Oxford is set to see its stock of office and laboratory buildings soar over the next few years as developers work to complete more than 700,000 square feet of new space.

CoStar, a commercial real estate research company, said more business and life science space is being built in Oxford, as a percentage of its existing stock, than any other place in the country outside of London.

Oxford already houses around 17 million square feet of existing office space, and this is set to grow by more than 4 per cent in the coming years.

The city is also near the top of the list of UK regions that have witnessed an increase in the demand for offices over the last year.

This increase, twinned with a relatively low vacancy rate, has spurred developers to green-light new construction ventures.

Around six per cent of Oxfordshire’s offices are currently vacant compared to a UK average of more than eight per cent and almost 11 per cent in nearby Swindon.

In the last decade, due to the intensification of traffic-reducing restrictions, city centre locations have become less attractive to developers.

As a result, new developments have primarily occurred in Oxford’s new business and innovation parks.

There is an ongoing construction of around 200,000 square feet at Magdalen College’s Oxford Science Park in Littlemore, a park that currently houses more than 60 companies.

Construction work on The Leggett Building is anticipated to wrap up in the next few months, while other nearby builds are set to conclude by 2025.

The latest phase of construction at Oxford University Begbroke Science Park will be completed soon, offering a 135,000-square-foot lab-fitted office building.

The surge in development projects is a reaction to growing demand from the life science industries.

Oxfordshire lies within the Golden Triangle, alongside Cambridge and London. which is an area of significant economic growth and proficiency in life sciences.

Businesses leased almost 350,000 square feet of office space across Oxfordshire over the last 12 months, almost a third down on the 10-year average as confidence slowly returned after the effects of 2022’s mini-budget.

The new office buildings, many situated around Oxford’s ring road, have the capacity to accommodate nearly 9,000 staff.

Patrick Scanlon, senior director of Market Analytics at CoStar Group, said: "The decision to go ahead with a pipeline of projects of this scale is a testament to the strength of Oxford as a business and life sciences location, particularly at a time when several of the UK’s major office markets are experiencing falling demand".