Prime office rents in Dublin to rise

Intensifying competition for prime Dublin office space is likely to push up commercial rents in the near-term, according to international property consultants Jones Lang LaSalle.

In its latest review of the capital’s office market, JLL Ireland said yesterday that take-up of corporate premises during the first half of 2014 was actually down by 43% on the same period last year.

However, the second quarter of the year saw a 34% jump on the first three months of the year with 20 deals taking up a fresh 361,831sq ft of space.

JLL Ireland’s head of research, Hannah Dwyer said that the most recent quarterly trend is a better indicator of activity than the half-year figure.

“Although take-up is down in the first six months of the year, we are aware of a number of deals that are close to signing that did not complete in time for the second quarter. In addition, there were a number of significant industrial land purchases and investment transactions in the sector this quarter.

JLL said that a tightening of supply of prime office space in core locations around the capital remains a live issue, with limited choice available for occupiers’ impacting on overall take-up activity levels.

“As demand continues to tighten, it is starting to trigger the need for new supply to the market. We are getting to the stage where some occupiers cannot find the space that they are looking for and as a result, they are forced to either take secondary quality or secondary locations.

“In response to supply issues, we have started to see evidence of very early signs of development. This includes land purchases and planning applications submitted for new facilities in the last three months,” according to Nigel Healy, director of industrial property.