Irish land sales totalled about €99m in the second quarter of 2021, bringing the total so far this year to €193m, new data from property advisor Savills Ireland shows.
Savills said this represented an increase of 15% on the same time last year, when turnover reached €167m.
The estate agent said it expect to see several large deals agreed by the end of the year, which will drive turnover higher in the final half of 2021.
They noted that the market for commercially zoned land remains strong, with high levels of interest in the former City Arts site on Dublin's City Quay (1-6 City Quay).
The largest deal of the quarter was an off-market sale in South Dublin, representing a €15m sale.
Another notable transaction was the sale of an 11-acre site on Glenamuck Road, Dublin 18, which traded for €10.5m. The site has full planning permission for a Strategic Housing Development of 197 residential units.
Savills also reported another notable sale in the quarter with the deal for the M3 Gateway Lands site in Co Meath, reportedly traded at a price of over €10m. This is an industrial site with the potential for a logistics or distribution hub or data centre.
It said there is currently a dearth of suitable logistics space in Dublin with industrial and logistics space in the capital having a vacancy rate of just 1.2%.
This could lead to an increase in demand for greenfield sites with industrial related zoning around Dublin in the future, it added.
John Swarbrigg, Director of Development Land at Savills Ireland, said that with strong activity in the residential market in the first half of 2021, it is unsurprising that the majority of the land sold had residential related zoning.
"Indeed, it is likely that the strong growth in house prices helped to drive demand for residentially zoned land. In total, we estimate that residential zone land sales accounted for more than 75% of total sales volumes," he noted.
Mr Swarbrigg said that sites with planning permission have risen in priority in recent years, mainly due to the fact that almost one in three planning permissions under the Strategic housing development (SHD) process are now going to judicial review.
He said it is promising that the Government has finally recognised the inadequacy of the Strategic Housing Development planning application system, however, in the interim certain financiers are unwilling to take on planning risk until we have more clarity on the matter.
"Land with full planning permission has always traded at a premium, but in recent years we have seen this gap widen," he added.
