Commercial property values in Ireland have further to fall before transaction activity improves, CB Richard Ellis has said. According to the Irish Capital Markets Market View report for the third quarter of 2008, the property investment market in Ireland has come to a virtual standstill in recent months with only 'limited appetite' for properties currently being offered for sale.
Commercial property values in Ireland have further to fall before transaction activity improves, CB Richard Ellis has said. According to the Irish Capital Markets Market View report for the third quarter of 2008, the property investment market in Ireland has come to a virtual standstill in recent months with only 'limited appetite' for properties currently being offered for sale.
The property consultant attributes this to the fact that underlying economic conditions have weakened considerably, potential buyers are having difficulty securing debt-financing and sellers are reluctant to accept the decline in values that occurred since the beginning of the year.
According to Marie Hunt, director of research at CB Richard Ellis, Ireland, 'The market has been characterised by a lack of transactional activity in recent months. Irish investors have signed only EUR 392 mln of investment transactions in Ireland in the first half of 2008, compared to EUR 1.9 bn in the year 2007.
A similar trend has been experienced in the UK market, where Irish investors have invested only EUR 795 mln in the first six months of 2008 - a dramatic reduction considering Irish investors accounted for EUR 5.5 bn of investment transactions in the UK in the year 2007.'
