Research from commercial real estate agents Savills found that there has been a take-up of 490,000 square feet of office space in Dublin so far this year.
This is a two per cent rise compared to the last quarter of 2010, and at least a doubling of the figures for the same quarter last year.
The research predicted that by the end of the year, the take-up of office space in Dublin could be up to 1.6 million square feet.
Joan Henry, head of research at Savills Ireland, said: “Demand for office space in the first three months of the year has been strong.
“The fall in vacancy rate reflects a combination of factors, in particular, a consistent level of demand for space since the middle of 2010 and a halt in the amount of newly completed space coming to the market, especially Grade A space in prime locations.”
Almost half the take-up has been due to Google’s recent purchase of the Montevetro building, which has over 200,000 square feet of office space.
Roland O’Connell, the Director of Office Agency at Savills Ireland said: “We expect demand for space to remain consistent as existing occupiers look for opportunities to move to better locations on more favourable terms and conditions.”
He added that there is continued demand from multinationals in the IT sector, despite the financial climate. O’Connell also said that demand from the financial sector ‘boded well’ for the future.
Currently, EU and IMF officials are meeting with the Irish government on the state of the country’s economy. The meetings will continue over the next ten days, in order to see whether Ireland is meeting the conditions under which the bailout was set.
Editor’s notes: In 2022, the total office space take-up in Dublin was 2.47 million square feet leased across 191 deals – take-up was 50 per cent more than it was in 2021.
This was despite the slowdown in the Tech sector which made up 24 per cent of the market – its lowest stake since 2008.
The most active sector was Banking and Finance making up 32 per cent of the leased office space volume.
Between 2020 – 2022, Grade A office space made up 80.8 per cent of the take-up which is in contrast to 60.4% between 2010 – 2019 indicating a flight to quality by occupiers.
This is fuelled by employers wishing to retain and entice staff away from working from home, whilst also wishing to achieve greater environmental, social and governance (ESG) credentials.