'Dublin may feel it missed Brexit jobs, but there was never going to be a London exodus'
A senior figure in property firm Cushman & Wakefield said the media over-hyped the Brexit fallout.
DUBLINERS WHO EXPECTED a wave of companies migrating to the Irish capital post-Brexit shouldn’t be disappointed with the city’s seemingly underwhelming performance to date.
That’s according to Alastair Marshall, a partner in global occupier services at US real estate giant Cushman & Wakefield.
According to Marshall, Dublin remains the logical first choice for many companies moving abroad.
Many commentators have echoed similar sentiments and predicted that a huge wave of businesses would move to Dublin from London in the wake of the Brexit vote.
While there have been a few notable announcements, with the likes of Bank of America basing its new EU hub here, there hasn’t been a mass exodus of business from London to Dublin.
Speaking to Fora at the annual Property Industry Ireland conference, where he gave a talk on what companies look for when setting up operations in a new city, Marshall said that this was to be expected.
Hype
The media over-hyped the likely scale of business moving to London, when a realistic view would always have been more subdued, he said.
He added that people in Frankfurt and Paris, two other cities commonly cited as likely to benefit from a post-Brexit exodus, would likely feel similar to those in Dublin.
“(There was) this press over-hyping. They just jump on it and will tell a story saying: ‘OK, Brexit’s hitting, every bank will be moving out of London’,” he said.
“Well, the press didn’t know at the point of the referendum what the Leave vote meant, and we still don’t know the outcome of Article 50 will be or what it actually means.
“This kind of press build up to what it means has been dumbed-down somewhat, so everyone feels a little disheartened.”
According to Bloomberg’s tally of Brexit banking jobs migration, Frankfurt has been the big winner to date with more than 3,000 confirmed roles – although the bulk of potential changes remain unconfirmed.
Marshall added: “What they expected was this massive shift out of London, (but) I think it’s impressive to see where we’ve got to today where a number of leases have been signed. It’s been a pretty balanced move out.
“But the hype everywhere will be felt. Everyone feels a little hard done by in Ireland, but I’m sure they feel the same elsewhere. I’m sure Paris feels it, and Frankfurt.”
