The Dublin office investment market has now entered the “mature” stage of the present cycle, according to agent BNP Paribas Real Estate.
It forecasts that prime Dublin office rents will rise by 2 per cent in 2017 to stand at €643 per sq m (€59.75 per sq ft) by year end.
"We are tracking Dublin 2 in particular, where new space on Molesworth Street and Hatch Street Upper will test the upside potential for prime rents in Dublin this year," says Joan Henry, head of research at BNP Paribas Real Estate.
Growth in office supply, says Ms Henry, is resulting in a “less rapid decline” in the city’s vacancy rate and has also “put a brake on the rapid pace of rental growth”.
Ms Henry also says that while 2016 had the second-highest commercial property turnover on record at €4.5 billion, it was a unique year of mega deals, like the sale of the Blanchardstown Centre, and transactions of that scale "are not expected to be repeated in 2017".
