It’s no secret that occupancies for life science properties have fallen in recent years across the US. In fact, the overall US occupancy rate is currently 89.7% as of 2Q24 and is down 320 basis points from 2Q23. The occupancy rate declines have been largely supply driven as the overall US inventory has grown by over 6% during the past year.
Despite the downward trend, there are several large life science markets that are maintaining high occupancies as of 2Q24. We chose markets with 4+ million square feet of life science space (existing and under construction). Of the 11 markets that meet this criteria, 4 have current occupancy rates above 90%.
Minneapolis is the highest occupied of these markets. At 98.4% in 2Q24, Minneapolis does have construction in the pipeline and has seen recent completions. Worcester is another highly occupied market at 95.6% and has also seen recent completions, strong absorption and also has construction in the pipeline. Los Angeles boasts an occupancy rate of 95.0% as of 2Q24 and Chicago is the lone market of these 4 that is seeing increasing occupancy. Its occupancy rate of 94.8% is up 260 basis points in the past year on the heels of very strong absorption.
| Minneapolis | Worcester | Los Angeles | Chicago | |
| SF Open | 4.4M | 3.8M | 8.8M | 11.0M |
| SF In Progress | 0.4M | 0.2M | 0.2M | 1.0M |
| Occupancy Rate Open Current (%) | 98.4 | 95.6 | 95.0 | 94.8 |
| Occupancy Rate YOY Change BPS | -150 | -440 | -240 | 260 |
| SF Completed TTM Sum | 133,900 | 376,000 | 222,092 | 135,851 |
| SF Absorption YOY | 66,713 | 209,375 | 7,368 | 412,535 |
