Knight Frank hosts Life Sciences Study Tour in the UK

Knight Frank Australia’s Healthcare & Life Sciences team recently organized a week-long Life Sciences Study Tour to the UK’s ‘Golden Triangle’. This provided attendees with a firsthand look into the sector's growth and development with a focus on adapting these insights for application in the Australian market.

The tour, attended by 11 industry professionals from Australia, Singapore and Shanghai, aimed to offer a comprehensive understanding of a mature Life Sciences landscape, drawing insights from leading experts and benchmarking against the UK’s renowned institutions and innovation precincts.

Among the Knight Frank delegates were Sam Biggins, National Head of Healthcare and Life Sciences in Australia; Lawson Katiza, Life Sciences, Healthcare, and Consulting expert from Queensland; Emma Goodford, Department Head, Life Sciences and Innovation, United Kingdom; Iain Keys, Partner, Office Head, Cambridge and Sarah Clark, Associate Director, National Service Line Marketing in Australia.

The Golden Triangle, encompassing London, Oxford, and Cambridge, is a powerhouse in the UK’s life sciences sector and has attracted 80% of the UK’s venture capital funding in this field. As of Q1 2024, it boasted 260,000sq m of dedicated life sciences facilities under construction and approximately 16,000sq m of current laboratory leasing activity. The sector contributed over £8.4bn annually to the UK economy and employed more than 24,000 professionals.

Life sciences, innovation, and healthcare assets include specialised research laboratories, coworking spaces, (start-up) incubator facilities and hospitals at a base level, however more specialised facilities include cleanrooms, biotech and medtech manufacturing and particle physics testing facilities. These assets are critical for advancing medical research, fostering technological innovation, and delivering healthcare services.

Participants were exposed to a range of existing and emerging facilities across London, Cambridge, Stevenage, and Oxford, delving into behind-the-scenes presentations and networking sessions. This included White City (Imperial College), Argent and Kings Cross Knowledge Quarter, Francis Crick Institute, QMBio, Cambridge Science Park (Granta Park), Cambridge Biomed Campus, Tuspark, Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst, Stevenage Catapult, ARC Harwell, Victoria House, and Canary Wharf (Kadans).

The study tour enabled a deep dive into the key drivers of success in more mature life science ecosystems, in particular the commercialisation and translation of research. It also empowered attendees by identifying best practices for establishing and growing leading life sciences and innovation precincts.

The Life Sciences sector in Australia is still in its emergent stages compared to global counterparts, such as the UK, USA, and Asia, where there is a greater depth of research talent, start-ups, investment-grade assets, venture capital and more mature ecosystems with robust governance systems to drive research growth. Investors are increasingly diversifying into alternative sectors, with Life Sciences and Healthcare real estate emerging as sought-after assets driven by demographic trends and rising demand for services.

Insights gleaned from the Study Tour highlighted the pivotal role of government initiatives, strategic policies and substantial investments in shaping the UK Life Sciences ecosystem. Additionally, the tour underscored the strong involvement of universities, including collaborative ventures with the private sector, in driving sector growth.

Another key takeaway from the tour was the interconnected nature of the Life Sciences sector with wider technology and innovation streams, emphasizing the importance of strategic curation and planning in precinct development.
Facilities visited were characterised by the prevalence of joint ventures between developers and researchers, mainly fuelled by speculative development to catalyse emerging precincts or attract larger research tenants. Proximity to tertiary or quaternary healthcare facilities, or health-related research was another common element of the larger, established precincts.

For example, rents in the well-curated life science assets are commanding a 20-25% premium over commercial office, and the sector is characterised by long term ‘sticky’ tenants attracted by the collaborative environment and retained through heavy fitout and operational infrastructure investment, which is less translocatable compared to other sectors.

For more information on the key learnings from Knight Frank’s Life Sciences UK Study Tour please contact Sam Biggins on 0410 979 075 or Lawson Katiza on 0403 856 651.