Development land to the value of €321M changed hands in Dublin in the first six months of the year, up 84% over the same period in 2017, according to figures from Cushman & Wakefield.

In all, €375M worth of land across the Greater Dublin Area, Cork, Galway and Limerick transacted in H1, a 59% increase year-on-year. 

Cushman & Wakefield said the jump in the value of deals completed was due to developments in the housing sector, with residential sites accounting for around €232M of sales or 62% of all deals done during the period.

The agency attributed an 18% drop in the number of sales in the GDA to a decline in smaller sized deals, with the volume of sub-€5M transactions down 22%.
 
“The restrained supply of large development opportunities has been alleviated somewhat as several prime sites of significant scale have now come to the market in Dublin city centre and suburbs,” Cushman & Wakefield Associate Director John Donegan said.

“One of the key policy initiatives driving the particularly strong performances in the residential sector was revision to apartment standards in March 2018, which has led to greater efficiencies in apartment development.”

The development land market within the GDA is likely to strengthen further as the year progresses, Cushman said, noting that more than €300M of deals were agreed by the end of June. In addition, a number of high profile sites have — or are expected to — come to market.

These include City Block 3 in the Dublin Docklands SDZ, which is for sale through joint agents Cushman & Wakefield and Savills. With a guide price of €110M, the 5.9 acre site has planning permission for around 350 residential units and a pending application for a 332K SF office scheme.

Also recently brought to market and guiding €120M is City Block 9, 4.6 acres of land with planning permission for 420 apartments and 300K SF of office space.

“Stemming from this, 2018 has the potential [to] be one of the strongest years in the GDA development land market in almost a decade,” Cushman & Wakefield said.