Commercial property investment activity remains strong, boosted by a number of high-value asset sales.
Total turnover for the first three months of the year reached more than €609 million across 41 deals.

Nearly €800m of property assets traded in Q3. Because Q3 coincides with holiday season, this was somewhat lower than the Q2 figure. However, it represented a 14% pick-up on Q3 2020 turnover and was the second strongest Q3 for six years. Taking the year-to-date as a whole, €3.52bn of income producing assets have now traded, meaning
that activity over the first nine months has already outstripped the 2020 total.

Total commercial property investment turnover reached €1.5 billion during Q2 2021, marking a 23% increase relative to the previous quarter. This brings total turnover for the first six months of the year to more than €2.7 billion; an impressive result considering Ireland was in a Level 5 lockdown until May.

Ireland has been in lockdown since January 1st, meaning property inspections and overseas travel, along with
construction activity, could not take place. Despite this, more than €1.2 billion was invested in Irish commercial real estate assets during Q1 2021 with overseas investors again predominating.

Occupiers took 43,000 sq m of Dublin office space in Q3. Unsurprisingly, given very sluggish activity in the first half of the year, this represented a 162% uplift on Q2. Perhaps more surprisingly, Q3 2021 was the busiest third quarter since 2018, with take-up levels 20% above the longrun Q3 average.

Total office take-up for Q2 2021 reached 16,485 sq.m. While this is a significant increase on the 4,561 sq.m signed in Q1, it is still very low relative to pre-pandemic levels and represents one of the lowest quarters on record for office take-up in Dublin.

With a full lockdown keeping offices closed and preventing physical property viewings from taking place for all of Q1
2021, it is not surprising that office take-up in Dublin reached a new low of just 4,561 sq.m during the quarter.