Very little office space has been developed in the Irish capital since the onset of the economic crisis, and this lack of new supply has kept demand for Grade A space relatively high in recent months.
Figures from the consultancy firm Savills show that just over 300,000 square feet of Dublin office space was let in the final quarter of 2011 and close to 160,000 sqft in the entire 12-month period.
Overall vacancy rates across the city fell from 23 per cent to 21.6 per cent last year, with no new office developments in the pipeline at the end of the year. A Savills report suggests that demand for prime office space in Dublin is driven largely by location, with central areas of the city consistently the most sought-after.
Looking specifically at the kind of employers that might be keen on renting office space in central Dublin, Savills’ experts point particularly to international telecoms, media and technology companies.
According to the report, the falling but still relatively high vacancy levels across the city’s office space stock look set to keep landlords under pressure to offer potential occupants highly competitive deals in 2012.
Joan Henry, director of research at Savills’ Dublin office, commented: “Letting activity in the Dublin office market showed an increase of 25 per cent compared to 2010 and reached twice the total occupied in 2009.”
The commercial property market in Dublin was hard hit by the 2008 financial crash, while the Irish economy,, in general,, has since struggled to recover and has been further hindered by the crisis across the eurozone.
Editor’s notes: In 2022, office space taken up in Dublin through lettings totalled 233,820 square metres.
In 2023, the total take-up figure was 130,063 square metres, significantly lower than the previous year and just over half of the ten-year average. This reflected a more challenging market brought on by global economic uncertainty.
There were 193 office-letting deals completed in 2023, down from 216 in 2022. However, this was above the five-year annual average of 177.
The Dublin office space vacancy rate was 16.5 per cent in the last quarter of 2023, compared with 13 per cent at the end of 2022.
In May 2026, it was reported that the German investment manager MEAG had purchased the super-prime One Molesworth Street building from the international private equity real estate firm Henderson Park, for circa €110 million.
The circa 90,000 square foot office building stands in a prominent position on the corner of Dawson Street and Molesworth Street in Dublin’s D2 central business district, with offices over ground floor retail space.
At the time of the acquisition, One Molesworth Street was fully let to high-profile occupiers including Barclays, TD Global Finance, Simmons & Simmons, The Ivy Group and Boots.