Irish real estate investment trust Green REIT is close to raising new debt for investment in expectation of rising commercial property rents because of a shortage of office space, its executive chairman said on Monday.

Property prices and rents are beginning to rise again in Ireland after their collapse in a 2008 real estate crash brought construction to a standstill, prompting a recent warning from the central bank over the need to tackle shortages in supply.

Green became Ireland's first real estate investment trust (REIT) last year after legislative changes allowed the formation of such property investment vehicles in an effort to stoke the market. It has deployed most of the 710 million euros ($919 million) raised since last year's listing, primarily in office space in its home town of Dublin.

The business, tenants of which include Allied Irish Banks , Vodafone and the Irish government, benefited from a 25 percent rise in office rents last year and predicts an increase of a further 15 percent this year to 45 euros ($58) per square foot for high-quality buildings.

"I think there's clearly more rental growth on office (properties) because of the supple-demand anomaly," Executive Chairman Stephen Vernon told Reuters. "There isn't any supply, basically, and not even anything being built to speak of.

MOMENTUM

"We're clearly at the start of another development cycle and rents are going to move up into that territory of 50 to 60 (euros per square foot). There's a momentum driving it. It's a very rosy scenario for offices in Dublin, unless you're a tenant."

Vernon was speaking after Green announced its first set of full-year results on Monday, reporting net profit of 43.1 million euros and a proposed dividend of 0.92 cents per share.

He said the main focus would be working on its portfolio but that it would look to add assets that fit into the mix of office and retail space it has already purchased.

The business is now in negotiations to raise debt for those investments, with Chief Operating Officer Niall O'Buachalla saying that finance is expected to be agreed in the next four to six weeks.

"We have headroom of 320 million euros to get to our target LTV (loan to value) of 35 percent and we are in pretty advanced negotiations," O'Buachalla said.

"We won't be going for the full 320 million in one go - that wouldn't be the most cost-effective way - so we're likely to look at (something) in the order of 100-200 million euros." (1 US dollar = 0.7727 euro)