Last checked at 
* Over 12 million square feet of offices planned for Dublin
* Dublin competing with other EU cities for Brexit moves
* Hibernia REIT seeing significant uptick in inquiries (Adds quotes from Hibernia REIT CEO)
By Padraic Halpin
DUBLIN, Nov 10 (Reuters) - New office space planned forDublin over the next five years can accommodate more than100,000 extra workers and any companies seeking to relocate as aresult of Britain's vote to leave the European Union, propertygroup Savills said on Thursday.
Ireland has called the prospect of Brexit the greatesteconomic and social challenge it has faced in 50 years, so thepotential to attract businesses from Britain could help tooffset some of the damage.
Already the European home for the likes of Facebook,Google and Microsoft, Dublin is competingwith other major European Union cities to attract companiesseeking to relocate as a result of Brexit.
Government officials have also sought to assure companiesthat commercial development has recovered from a property crashthat wrecked the sector in 2008.
Construction in Dublin ground to a halt from 2010 to 2014,but now almost 150 new office blocks are either underconstruction, have received planning permission or are in theplanning stages, Savills' survey found. More than 12 millionsquare feet (1.1 million square metres) of office space isplanned for Dublin.
"Companies have begun to seriously develop strategies todeal with Brexit. As Dublin's pipeline is increasing, it islikely the market will be able to cater comfortably for anypick-up in demand that may result," Savills said.
But the surge in commercial development is in stark contrastto a shortage of housing that could hurt the prospects forinvestment from companies seeking to relocate staff to Ireland.
A survey on Tuesday showed residential rents, already atrecord highs, are rising at the fastest pace in over a decade.
The Savills' survey showed that unlike the credit-fuelledproperty crash, most of the commercial development is beingfunded by Real Estate Investment Trusts, such as Green REIT and Hibernia REIT, foreign funds with largebalance sheets or private equity firms.
Ireland's National Asset Management Agency (NAMA), thestate-run "bad bank" set up in 2009 to rid banks of troubledproperty loans, is funding nine percent of all schemes in fulland another five percent through joint ventures.
"We have most definitely seen in the last six to eight weeksa significant uptick in the quantum of (Brexit) inquiries,"Kevin Nowlan, chief executive of Hibernia REIT, told Reuters.
"The sense we're getting is people are still doing a lot offeasibility studies but that Dublin is most definitely on theagenda." (Editing by Jane Merriman and Adrian Croft)
