Green REIT, Ireland's first property investment trust, rose in its first day of trading in Dublin today on expectations that the company will benefit from a recovery in the property market.

Shares in Green REIT, currently a cash shell after raising €310 million last week in a share placement, climbed as much as 9 per cent in early trading. It was 7 per cent higher at €1.07 at 8.22am, with 641,600 shares having exchanged hands.

“Essentially, Green REIT is a play on a property recovery in the Irish economy and management expertise to identify and extract value from this recovery,” said Dermot O’Leary, chief economist at Dublin-based Goodbody Stockbrokers, in a note.

Green REIT aims to increase the size of its fund by borrowing the equivalent of 35 per cent of its equity and focus on buying commercial real estate in Dublin, Stephen Vernon, a non-executive director, said yesterday.

Some €610 million of Irish property investment deals were struck in the first half of this year, exceeding the total recorded for 2012, Savills said this month.

“The Dublin commercial property market has attracted significant interest from international investors over the past twelve months,” Mr O’Leary said.

Bloomberg