Most major European cities have seen office space rental levels decrease in recent months, but the Irish capital has been able to keep its commercial property markets moving while others have stagnated, local CBRE experts suggest.
The cost of renting prime office space in Dublin has been flat for some time, but a number of significant deals have been agreed, and key tenants, including search engine giant Google, have continued to expand their presence in the city.
In all, 44 office letting deals were agreed in Dublin during the third quarter of this year, with vacancy rates slightly down on the previous quarter, Inside Ireland reports.
Willie Dowling from CBRE is quoted as saying: “Despite the continuing difficulties in the economy, letting activity continued at healthy levels in Q3 and the market remains on track to record approximately 125,000 square metres of take-up by year’s end.”
This level of take-up is higher than the forecasts offered by analysts at the beginning of the year and vacancy rates are now expected to drop slightly going into 2011.
Earlier this week, CBRE reported that demand for office space to rent in central London is leading the recovery of the wider commercial property industry around the UK.
Editor’s notes: In 2023, it was reported that there were 216 office lettings in 2022, which was a larger number than in 2021 (162) and 2020 (106).
The largest office letting was the pre-let deal in which CITI Group acquired 300,000 square feet at the planned Waterfront South Central scheme in Dublin’s North Docks.
Total annual take-up by office lettings was 2.6 million square feet, which was in line with the 10-year average; however, uncertainty over geopolitical events and the tech sector, which was responsible for a good proportion of deals in recent years, has led to concerns that 2023’s take-up total will be lower than the previous year.
In 2026, it was reported that 2025’s full‑year take‑up by way of office lettings reached 2.6 million square feet, an increase of 14.5 per cent on the previous year and above the long‑term average for the first time since before the pandemic.
This number had been boosted by a deal in April 2025 in which the AI platform Workday acquired 416,000 square feet at the College Square development on a pre-let basis. This deal was notable as Europe’s largest office deal since the pandemic.