Yahoo Finance London Brexit fears see Asian property investors choose Dublin
Brexit has turned Asian property investors off London. Now, they’re reappearing in Dublin.
For the first time ever, Asian investors accounted for three of the top five investments in office buildings in the Irish capital in 2018, according to estate agents Knight Frank.
This included the biggest deal, the €176m (£158m) sale of one of the city’s largest office developments to Hong Kong-based CK Properties Ltd.
Across the board, analysts have been suggesting that London would see a Brexit-related dent to its property market. Earlier this year, a report from Savills indicated that Asian-based investors’ interest in the capital had tailed off, falling behind the level of demand among UK-based buyers.
It is of course no secret that many of the UK’s large financial services firms have decided to move some of their operations from London to elsewhere in Europe because of concerns over Brexit.
Dublin has been a big winner in this respect, and now it seems to be benefitting from top-line investment, too.
READ MORE: Barclays seeks court approval to move £224bn assets to Ireland
According to Knight Frank, when all of the year’s transactions are completed, the overall value of commercial property deals will have jumped from €2.5bn (£2.25bn) in 2017 to €3.5bn (£3.15) in 2018.
The office market accounted for the biggest share of transactions, something the firm said was due to strong occupier demand and competitive pricing compared to other European capitals.
Around 25% of Brexit-related relocation announcements between June 2016 and September 2018 involved moves to Dublin, according to Knight Frank — putting the city ahead of Luxembourg, Paris and Frankfurt.
Bank of America and Barclays, which has rented prime city-centre real estate a stone’s throw from Ireland’s parliament, are two high-profile banks that chose Dublin for their post-Brexit European Union hubs.
But Dublin’s real estate market has also long benefitted from its thriving technology district, known as Silicon Docks.
In May, Google announced it would spend €300m on the purchase and redevelopment of a series of warehouses in the district, dramatically expanding its existing European headquarters.
And Facebook, which also has its European headquarters in Dublin, announced it was set to quadruple its office space in the city, with room for 5,000 extra staff, by signing a long-term lease for a new 14-acre campus.
READ MORE: Facebook to quadruple Dublin office space, with room for 5,000 extra staff
Knight Frank’s report also points to a big increase in Dublin’s private rental market, with several global institutional investors spending upwards of €1bn (£899m) in the sector.
Favourable long-term demographics, rising rents, and new investment-grade properties coming on stream are three of the main factors that encouraged the growth, the report says.
