Several years of strong, sustainable growth, rising employment and wages, and moderate inflation underpin Ireland’s healthy economy with 2019 set to be the sixth consecutive year the country records the euro area's highest GDP growth. Against this backdrop, the past year has been characterised by record levels of investment in Irish real estate.

Strong levels of investment in Irish commercial property continued during Q3 2019 with turnover again reaching €1.2 billion. This represents an increase of 94% relative to the same period in 2018 and brings total turnover for the first nine months of the year to over €3 billion.

Investment activity accelerated in the second quarter of 2019 with €1.2 billion invested in Irish commercial property. This marks the strongest quarterly turnover since Q4 2016 and brings total turnover for the first half of the year to more than €1.85 billion.

2019 was another exceptional year for the Dublin office market with total take-up reaching close to 310,000 sq.m by year-end. This makes 2019 the third strongest year on record with takeup again well exceeding the ten-year average.

The Dublin office market continues to perform well with take-up reaching 34,933 sq.m during Q3 2019 across 39 deals. This brings take-up for the first nine months of the year to 198,057 sq.m which is just 5% below the corresponding period in 2018.

Office take-up in Dublin was relatively low in Q2 with just under 30,000 sq.m leased across 50 transactions.

Total office take-up reached 133,306 sq m across 57 deals in Q1 2019 marking the third strongest quarter on record.

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.