​​Boston BioBeat April 2024 ​

For the sixth consecutive quarter, availability rates continued to rise, reaching an all-time high of 27.3%—up 260 basis points (bps) since year-end 2023. Availability rates in all submarkets continued to climb, except in the Urban Core, which posted a 29.9% availability rate, down from 31.2% in Q4 2023. 

Construction completions nearly doubled year-over-year (YOY), as 2.0 million square feet (msf) of new inventory was added to the market at nearly 50% preleased.  

Overall average asking rents decreased modestly from the previous market-high of $94.20 per square foot (psf), down to $93.88 psf. Despite the slight drop this quarter, the market still posted an increase of $19.84 psf YOY. The Cambridge submarket reported the highest rents of the quarter, averaging $109.29 psf, whereas the 495 Belt trailed the furthest behind at $62.28 psf.  

Leasing activity in the Greater Boston life sciences market dropped 19.9% compared to Q4 2023, with only 277,443 sf leased in Q1 2024 due to two submarkets recording no leases. Two of the top four key leases in the quarter were renewals, as tenants choose to stay in their current space.  

Despite low new leasing activity, the market still reported positive absorption of 407,023 sf, more than doubling YOY.