The U.S. life science property market appears poised to rebound, according to the executive who runs the practice at brokerage JLL.
Travis McCready, head of life sciences for the Americas markets at the global firm, said the need for lab, research-and-development as well as other biotech space is showing signs of increasing. The sector had surged early in the pandemic then slowed dramatically as capital markets tightened and venture capitalists looked elsewhere to make investments.
"We've scraped the bottom," McCready said in an interview Tuesday at the fall meeting of real estate and land use research organization ULI in Las Vegas. "We're starting to see indications that demand is returning."
With the recent addition of 3 million square feet of life science space to the sublease market, the sector's overall availability is 30% and rents are down 9%, according to JLL's recently released 2024 Life Sciences Real Estate Perspective and Cluster Analysis.
Watch the video to find out how McCready thinks the the Federal Reserve's recent interest rate cut and new venture capital interest in the life science industry will affect the property market.