Demand for offices in Dublin is expected to pick up later in the year driven largely by demand from the State after a slow start that saw take-up drop sharply in the first three months of 2023.
New figures published by Savills Ireland on Monday, indicate that some 266,000 sq ft was taken up in the first quarter of 2023 across 38 separate deals. This is down from the first quarter of 2022 when there was 478,000 sq ft over slightly more than 40 deals, mostly driven by the lifting of the remaining Covid-related public health restrictions in the early part of last year.
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The property agent said that the city centre was the most popular location for new occupiers between January and the end of last month, accounting for 66 per cent of take-up across 24 deals.
Despite the well-publicised headwinds that the global tech sector has faced this year, tech companies accounted for the majority (57 per cent) of take-up in the quarter.
Savills said that the largest letting of the quarter was New York-headquartered cloud computing company DataDog’s relocation from City Quay to Dockland Central, where it took 44,000 sq ft across two buildings. The second largest deal was Pinterest’s take up of 28,000 sq ft at 60 Dawson Street followed by telecoms equipment company Virtual Access’s deal for 25,500 sq ft at Parkwest.
Taken together, these three deals accounted for 36 per cent of total activity in the Dublin market in the first quarter.
Although both take-up and the number of deals transacted in the early months of 2023 are down sharply from last year, Savills said it expects a pickup in the second half of the year.
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“Overall, we expect the first half of 2023 to be characterised by relatively softer activity following last year’s absorption of pandemic-related pent-up demand,” said Andrew Cunningham, director of office agency at Savills Ireland.
“However, the State is likely to support demand in the year ahead as deadlines for its ESG agenda and carbon emissions reductions continue to approach.”
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Mr Cunningham added that the EU’s Energy Performance of Buildings Directive – aimed at ensuring that all new buildings across the bloc produce zero emissions from 2028 on – will require “both the public and private sectors to accelerate their sustainability efforts, necessitating further activity in the market”.
Citing figures produced by the Office of Public Works last year, Savills said that just one of the 238 buildings occupied by Irish Government departments had received an A rating for energy efficiency.
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The agent has previously highlighted the ongoing “flight to quality” among occupiers to newer, more energy-efficient buildings in and around the capital’s central business district, a trend that is expected to accelerate as emissions targets become a greater focus for businesses and Government bodies.
