Lab space just keeps getting hotter and hotter in Boston. We chatted with Encompass Real Estate Strategy director of intelligence Brendan Carroll, who recently released his first quarterly report on the property type, to give us 6 reasons why.

1) Absorption has been positive for five consecutive quarters, during which new occupancy has surged 1.3M SF marketwide.

2) Vacancy dipped from 6.7% to 6.6% quarter-over-quarter, reaching the lowest levels since at least 2000.

3) Greater Boston accounts for 28% of the nation’s total venture capital investment activity in biotechnology-related companies.

4) Novartis opened its 180k SF facility at 22 Windsor St, bringing the group’s Cambridge presence to 1.2M SF.

5) Shire Pharmaceuticals leased the 177k SF former Cubist Pharmaceuticals office in Lexington from now-parent Merck.

6) Bayer announced it will open a Cambridge research operation in the coming years, putting it among the last of the big biopharmas to do so.