13th August (Issue 460)
Welcome to the Origin Capital Weekly Irish Property Review. This update is designed to provide you with a full recap of the latest property news from the media over the last seven days.
Office
Docklands, Dublin 2 Apple has done a deal for a short-term let on an office in Dublin’s Docklands as it continues its search for a more permanent premises in the capital. It has signed a two and a half-year sublease on the first floor of No. 5 Hanover Quay with DocuSign. It will pay an annual rent of approx. €1.4m, according to the property price register. The space measures just under 24,391 sq. ft, which could accommodate up to 250 employees. It is believed that Apple is searching for 69,965 sq. ft for up to 700 staff. The Sunday Times, 11th August
Workday has now focused its search for a new 300,000 sq. ft EMEA headquarters in Dublin on two sites. Kennedy Wilson and Cain International’s Coopers Cross development, where two buildings totalling close to 400,000 sq. ft have been built, is one of the sites still in the running. Building Two is a 288,000 sq. ft grade A office block. Workday is also looking at College Square, a 540,000 sq. ft office development by Marlet Group. Approx. 325,000 sq. ft of office space is currently marketed as available at the Tara Street project. Green Street News, 12th August
Industrial / Logistics
Baldonnel, South Dublin National Vehicle Distribution (NVD), a company that transports new and used cars to garages, is looking to build a huge logistics hub at one of its facilities in south Dublin. NVD Trading submitted plans to change the use of lands near one of its vehicle distribution centres in Baldonnel from a car park to a logistics warehouse campus. The proposed development includes four new logistics/warehouse units with a combined gross floor area of over 215,278 sq. ft. The Irish Independent, 11th August
Mixed-Use
North Wall Quay, Dublin 1 Ronan Group Real Estate is seeking permission for 550 new homes and two office buildings on the last undeveloped riverside site in Dublin’s North Docklands. The 1.5m sq. ft development will include three residential blocks rising to eight, 12 and 25 storeys and 373,000 sq. ft of office space next to the nine-storey, 461,000 sq. ft Citi headquarters, which is currently under construction. The Irish Times, 8th August
HOSPITALITY
Accounts After-tax losses at iNua Hospitality Plc, a holding company in the group that operates approx. eight of iNua’s 20 venues across the Republic, widened to approx. €6.3m last year from €3.9m. The increase was driven by one-off costs of more than €3m associated with the refinancing of the group’s debt. Meanwhile, iNua’s operating profits before the one-off €3m costs linked to the refinancing increased to €3.9m in 2023 from €2.4m on revenues of €72.8m, up 6.7% from 2022. Total occupancy for the eight hotels in the group was 83% last year. The Irish Times, 12th August
Vacant Pub Conversion According to the Drinks Industry Group of Ireland, more than 1,800 pubs between 2005 and 2021 closed. In 2022 such former public houses were added to the list of vacant commercial properties which, under the Government’s Housing for All Plan, could be marked exempt from planning permission for home conversion. The latest planning data, seen by The Irish Times, shows various local authorities have now received 92 notifications for a change of use relating to vacant pubs, which should provide 295 new homes when developed. The Irish Times, 12th August
Residential / Development
Goatstown, South Dublin The way has been cleared for Tetrarch to build a 114-unit “age-friendly” assisted living development in south Dublin, after an appeal against the project from local residents was withdrawn. The scheme, which is made up of 100 apartments across seven blocks and 14 houses, will be built on a 2.9-acre site in the Dublin suburb of Goatstown, and is exclusively designed for residents of 65 and older. The Business Post, 10th August
Ballymun, Dublin 1 Just under 70 prospective homebuyers vied to purchase 12 homes in Dublin City Council’s first affordable housing scheme to go on sale in more than a decade. The three-bed houses at Oileáin na Crannóige, Ballymun, with prices starting at €264.3k, are expected to be completed by the end of this year, in advance of the Oscar Traynor Road affordable scheme in Coolock, where the first houses are due to be ready early next year. The Irish Times, 9th August
Albert Quay, Cork Plans have been unveiled for a near €100m 24-storey apartment scheme on a Cork city docklands site. The vacant Sextant Bar site on Albert Quay will see more than 200 cost-rental apartments if greenlit. Cork City Council has published the details of its partnership plan with the JCD Group to deliver 217 apartments in the proposed Railway Apartments scheme on the JCD-owned former Sextant Bar and Carey’s Tool Hire site, on Albert Quay. It includes a mix of studios, one-, two- and three-bedroom units, with most for cost-rental. The Irish Examiner, 12th August
Ires is forecasting that up to 10,000 apartments may hit the market in the next two years as investment funds are forced to sell up. In its interim results, Ires also revealed that it has backed out of a deal to acquire 44 new units at Ashbrook, an apartment complex in Clontarf. The deal was signed in January 2022. Ires says that the vendor, the builders MKN, did “not achieve practical completion by the longstop practical completion date.” It added that the matter was the subject of a contract dispute-resolution process, an independent architect had ruled in Ires’s favour and the company was continuing with the termination of the contract. The Sunday Times, 11th August
Private Rental Sector The country needs corporate landlords to provide more rental accommodation, Paschal Donohoe has said. The public expenditure minister was speaking in response to the RTB reports which showed 22,510 rental properties in the capital are now linked to large landlords, while outside of Dublin large landlords have also increased their share of the private tenancies market from 1.8% to 2.6%. Donohoe said that the government had always argued in favour of a “healthy” mix of rental accommodation and said that large investors were needed to be able to deliver accommodation “at scale”. The Business Post, 8th August
BNP Paribas Report In BNP Paribas Real Estate Ireland’s latest purchasing managers’ index, total construction activity in July reached 49.9. Housing activity increased for the fifth consecutive month. Meanwhile, commercial activity was broadly unchanged following a sharp reduction in June. John McCartney, the director and head of research at BNP Paribas Real Estate Ireland, flagged that falling completions could delay the impact of increased commencements in the sector. “New dwelling completions fell by 8.6% in the first half of the year. This means 20,700 units need to be delivered in the second half for the government’s target of 33,450 completions to be met.” The Business Post, 12th August
Vacant Office Conversion The LDA could play a role in converting vacant office blocks into residential housing, a government minister has said. The state-sponsored agency, tasked with the delivery of affordable housing, recently met with officials from the Department of Housing and Alan Dillon, the Fine Gael junior minister, to update the government on its work under Project Tosaigh. A cross-departmental working group, set up last year in the wake of increasing vacancy in the commercial property sector, is working on proposals to amend planning regulations to allow for the conversion of older office space in urban areas. The Business Post, 7th August
If you have an article which you would like to have considered for inclusion in our next weekly report, please contact us at info@origincapital.ie