B
oston's lab space availability rate remains high at 32%, with a significant GMP sublease hitting the market for approximately 250,000 square feet, marking the largest space give-back this quarter. According to JLL, record funds are being raised by VC firms, up about 30% year-over-year across the US, signaling optimism that will eventually impact the real estate market.

    Key highlights from JLL's report include:

    Vacancy rates are expected to peak this winter before declining as asking rents have decreased by 12% from their peak, returning to mid-2021 levels. Vertex and another large early renewal accounted for over 70% of the quarter's leasing volume in a still sluggish market.

    The pipeline has shrunk to 4.8 million square feet, its lowest since mid-2019. With only 644,000 additional speculative supply expected through 2028, most metrics indicate a neutral market neither worsening nor improving the oversupply dynamic.

    Despite plateauing at around 16 million square feet, lab R&D space remains eight times larger than existing demand, up from 1.3x pre-COVID. Over 42% of the existing 50 million square feet of lab space was completed in the last three years.