The swift development of vaccines during the pandemic has shone an even brighter light on the importance of the life sciences industry amid the already long-term, growing needs of ageing populations.

Occupiers and real estate investors have taken notice in recent years, with 2020 seeing 17.4 percent year-over-year growth in life sciences office leasing in Asia Pacific, underpinned by organic expansion and flight-to-quality relocations — led by markets such as Shanghai, Beijing, Tokyo and India’s Bangalore and Hyderabad — compared with a 25 percent decline in the overall Asia Pacific leasing market, according to CBRE Research’s recent A New Era of Life Sciences Growth: Opportunities for Occupiers and Investors report.

Despite Asia Pacific’s large market size, health expenditure in the region was half that in the United States (US$3,475 billion) in 2018, notes the report. While mature markets such as Japan and Australia spend about 10 percent of their