Cambridge office market comes roaring back
Demand was led by science and technology occupiers, with advanced research and AI having a growing influence. Limited Grade A supply is maintaining upward pressure on prime rents, the agent adds.
On the downside, however, laboratory take-up remained below the long-term average, although activity strengthened in the second half of the year, supported by international pharma and scaling university spin-outs.
Availability will continue to rise in 2026, says Bidwells. Modest signs of recovery in venture capital funding indicate that the depth of the local innovation pipeline provides a positive platform for market activity.
Prime category A office rents are forecast to hit £70 per sq ft next year.
The tech sector drove leasing, with Arm completing the largest transaction for over three years, while AstraZeneca started development on new office space on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus. With no new ground-up office schemes completing in 2026 and limited refurbishments due, availability will fall as Grade A supply tightens sharply, Bidwells warns.
Interestingly, edge of city locations saw the strongest rental growth, with modest uplifts in the prime city-centre market, while rental growth will extend to out of city prime park locations in 2026.
Lab activity remained constrained with only a modest uplift from 2024. Availability rose sharply as new schemes completed and will rise further in 2026 before easing in 2027. Improving H2 transaction levels and stabilising occupier demand point to higher lab take-up in 2026, supported by plentiful availability and signs of improving VC funding, Bidwells says.
In terms of development, No.1 Journey Campus will deliver a back-to-frame with extension of 27,500 sq ft of Grade A office space by the end of 2026. The next major city centre delivery will be Mill Yard, providing 110,000 sq ft in early 2027.
Other new office schemes committing to site in 2025 included Botanic Place and Dirac Building. The largest speculative office and lab commitment in H2 2025 was at the Wellcome Genome Campus, which will be transformed with new buildings delivering in late 2027.
The first 2026 lab completions have been delivered at CamLIFE, where high-quality fitted space at CamLIFE 1 & 2 is ready for occupation. Over 400,00 sq ft of new lab space will be delivered in 2026, including Merlin Place, the Vitrum Building and 2000 Discovery Drive on Cambridge Biomedical Campus.
The Cambridge office and lab market was quiet in 2025, with investors focused on building out current developments. Prime office and lab yields rose further. Bidwells expects this to mark the peak in the current cycle, with yields falling over the medium term, as the science and tech cluster strengthens and rental growth comes through.
Stand-out deals across the piece saw drone defence group Ro-Ark Aerospace take 9,050 sq ft at 21 Station Road CB1. The largest laboratory deal in H2 2025 was the 13,120 sq ft letting to Japanese pharmaceutical group Nxera at Cori Building on Granta Park. This follows on from the 17,960 sq ft letting to Frontier IP at South Cambridge Science Centre in H1.
Renison joins Bidwells
Bidwells has appointed Jamie Renison as Head of New Business for their Commercial Agency team based in Oxford. He joins from Cushman & Wakefield where he led the Science & Technology team across the Cambridge-London-Oxford Golden Triangle.
With more than 25 years’ experience, he brings an exceptional track record in the office and life sciences markets, having advised on over four million sq ft of transactions, secured one million sq ft of pre-lets and transacted more than 600 acres of land.
His experience spans some of the UK’s most significant science and innovation developments, including The Oxford Science Park, Breakthrough Properties’ Vitrum in Cambridge, and Kadans and Canary Wharf Group’s One North Quay.
