Office market in Dublin picks up

DUBLIN’S office market has shown signs of a pick-up since the low point of the start of this year – and the trend is towards a larger number of small lettings.

However, prime rents are now back 40% from peak, likely to fall slightly more, and yields are stabilising around 7.5%. Vacancy in the capital’s office stock stands at a whopping 750,000sq m (8,072,933sq ft) or 22% of total stock, says international property agency CBRE. It adds that most of the empty available stock is of poor quality, mostly built before 2000.

The second and third quarters of 2009 have more than doubled the low point of Q1, when a mere 10,000sq m of space was transacted.