Dublin Retail Rents Drop 15% in 12 Months
Dublin retail rents suffered the second sharpest fall in Europe in the last 12 months and was one of only five European cities to see its high streets suffer rental falls while 19 others notched up retail rent increases. Nevertheless, despite the 15% drop, Dublin high street rents at €2,389 per sqm are eighteenth highest out of the 37 cities surveyed.
Only the Romanian capital Bucharest suffered a sharper high street rental fall with a drop of 16.7% to €600 per sqm, according to the survey by international estate agents Cushman and Wakefield, of which Lisney is the Irish associate.
In contrast, Dublin logistics and warehouse rents saw the second sharpest rise – up 8.3% to €65 
per sqm, beaten only by the 10% rise to €139 per sqm in Oslo.
Dublin office rents saw the seventh sharpest rise by 5.2% to €323 per sqm, with Germany’s Dusseldorf leading the way with a 10.4% rise to €318 per sqm.
Only 16 of the 37 cities saw office rents increasing during the period. Nevertheless prime Dublin office rents are ranked among the least expensive in Europe at 22 in the league.
Despite the fall in rents, Dublin high street yields remained unchanged at 6.6%. Paris lead the way with high street rents of €13,255 per sqm and an increase of 38.5%.
London is second with a rent of €8,667 per sq m and an increase of 15.6%. In 
contrast Edinburgh saw a 5% drop in its rents to €1,641 per sq m which is still slightly ahead of the €1,601 per sq m recorded in both Manchester and Birmingham.
The second quarter of this year saw European commercial real estate investment transactions increase 13% to €31.1 billion according to CBRE and this was the third successive quarter of strong activity.
Hannah Dwyer of Jones Lang LaSalle is forecasting that Irish investment volumes for 2013 will total €1.25 -€1.5billion on the back of over €6bn of capital looking to invest in Ireland.
“The Green REIT looks to capitalise on this recovery and projects an overall capital and income return of 10 to 15% per annum once it is fully operational. Investors obviously see significant recovery in Dublin’s prime markets in the short-medium term,” she adds.
Let us at Acquaint know how you have been affected.