Deceptive office figures

IT companies accounted for 49 per cent of Dublin office lettings in the first quarter of this year when 64,500 sq m (694,265 sq ft) of space was transacted, according to Lisney’s quarterly office report.

The three largest deals were completed by Yahoo (6,890 sq m in the Point Village); Amazon (6,500 sq m in Burlington Plaza) and Dropbox (5,100sq m in Park Place).

With some deals taking almost a year to wrap up, the trend may dissipate as supply dwindles and tenants come under pressure to complete transactions or risk losing the property to another tenant, Lisney says.

The agency estimates that the overall vacancy rate in Dublin fell to 16.9 per cent from 18.8 per cent at the end of 2013. The city centre vacancy rate at 14.6 per cent seemed relatively high but does not take into account the large amount of vacant obsolete stock.

Lisney predicts that landlords with prime city centre offices will start to seek 10-year leases without break options rather than the five-year leases that were commonplace during the downturn. The agency says city centre rents rose 5.9 per cent in the first three months of the year on top of a 15.3 per cent rise in rents during 2013.