THERE ARE positive signs that the worst of the downturn is over for the Dublin office market, with new supply coming to a virtual standstill this year, according to a mid-year report from Dublin estate agency HWBC.
The agency said the overall vacancy rate at 23.8 per cent was still rising but at a much slower rate as the last of the speculative new developments reach completion. There were now only three schemes under construction in the city, at Montevetro on Barrow Street (19,045sq m/204,998sq ft); 5 Grand Canal Square in the south docks (11,200sq m/120,555sq ft) and TCD on Pearse Street.
HWBC said a recovery at the top end of the market may happen quicker than many people anticipated, once demand levels recover and move closer to long term averages. For this year, the total take-up is expected to be around 100,000sq m (1,076,390sq ft), well ahead of last year but still well short of the long term averages of 170,000sq m (1,829,863sq ft) and the peak figure of 280,000sq m (3,013,892sq ft) in 2007.
Meanwhile, CB Richard Ellis reports that more than 40 Irish hotels are now in receivership, equating to over 4,000 bedrooms or almost 7 per cent of the national hotel bedroom stock.
With loans of 35 Irish hotels and a further 13 outside of the country having been acquired by NAMA, some hotel sales are expected over the coming months. The trend of the past two years was to put management contracts in place regardless of the hotel’s future trading potential.
