital markets remain focused on stabilised, income-producing assets, with investors prioritising secure cash flows over speculative development. The peak of the capital cycle occurred in 2021, and many developers have since held assets through the market downturn. As financing conditions improve, 2026 is expected to see a recapitalisation phase, with owners extending hold periods, introducing new equity partners, or selectively bringing assets to market.

Midyear review

• Investor sentiment has been shaped by the wider macroeconomic landscape. Therefore, the appetite for science and innovation real estate assets has been largely untested, owing to a scarcity of marketed opportunities to date.
• Investors continue to favour stabilised, income-producing assets, but the limited volume of stock brought to market in H1 has made it difficult to gauge real depth of demand. The anticipated recapitalisation phase, owners extending hold periods, bringing in new equity partners, or selectively launching assets for sale, has yet to materialise at scale, suggesting the cycle is taking longer to turn than initially anticipated.

H2 2026 Outlook

Science & innovation gathers pace

H1 2026 take-up reached 570,000 sq ft, the third-highest six-month total on record and only slightly behind the 630,000 sq ft achieved in H2 2025.

The H2 2025 figure was driven by a single, exceptionally large transaction; EIT's 516,000 sq ft letting in Oxford. Viewed in this context, the strength of H1 2026 take-up is more pronounced than the above comparison suggests.

A key supporting factor has been the steady delivery of new, lab-enabled stock across core hubs, broadening options for occupiers and helping to convert latent demand into completed deals.

The broadening of the occupier base has been one of the defining characteristics of H1 2026, and we expect it to carry on into H2 and beyond. AI and technology occupiers have absorbed a significant share of lab-enabled stock that would historically have been earmarked for life sciences tenants, with notable transactions including 1 Triton Square in London and Granta Park in Cambridge. This occupier diversification increasingly appears to be a structural feature of the market rather than an isolated trend, and we anticipate it will continue to sustain take-up volumes through H2 2026, particularly during periods when pure life sciences demand is lower.

Figure 14: Science and innovation take-up