Dublin Office Market Q2 2020 Summary
- Knowledge workers have been the least impacted segment of the labour market so far
- Just 83,000 sq ft transacted in Q2, the largest deal being 3M’s letting of 23,900 sq ft at 2 Cumberland Place
- 127,000 sq ft of newly completed office stock was added in Q2 as lockdown hit new supply
- €257.5 million worth of investments transacted in Q2, driven by the purchase of Bishop’s Square by GLL from Hines for €183.0 million
- While functioning better than many expected, working from home is a poor substitute for the office workplace.
Overview:
While investment volumes remained resilient in Q2, Covid-19 had a large negative impact on take-up levels. With just 83,000 sq ft transacting.
ECONOMY: The Covid-19 pandemic had an unprecedented impact on the domestic and international economy in Q2. Extraordinary public health measures have severely curtailed economic activity. With the economy now opening up on a phased basis, the path of economic growth will largely depend on the timeline to a vaccine and how close to capacity the economy can operate under social distancing restrictions until that goal is achieved.
Regarding the timeline for the former, expectations are highly optimistic in this respect with 177 vaccines currently in development. Of these 37 are already in human trials – with capital markets pricing-in the development of one by Q1 2021.
The labour market impact of the pandemic has been considerable so far. The European Commission’s Summer Economic Forecast projects Ireland’s unemployment rate to rise to 7.5% this year, before reverting to pre-Covid levels by the end of 2021. The worst affected sector so far has been the Accommodation and Food Services sector, with 83% of those employed receiving
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