The Greater Boston life sciences lab space market returned to a normal pace in Q1 2023, according to CBRE’s recent report, with leasing activity exceeding last quarter’s totals and resulting in slightly positive absorption. However, the demand side of the market has seen a sharp slowdown from the 2022 peak due to difficult fundraising conditions and record-high construction pricing.  

Available sublease space surpassed 1.6 million square feet, reaching a new 20-year high, but the sublease availability rate remained flat at 2.8%. Despite the slowdown, the market still saw over 700,000 square feet of new R&D space delivered to the market in the first quarter, and another 2 million square feet broke ground during the quarter, pushing the Greater Boston active construction pipeline total to 16.4 million square feet, expected to be delivered by the end of 2026.