EY Chooses Iput's Wilton Park, But New Supply Outpaces Demand
After an extensive search, EY Ireland has chosen Iput Real Estate’s Wilton Park development as the location for its new Dublin headquarters as it expands and consolidates its city centre footprint into one location.
The news that EY has signed a long-term lease at Wilton Park to commence in summer 2026 comes amid a mixed picture for the Dublin office market, with demand up but a surge of new supply surpassing uptake.
EY announced that it will significantly increase its existing footprint in the city as it brings its full Dublin team together at one site. EY Ireland employs more than 5,100 people in the republic and Northern Ireland, with offices in Dublin, Belfast, Cork, Galway, Limerick and Waterford.
“Our new office will accommodate our growing business and our new ways of working. It will be a world-class centre for collaboration, innovation and delivery,” EY Ireland Managing Partner Frank O’Keeffe said in a statement. “Over recent years EY Ireland has grown to be the number one professional services firm on the island of Ireland.”
Meanwhile, the latest office market report by BNP Paribas Real Estate Ireland revealed improvement in demand for Dublin business space, with the most robust office takeup for 2.5 years, at nearly 930K SF. This has broken a five-quarter run of below-average activity and, for the first time in six quarters, is above the 10-year quarterly average of just less than 646K SF.
BNPPRE said that the “remote working headwind” is beginning to ease and that the lettings cycle appears to have passed rock bottom, while just over 1.5M SF of new supply was added in the first half. As a result, strengthening demand has been unable to keep up with this supply surge, resulting in a vacancy rise to 15.2%. It predicts that this will drive vacancy to between 16.5% and 17% by the end of 2025.
“June’s interest rate cut and a general strengthening of the economy have led to a noticeable improvement in sentiment. But hybrid workers are also coming into the office more often which, as well as driving office demand, is creating more vibrancy around town,” BNPPRE Executive Director and Head of Office Agency Keith O’Neill said in a statement.
Demand conditions are as positive as could be expected given the relative inactivity of tech firms, BNPPRE Director of Research John McCartney said.
“Over 1.5M SF of new stock has been added in the first half of 2024 and a further 17 buildings, incorporating 2.7M SF, are scheduled to complete before the end of next year. This is a lot of space for a small market like Dublin to digest and vacancy will therefore rise further, despite the leasing cycle having probably now passed rock-bottom,” he added.
While prime rents have held steady at €62.50 per SF per annum over the last two years, inflation has eroded 8.5% of their real value. Furthermore, the market has seen shortening lease terms, earlier break options and increasing rent-free periods at the start of leases. However, McCartney said that with the construction pipeline falling away sharply after 2025, vacancy should begin to recede again.
