More than €600 million in investment property transactions were recorded across the country in the first three months of this year, according to agents JLL.

The agency reported yesterday that much of the activity was driven by a large number of smaller sized deals, with 80 per cent of them in the €1 million to €10 million category. There were two sales greater than €50 million.

Whitewater Shopping Centre, Newbridge, was the largest sale of the quarter, making €180 million when it was purchased by Deka. In Dublin, the Central Quay office at Sir John Rogerson’s Quay was sold to Hibernia Reit for €51.3 million.

In addition to Whitewater Shopping Centre, the other notable provincial sales were Golden Island Shopping Centre in Athlone for €43.5 million and Cashel Town Centre for €6.25 million.

A breakdown of the figures shows that 43 per cent of the investment funds went into retail, 34 per cent into offices and 12 per cent into mixed use.

Hannah Dwyer, head of research at JLL, said that with a strong second quarter forecast at this point in the year, they were predicting that volumes by year end could achieve similar levels to 2015 of about €3 billion.