Investment transactions in the Irish commercial property market during the first half of 2017 came to more than €775m, according to statistics compiled by commercial property consultants CBRE Ireland.

A total of 97 assets with a value of more than €1m traded in the first six months of 2017. According to CBRE, the scarcity of core product to match volumes of underlying demand is continuing to frustrate investors and in turn is seeing some investors move up the risk curve in terms of asset allocations.

This is manifesting itself in increased interest in alternative investment options such as build-to-rent and student accommodation, as well as increased appetite for forward funding opportunities.

Johnny Horgan, executive director at CBRE, said: “Like many sectors of the Irish commercial property market, investment spend in the first half of 2017 is down year-on-year, with very few sizeable assets having been launched for sale in the first half of the year.

“Indeed, 74 of the 97 transactions signed in H1 2017 extended to less than €10m in value. We expect to see some sizeable assets being launched for sale over the coming months, meaning transactional activity will be heavily skewed towards the second half of the year as we had anticipated.”

Horgan added that turnover for 2017 will ultimately be dictated by the number of these transactions that sign by year-end, with some of them potentially falling into 2018. “We expect to see an increasing proportion of transactional activity comprising forward funding transactions, such as The Sorting Office opportunity on Cardiff Lane in Dublin Docklands that was formally launched for sale last week,” he said.

“The largest investment transaction signed in the Irish market in the first half of 2017 — the sale of the 13-18 City Quay office building in Dublin 2 — was a forward fund transaction.”