Commercial properties valued at over €470 million were transacted in the first three months of 2017, according to the latest figures compiled by Stephen Conway of Colliers International. The comparative figure in 2016 was €738 million.
More than 70 per cent of the latest spend was in Dublin and one transaction exceeded €100 million. In this instance Irish Life forward funded the planned new headquarters for Grant Thornton at City Quay at a cost of €136 million.
Despite the slow start to this year, Conway forecast that the turnover this year should be in the region of €3 billion.
Meanwhile, Hannah Dwyer, head of research at JLL, said that like Q1 in 2016, the first three months of this year had started relatively slowly with limited supply of quality product coming to the market.
Although €470 million was a steady start to the year, a number of these transactions, particularly the larger ones, were concluding towards the end of last year.
She said demand continues to be steady from both domestic and overseas purchasers but some were being more selective, depending on the investor type. “We are continuing to see new entrants to the market which is positive,” she said.
“The depth of bidding on some transactions is critically dependent on vendor price aspirations with a noticeable shallowing of demand where the property is regarded as overpriced.”
