New Research Note examines FDI and the availability of Dublin Office Space

A Research Note, published today (Thursday, 24 September 2015), examines the take up of space in the Dublin office market by foreign direct investment (FDI) companies. It shows how this has evolved and whether there is enough pipeline stock to meet their growth requirements. The note, by David Duffy (ESRI) and Hannah Dwyer (JLL), finds that close to 70 per cent of the take up of office space in the first half of 2015 was by new and existing FDI, primarily technology-based companies. Commenting on the Note, David Duffy, a co-author, said “The role of cities in attracting FDI is increasingly important. Ireland has a number of key attributes that continue to attract FDI, but office space is also an imperative factor for any business. Our analysis shows that initial FDI requirements for office space are usually small scale but expansion into larger office space can occur in a relatively short time period. As a consequence of the crash there was no office space construction in Dublin between 2011 and 2013, which has caused a reduction in the  choice of available properties”. Hannah Dwyer, Head of Research at JLL continued, "Although office construction has now resumed, the issue for the market is timing. We have seen a number of FDI companies move to Ireland that have expanded rapidly and grown, for example Facebook and Google. Occupiers require availability of space and flexibility in leases to enable them to expand quickly. With city centre vacancy at just 5% and the first buildings due for completion already committed, the reality for expanding occupiers is that they will have to wait 12 months for available space. It is imperative that the future growth of companies, that Ireland has worked so hard to attract in the last number of years, is not constrained by the availability of commercial property.”