Arguably NAMA’s lead-valuation expert, CB Richard Ellis, has today published its periodic report into the Dublin office market and notes that the vacancy rate has dropped marginally from 23.45% to 23% of stock over the quarter (not a colossal change though it is the first drop in over 2 years) and that rents for some prime locations and quality offices are creeping up marginally (though other locations and poorer quality accommodation are continuing to see falls).
Elsewhere in the Dublin residential market, an upbeat picture is painted for property sales in some parts of the county. Estate agents have reported renewed interest and a shortage in some subsectors. However despite the optimism imparted by the gloss, beneath lies the reality that potential sellers are not putting property on the market because of price falls (although not referred to, possibly because of negative equity issues) and some of the shortage is because buyers will not enter the market at existing asking prices. Also of note is that apartments appear to continue their fall from grace except in prime areas – again not cited in the report but privacy, management charges, lack of development control, neighbours and some poor quality construction may further reduce the appeal of apartments. As always the concern over the lack of a proper public register of sales makes any properly-objective assessment of the market impossible.
NAMA Wine Lake 
[…] The report itself has lots of interesting data and it sets an overall context into which C&W’s predictions for commercial real estate sit. In brief for western Europe, C&W are expecting Grade A commercial property to recover soonest (“pricing is now about as good as it will get”) whilst there may be further falls in prospect for secondary property. This supports the key conclusion in a report by property company rival and fellow NAMA valuer, CB R… […]