Views: Building flexibility helps reshape the Cambridge commercial market

By Phillip Ridoutt, director at Savills:

Savills reports that office take-up in Cambridge reached 263,000 sq ft in H1 2026, representing a 16 per cent increase on H1 2025 and 53 per cent above the five-year half-year average. Technology and pharmaceutical occupiers continued to dominate office take-up, accounting for 93 per cent of activity in H1 2026. 

Whilst science and technology continue to dominate occupier demand in Cambridge, the first half of 2026 highlights a broader shift in the Cambridge commercial property market, and the type of buildings companies are choosing to occupy.  

Occupiers are increasingly selecting buildings based on flexibility, location and functionality, often morphing from their original design concepts as conventional offices or laboratories. 

Office and laboratory space adapting  

One of the clearest trends is the growing willingness of occupiers to adapt buildings to meet changing operational requirements. This is more evident where cost effective, budget solutions are required with a number of examples of office buildings being repurposed. These deals demonstrate that occupiers are placing greater emphasis on a building’s ability to support evolving business needs than its original specification.  

Recent secondary transactions include:  

• Cellular Origins acquired 41,000 sq ft in a secondary office building at Melbourn Science Park, with around one-third to be converted into laboratory and production space 

• 4BaseBio secured 36,488 sq ft in a secondary office building at Bar Hill on the outskirts of Cambridge for laboratory conversion 

• 42T acquired 17,000 sq ft of office accommodation at Cambourne Park with around 50 per cent converted into laboratory space 

Further Grade A transactions include: 

• Gilead leased 27,488 sq ft at Granta Park but will primarily use the purpose-built laboratory space as offices 

• Aveva’s 48,397 sq ft transaction at Cambridge Science Park remained a conventional office occupation despite its science park location 

The trend is also apparent in the new build sector, where recently completed speculative buildings are targeting both office and laboratory sectors. For landlords and developers, adaptable buildings capable of accommodating office, laboratory and production uses are likely to remain the most resilient. 

The Cellular Origins and 4BaseBio transactions demonstrate how existing offices can be successfully repurposed into hybrid office and laboratory environments, whilst Gilead’s occupation shows that flexibility increasingly works in both directions. 

Quality is driving rental performance 

Rental performance is becoming more closely linked to building quality and specification than use class alone. Prime laboratory rents increased to £67.50 per sq ft in Q2 for Grade A fitted space, whilst office fitouts with the same buildings are achieving around £55 per sq ft but with significantly lower initial fitout costs resulting in equivalent returns for investors.  

The pricing gap between modern fitted laboratories and older stock continues to widen, reflecting a two-tier market. Many occupiers have a preference to lease fitted buildings that reduce initial costs and enable faster occupation. A number of recently fitted spaces have been brought to the market in the past six months as companies realise their initial space forecast requirements have changed over the past 18 months. The knock-on effect being there is good availability of both nearly new and new fitted accommodation.  

For investors, developers and landlords, adaptability is becoming one of the defining characteristics of long-term value in the Cambridge commercial property market. 

As widely reported, larger office requirements are primarily driven by the AI sector, and we expect the trend to continue as the demand for high-quality office space outstrips demand for traditional wet labs. Landlords who can adopt high-quality spaces are likely to succeed as 2026 continues. 

Image: Savills