Commercial Property

Commercial property market

The commercial property market in Ireland has evolved considerably in recent years. It is now a sophisticated market, comparable in many ways to similar markets in the major world cities. Much of the activity in the recent buoyant market centered on development, with relatively small levels of investment activity. As fewer developments are started, market predictions are that for the foreseeable future activity will focus on the asset management, leasing and investment sectors.

During the period of phenomenal growth of the Irish commercial property sector, our experienced team of commercial property lawyers amassed a wealth of experience advising on some of the largest, most complex and highest profile transactions and schemes in the state. While the volume of sale-related transactions has diminished in recent months our team remains heavily involved in the active areas of the market.

Commercial property team

Our commercial property team works alongside other teams throughout the firm to provide developers and investors with practical legal advice and solutions. Our services cover all issues arising from initial acquisition of development land, the planning process, construction, lease negotiation, forward sales and long-term asset management. We are well known in the market for successfully leading and managing multidisciplinary teams to deliver a seamless coordinated service in complex transactions and projects.

We have unrivalled recent experience in the Irish market as legal advisers to the developers of new build retail and mixed use schemes. We have been involved in many projects from initial site assembly stage through demolition and site clearance through to completion of largely pre-let schemes. In many cases these schemes have been retained by the developers with our role continuing as asset management legal advisers. Our involvement in many such schemes enables us to predict potential difficulties based on past experiences and offer both commercially-based legal advice on the likely requirements of the ever-changing Irish commercial property sector, international tenants and potential institutional activity. This experience has proven particularly attractive to new entrants to the Irish commercial property market.

One of the greatest areas of change in the commercial property market in recent years has been the development of a large number of retail, office and light industrial parks throughout the country. Many of our clients have been involved in this sector and we have advised on many schemes which have been developed both for immediate sale and as rent roll investments. While we are best known for advising on large scale projects we have also developed expertise of smaller schemes with particular emphasis on neighbourhood and district schemes.

With commercial property attaining record yields in recent years investment opportunities were numerous.  We have advised vendors, investors and funders in connection with a number of properties, including the sale and purchase of whole and part interests in developments in the course of construction in addition to completed schemes with particular emphasis on retail and hotel/leisure based schemes. We have also advised a leading Irish financial institution on the sale and leaseback of a large part of its retail banking branches.

Despite market uncertainty, many of our existing clients have retained their commercial property investments; for many of these clients we work with their managing agents to actively manage their investments. Several members of our team advise in relation to a variety of day-to-day landlord and tenant issues - including lease variations, applications for consent, tenant default and rent reviews - to ensure that our clients' assets are protected and their rights as landlords are preserved and enforced.

While we are best known for acting for developers and investors, we also act for a large number of tenants occupying a vast array of commercial property including medical suites, licensed premises, high profile retail units and HQ office premises.

Commercial Property Services

• Infrastructural, PPP and projects
• Investment sales and purchases
• Large-scale residential, mixed use and commercial developments
• Retail development
• Large-scale property financings
• Construction
• Planning and Development advices
• Tax based transactions
• Property issues related to insolvency and corporate recovery
• Property issues in relation to large scale property-backed financings including bank enforcement
• Legal issues concerning property asset management
• Phased developments and large volume new home sales
• Landlord and Tenant
• Leisure and healthcare projects.