More than a quarter of Oxfordshire’s laboratory space stood empty at the end of last year

More than a quarter of Oxfordshire’s laboratory space stood empty at the end of last year with the vacancy rate set to rise over the next few months as more schemes complete, according to a new report.

Research by Bidwells into the county’s life sciences market found the vacancy rate for laboratories was 27% amid “subdued” market conditions caused partly by a collapse in venture capital funding for start-ups.

Oxfordshire is one of three nodes with London and Cambridgeshire in southern England’s “Golden Triangle”, the largest concentration of life sciences space in Europe and a key centre of the sector’s boom over the past five years.

But the report found higher cost of debt caused by the UK’s sustained higher interest rates, which the Bank of England held at 3.75% this month, had stemmed investment in small and medium-sized laboratory occupiers.

While the market recorded take-up of 620,000sq ft in 2025, almost two thirds of this came from US research giant the Ellison Institute, which purchased the 450,000sq ft Daubney Project at Oxford Science Park with work set to be carried out by Mace.

Bidwells said a “two-tier pattern” had emerged over the course of the year with larger occupiers targeting prime space while smaller firms with less available funds sought out cheaper space within the county.

Duncan May, the firm’s partner for laboratory and offices, said 2025 had been a “mixed year” with demand increasingly polarised between larger and smaller occupiers.

“Funding conditions were tighter, decision-making slowed and, away from a small number of very large commitments, the occupational market was more selective than the headline take-up figure might suggest,” May said.

But he added that the early months of 2026 had seen a “clear increase” in enquiries suggesting a gradual return of confidence ahead of an expected cut in the Bank of England’s interest rate later this year.

Meanwhile,  Cambridgeshire’s market was more successful in 2025 with a combined office and laboratory vacancy rate of 14% and the highest take-up of office floorspace since 2021, 84% of which was occupied by science and tech companies.