International investors buying Dublin commercial real estate

Reporting about commercial real estate is a big part of my day job as a staff writer at the Tampa Bay Business Journal. So this Irish Times story about international investors snapping up commercial property in Dublin caught my eye.

The story says investors from Israel, Malaysia, Singapore, China, Russia,  Australia and the United States are buying office buildings, apartments and other commercial property. (Several are featured in an accompanying photo slide show.)

“What’s interesting is that this is really the first time that there has been serious international buying in the Irish market,” says Jones Lang Lasalle managing director John Moran. “The Irish market traditionally was left to the Irish institutions, developers or property companies, and it is probably the first time we’ve seen a real significant sea change of ownership in the market.”

California-based Kennedy Wilson is among the U.S. investors. Its first purchase, made a year ago, was the 210-unit Alliance Building, an apartment in the Gasworks estate.