The gradual return to the office in the aftermath of the lifting of pandemic restrictions is reflected in the enhanced level of activity in the sector, an analysis by property consultants Savills concludes.
According to its figures, take-up in the Dublin office market reached 477,000 square feet across 40 deals in the first three months of the year.
That was a significant improvement on the 22,000 square feet of space transacted across just 7 deals in the same period in 2021.
However, the analysis concludes that activity has a long way to go before it returns to pre-pandemic levels.
Take-up of office space in the first three months of the year was still 24% below the ten-year average for the January to March period and was 57% below the average for the first quarter of 2020, just before the pandemic struck.
Demand for prime city centre locations remained high accounting for over 80% of the space taken in the quarter and for all the top five deals.
"The hub-and-spoke working model popularly discussed at the onset of the pandemic appears to have dropped as occupiers pivot back to the centrally located offices," the report concludes.
The biggest deal of the quarter was An Post's leasing of 79,000 square feet of space in the Exo Building on the North Docklands.
Upon completion, the building will be the highest office building in Dublin at 17 stories.
"With office occupier employment having grown during the pandemic but strategic office decisions effectively stalled, key decisions on real estate portfolios now need to be made," John Ring, Director of Research with Savills said.
"We therefore believe that there is a significant amount of pent-up demand that will be released in 2022. We expect employers to use high-quality fit-outs and centrally located space to encourage workers to return to the workplace," he added.
Mr Ring pointed out that uncertainty remained regarding the final shape of the proposed hybrid model, but he predicted that best practice would emerge over the course of the year as shape was put on plans.
