Commerical rents rising nationwide

A new report on the commercial property market shows the recovery is beginning to spread to regional areas outside of Dublin.

According to research carried out by the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland, there was a 29% year-on-year rise in prime office rents in the capital during 2014, driven by strong demand from foreign direct investment companies.

The findings also show that rents for prime commercial properties are expected to rise by 12% in Dublin this year - followed by 9% In Connacht/Ulster and 5% in Munster and Leinster.

“The increase in rents has been largely due to a lack of supply combined with higher levels of demand from domestic and international companies seeking new office space or to expand existing operations as we have seen several of the large Technology, Media and Telecommunications companies do in 2014,” said Eamonn Maguire, Chair of the SCSI Commercial Agency Professional Group.

"Ensuring the availability of development finance for measured speculative development is key and will address the supply issue while also supporting job creation.

"But we have some concerns that companies won’t want to wait around for 18-36 month completion timeframes and that is why it is imperative the Government addresses this issue immediately."

420 chartered surveyors took part in the survey for the report.