There was a drop in the amount of office space leased in Dublin in the first quarter of the year, new data shows.
Research from commercial real estate company JLL Irelands shows that 31 deals were completed, across 96,000 sq. ft of office space.
The volume of space is down 44% on the previous quarter and is 63% below the five-year quarterly average.
The data shows that the average deal size has fallen to 6,346 sq. ft., a drop of 56% from the pre-pandemic five-year annual average.
Outside of the pandemic years in 2020 and 2021, this is the lowest quarterly volume of space leased since 2013.
However, JLL Ireland said a sharp rise in occupiers reserving space signals that activity will pick up later this year.
800,000 sq. ft of space was reserved, up over 35% on the previous quarter.
This is up 20% on the average quarterly reserved space in 2023.
Vacant space has increased in the market and now stands at 7.3m sq. ft or a vacancy rate of 15.4%, up from 14.9% the previous quarter.
“Demand for sustainable, low carbon space is growing; however, our research shows that supply will struggle to keep pace without increased levels of retrofitting,” said Niall Gargan, Head of Research for JLL Ireland.
“In Dublin, this will become an acute problem by 2027 when the pipeline of new deliverable space will become non-existent, and only 39% of the market will be able to function in a future where high sustainability standards will be the norm,” he added.
Article Source – Office leasing in Dublin falls in first quarter – RTE