There is a flourishing but often overlooked market in second-hand laboratory equipment across Europe—one with the potential to reduce some of the investment risk currently troubling landlords, lenders, and equity investors in the life sciences property sector. When lease renewal prospects are a concern, the existence of an active market for used lab equipment needs to be factored in.
The investment challenge in life sciences real estate
Life sciences property has drawn growing interest from institutional investors, developers, and landlords. Laboratories require highly specialised infrastructure such as fume hoods, sterilisation units, and precision analytical instruments.
These fit-outs are costly and may be tailored to the operational needs of a single tenant or small group of tenants. This specificity poses a risk: if a tenant vacates or fails to renew their lease, the landlord may be left with expensive, seemingly illiquid fixtures and equipment. Industry observers note that this uncertainty can dampen investment appetite.
The overlooked value in second-hand scientific equipment
What many real estate professionals may not realise is that a substantial and well-organised market exists for second-hand laboratory equipment. While certain built-in systems are site-specific, a large share of scientific assets—from spectrometers to free-standing fume cupboards—is routinely traded across Europe’s leading research centres, diagnostic labs, and industrial facilities.
This is no informal sideline. Europe’s secondary science equipment market is supported by professional auctioneers, brokers, refurbishers, and online platforms that help sellers recover value from surplus or decommissioned assets. This liquidity offers landlords an exit route for costly equipment—if not a full one, then certainly preferable to disposal.
Key players in the European market
Prominent participants include:
- Equipnet
- Lab Merchant
- Lab World Group
- Labexchange
- Laborkampagne.de
- Laboreinkauf.de
- Labstribute
- Labstuff.eu
- LabX
- Machineseeker
- Netbid
- Profcontrol.de
- S-A-LE.nl
- Surplus Solutions
A leading example is Maynards Europe, a specialist in asset recovery and auction services for surplus laboratory equipment. Its auctions frequently include equipment sourced from recently closed or restructured research and manufacturing sites across Europe. Working with partners, the company also offers remediation, decommissioning and dismantling of machinery, and site clearance for alternative use where required.
