Boston’s office market is still working through the fallout from a life sciences cooldown: Overall vacancy rose to 17.1% in April — a 470-basis-point (bps) increase year-over-year — according to the latest CommercialEdge office report.

For years, life sciences helped prop up office demand. But, after an extended run of aggressive growth, developers pulled back sharply: By late 2024, vacancy in the sector alone had reached nearly 27%. Now, many of the projects that broke ground during the post-2020 boom are delivering into a softer leasing environment.

More recently, the announcement of federal spending cuts has introduced a new layer of uncertainty. This is particularly notable for Boston, which led the nation in funding from the National Institutes of Health last year with $3.46 billion, according to Colliers.

That said, venture capital for life sciences in the metro area has held up relatively well: Boston drew between $7.5 billion and $8.4 billion in life sciences funding last year, just behind the Bay Area. The region also remains home to the largest life sciences workforce in the U.S. Still, with fewer pre-leased projects and a more cautious tenant pool, leasing has slowed — especially for lab-ready space.

Pricing is also something to watch. One closely watched deal was the May sale of the Burlington BioCenter in Greater Boston. The 109,000-square-foot lab and office facility sold to Northeastern University for $33 million, down sharply from the $103 million it traded for in 2022. Despite being a fully built-out life sciences property with recent leases in place, the building saw multiple tenant move-outs — including Ultivue and CANbridge — amid the slowdown. Northeastern plans to fold the asset into its homeland security and defense research operations at its Burlington campus.

MetLife sold the Burlington BioCenter at 4 Burlington Woods, MA., for roughly one-third of what it paid in 2022.

However, recent figures from CommercialEgde show Boston office is posting premium sale prices for office assets at $255 per square foot — the highest among the country’s major markets. Specifically, Boston posted $543 million in office transactions year-to-date, more than doubling its volume from April 2024.

Boston office also has the largest active construction pipeline in the country with 5.5 million square feet underway.

Finally, asking rents averaged $46.06 per square foot — still well above the $33 national average despite a modest year-over-year drop — in line with other major Northeast markets.