Continued demand for office space, transforming retail environments and growth of Private Rental Schemes: The Lisney Outlook 2019
8th January 2019
In spite of the uncertainty of Brexit, 2019 will be another strong performing year for the Irish property sector.
While residential property, supply, demand and prices, continue to feature across the Irish news channels, prevalent too will be residential lettings with the continued rise of the professional landlord, an under supply of office accommodation and the changing face of the Irish retail environment.
Offices
2018 was a record-breaking year in the Dublin office market with take-up at an all-time high of 360,000 sqm. 54% of which was tech dominated with 80% located in Dublin City Centre.
However, this trend is unlikely to continue in 2019, not due to lack of demand but because of lack of supply.
With 85,700 sqm of office space due for completion this year and much of this is already spoken for, this lack of supply is likely to be one of the biggest issues this year.
Another strong feature of the 2019 market will be the continued growth of the Serviced Office sector which currently equates to 135k sqm of office stock in the Dublin region. With demand coming from both the traditional SME sector as well as large global firms looking for a flexible accommodation solution when entering the Irish market before taking permanent space, this part of the market is here to stay.
Residential Lettings
Difficulties across the Irish and UK retail market are well known. With a more savvy and fickle consumer, driven by experience than by products, this sector has been forced to shift its focus to a more experimental position, supported by a robust omni-channel offer. This has given rise to the evolution of the influence of social media on consumer purchasing behaviour.
Feeding into the demand for range, speed and flexibility, pop-ups allow for developing brands to test the market and reach their audience in a physical way before commiting to a longer-term lease, while for the landlords, pop-ups will help drive footfall and create a point of difference.
Says Duncan Lyster, Managing Director, Lisney, ‘Despite the uncertainty of Brexit and how it is likely to affect the Irish property market, Lisney are well placed and sufficiently agile to respond swiftly and positively to this new economic environment.’