WITH THE Irish banking system still in deep trouble, it will come as no surprise to the commercial property market that 71 per cent of the investment spend in the first nine months of the year was accounted for by overseas buyers.

Property consultants CBRE also report today that there were 19 individual transactions of more than €1 million signed since last January. This compares with eight similar sales in 2011. The pick up in business underlines the increased availability of investment product in recent months.

The agency also calculates that investment transactions in the year to the end of September exceeded €270 million. These included last week’s sale by Aviva of two office blocks at AIB bankcentre in Ballsbridge, Dublin 4, to a group of European investors for just over €70 million.

On a broader scale, 68 per cent of the investment spend so far this year has been on office blocks with retail accounting for only 5 per cent of the deals.

Meanwhile agent Savills reports that investment turnover in the first nine months has reached €230 million. Predicting that turnover will reach €500 million by year end, the agency says that the increasing number of transactions is providing price transparency which in turn is expected to lead to further deals being completed.

The outlook for 2013 is seen as more positive with turnover possibly reaching €700 million.

Dealing with the office market, Savills reports that the take-up from January to the end of September reached 85,000sq m (914,931sq ft) and it said that based on current requirements it expects that lettings would be close to 110,000sq m (1.184m sq ft) by year end.

Of particular notice was that 70 per cent of the take-up in Q3 was in prime city centre locations. Prime rents had bottomed out at €290-€310 per sq m (€27-€29 per sq ft) and were expected to “trend upwards” by the end of 2012 and into the first quarter of next year.