Last week the development land team at CBRE Ireland issued their latest report, which pulls together all available development land transaction details for the first three months of the year.

Speaking to RTE, the report authors described Q1 activity levels as “highly robust”, with 23 development land sales having completed in the first quarter of 2021. The combined total of these transactions is €110 million, which is less than half of the average quarterly transaction value for this sector over the past five years. Also, according to CBRE, the volume of transactions is down significantly on previous quarters. However, the overall performance of the market is considered to be reasonable given the unprecedented trading environment and circumstances over the past year in Ireland, and indeed globally, since January 8th. Colin Richardson, a senior research analyst at CBRE, suggested that the performance of the sector to date in 2021 is a positive indicator for the market, particularly in light of ongoing difficult trading conditions. While the total quarterly value is half the five-year average figure, it is only marginally behind the value of transactions for the same period in 2020, which was €112 million.

Darragh Deasy, senior surveyor in the Development Land team at CBRE, forecasts a “healthier volume” of trading for the rest of 2021 based on the increased activity his team has seen over the past six months. He further confirmed that a number of sites in the Greater Dublin Area are currently being prepared for sale, however, the launch dates of some of these sales campaigns have been delayed to allow for an easing of Covid-19 restrictions so that potential bidders can travel and undertake site inspections. As Donal Buckley, writing about the report for the Irish Independent, pointed out “CBRE declined to be drawn on the details of individual deals”! That particular journalist reports that the most valuable deal of the first quarter was the sale of 1.5 acres at Oca Verde, Swords Road, Drumcondra, Dublin 9, which is zoned residential, for €19.1 million. If correct, this equates to €12.9m per acre. The second largest deal, according to the Independent.ie, was the sale of 1.8 acres at Northern Cross, Malahide Road, for €10m or €5.65m per acre. This latter site is also zoned for residential use.

This and all CBRE Ireland research and reports can be accessed here: https://www.cbre.ie/en/research-and-reports