Too soon to turn positive on Irish commercial property

Q1’s sharp rise in Irish GDP is not as encouraging as it first seems. Although the external sector appears to be booming, we do not expect this to last. More worryingly, domestic demand continued to weaken. As a result, we still do not expect rental values to begin reversing their huge declines seen over the past few years and, with the investment market still paralysed, there seems to be little scope for yields to come down in the near-term from their current very high levels.