New €100M-Plus Deals Hint At Tipping Point For Dublin Office Market
After a long fallow period, Dublin's office investment market can spy a tipping point.
Two high-profile transactions above €100M suggest that institutional buyers are once again willing to back Ireland's workplace sector — but only for the best assets.
It’s a picture mirrored in London. Leasing activity in the UK capital has continued to be driven by demand for Grade A office space, which accounted for 92% of Q1 takeup, according to Savills, with demand predominantly focused on BREEAM-rated Excellent and Outstanding buildings, together representing over half of takeup.
That has pushed up rents, which has attracted investors — with private equity and bold core buyers at the head of the queue. And the prospect of the same phenomenon in the Irish capital is now starting to tempt buyers.
With Dublin’s development pipeline slowing to a trickle, Grade A assets are in short supply, and the clearest signal yet that investors are picking up the pace to target available stock came in late May when Munich Re's asset management arm, MEAG, acquired One Molesworth Street in Dublin's traditional central business district for €110M from Henderson Park, reflecting a net initial yield close to the guide price of 4.8%.
The seven-storey mixed-use building comprises nearly 90K SF of office and retail space and is home to tenants including Barclays, TD Global Finance, Simmons & Simmons and the Banking & Payments Federation of Ireland. The ground floor is occupied by a mix of retail and leisure operators including The Ivy Group, Boots, Six by Nico and Barry's Bootcamp.
“We remain convinced of the quality of the Dublin office market, particularly against the backdrop of declining vacancy rates," MEAG Head of Real Estate Transactions Katrin Hupfauer told Bisnow. "As a core investor, our focus continues to be on core assets with a very high fit-out standard in prime central locations.”
The deal stands out not just for its scale but also because it demonstrates that long-term institutional capital is once again prepared to target prime Dublin offices, provided assets offer strong tenant covenants, sustainable income streams and high-quality locations.
An even larger transaction is set to follow. Private equity giant Bain Capital has secured exclusivity to acquire 5 Hanover Quay in Dublin's South Docks from German fund manager Union Investment for around €135M.
The 160K SF waterfront office building, completed in 2018, is leased to DocuSign and Aptiv Global Operations. The pricing would represent a substantial discount to the €190M that Union Investment paid for the property in 2019 at a 4.2% net initial yield. At the mooted acquisition price, the yield would move closer to 6%, illustrating the repricing that has occurred across European office markets.
Lugus Capital is partnering with Bain on the acquisition, and, if completed, the deal would mark a significant return to European office investing for Bain, which alongside Revcap acquired the Marignan office building in Paris for more than €400M earlier this year.
The transactions come as agents report improving sentiment in Dublin's office investment market, as buyers return for well-let buildings capable of delivering stable income and with future rental growth prospects.
“There was a lot of international bidding for One Molesworth and also a couple of domestic private investors, and the eventual deal was the first above €100M since 2021, so it was very significant,” JLL Ireland CEO John Moran said.
“At Hanover Quay, we again saw core-plus and value-add money bidding for the property and an eventual price of around €130M or so, significantly ahead of the more typical €70M lot sizes we’ve seen trading in recent years. What we haven’t tested yet is the appetite for larger plots of, say, €200M and whether the same interest exists,” he added.
French investors have also been active. Iroko Zen recently expanded its Irish portfolio with the €23M acquisition of Macken House in Dublin's International Financial Services Centre. The six-storey, 51K SF office building is fully let and generates approximately €2M in annual rental income. In March, French investor Arkéa REIM acquired Hawthorn House at Plassey Innovation Campus in Limerick for more than €16M on behalf of its SCPI Transitions Europe fund.
“Beyond the current real estate cycle, we believe Dublin benefits from particularly strong structural growth drivers," Arkéa Real Estate Head of Investments and Business Development Julien Michel told Bisnow.
It has one of the fastest-growing populations and economies in Europe, a highly skilled workforce, the presence of numerous multinational companies and Ireland’s continued attractiveness for international investment, Michel said.
"These support the depth of the occupier market and reinforce our confidence in the best-positioned office assets.”
He also pointed to several years of value correction, meaning the market now offers attractive entry points for investors.
“We continue to observe demand concentrated on the highest-quality buildings and locations, while yield levels have become significantly more attractive than they were a few years ago. This combination of strong fundamentals and market repricing creates what we believe is a particularly compelling investment environment,” he added.
Michel said Arkéa’s focus is on the quality of the underlying real estate fundamentals rather than on a strict definition of what constitutes a prime asset, and the company’s approach is to identify assets offering attractive entry pricing while retaining what he describes as the key characteristics of a high-quality, long-term investment, including an excellent microlocation, resilient rental income, controlled technical risk and strong alignment with occupier requirements.
“We are therefore willing to look beyond prime assets in the geographical or marketing sense when we believe the risk-adjusted return profile is attractive. However, we remain cautious regarding genuinely secondary assets that face significant obsolescence risks or require extensive repositioning programmes,” he said.
Moran said investors are anticipating rent increases taking Grade A offices above €70 per SF, given continued leasing strength across multiple tenant sectors in Dublin, and said some developers are thought to be looking at spec development again, given the dearth of new supply.
“Whether the current uptick in interest extends to secondary and older stock really depends on the pricing. The market is still evolving, and it’s all about the potential returns,” Moran added.
Bisnow’s Ireland Office Real Estate Conference 2026 takes place at the Hyatt Centric, The Liberties Dublin on 23 June. Tickets are available here.
