14th April (Issue 542)
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.
ORIGIN CAPITAL KVIKA FUNDING PARTNERSHIP
New Origin Kvika Deal Under Origin Capital’s strategic relationship with Kvika banki hf, Origin Capital recently arranged a two year, €2.25m, interest only facility, secured on a residential property portfolio in Dublin. If you have a funding request for €2m+, please contact Ross Metcalfe at rossmetcalfe@origincapital.ie Origin Capital, 14th April
INDUSTRIAL
Portlaoise, Co Laois Colliers is guiding €12m for Leprino Foods Company’s former premises which are located on the southern side of Portlaoise, between the town and Junction 17 of the M7 motorway. The main building extends to 141,346 sq. ft and comprises two zones; a high-care hygiene area and a low-care hygiene area. There are five dock levellers in the low-care area, all of which are accessed via the secure service yard. The property also has a 19,417 sq. ft two-storey administration block. The facility sits on a 12.36-acre site with two entrances. One of these access points leads to a secure yard measuring 2.1 acres with ancillary service buildings, bulk chemical and gas silos. The property is being sold with the benefit of an option from Laois County Council to acquire a further 14.3 acres of land adjoining the facility. The Irish Times, 8th April
For lending terms on this asset, please contact rossmetcalfe@origincapital.ie
HOSPITALITY
Glasson, Co. Westmeath Agent Sheehy Meares Real Estate is guiding €1m for Grogan’s of Glasson, the well-known bar and restaurant located in the heart of the village. Located on a 0.7-acre site, the pub and its restaurant come for sale as a going concern with a separate four-bedroom house. The venue is complemented by a garden suited to al fresco dining and as an outdoor hospitality space. There are outbuildings which have potential, according to the selling agent, to be redeveloped as guest accommodation or event/working space, subject to planning permission. The Irish Times, 8th April
Duncannon, Wexford Keane Auctioneers is guiding €950,000 for The Fort Conan hotel in south Wexford along with its attached private residence and café located in Duncannon on the Hook Peninsula. The hotel comprises ten double bedrooms with en-suite facilities, a reception area, a fully fitted bar with storage, and the Wild Rose Café, linked to a large commercial kitchen with rear delivery access. There is a seven-day alcohol licence for the bar and restaurant. Attached to the hotel is a private home. The ground floor comprises a sitting room, a fully fitted kitchen, and a utility room with wet room, while upstairs offers a master bedroom with en-suite and dressing room, two further bedrooms, and a family bathroom. The Irish Independent, 7th April
Crowe Quarterly Update The Irish hotel market showed continued resilience in 2025, with Dublin occupancy reaching 84% and regional Ireland recording 72%. ADR stood at €174 in Dublin and €168 regionally, resulting in RevPAR of €146 and €121 respectively. Inbound tourism declined by 3% during the year, while day-to-day spending by overnight visitors from abroad fell by 8.5%. Strong domestic travel demand continued to support the sector. The Irish hotel market recorded €1.7bn in transactions in 2025, led by the €1.4bn sale of the Dalata Group. A further 66 hotels changed hands during the year. Ireland welcomed just over 6.4 million overseas visitors in 2025, a 3% decline compared to 2024. Visitors spent 47.9m nights in the country, with an average stay of 7.5 nights. Total expenditure reached €5.5bn, around 9% lower than the previous year, with €2.29bn spent on accommodation. Crowe Hospitality, Tourism & Leisure Quarterly Update, 8th April
MIXED USE
Patrick Street, Cork City A Swiss investor has bought the former Tung Sing restaurant premises in a deal worth over €1.8m. No 23 St Patrick’s Street comprises a 4,499 sq. ft three storey building. The upper floors had operated as a family-run Chinese restaurant from the early 1960s until its closure in 2024. Plans for the former Tung Sing premises include retaining its upper floors as a restaurant, while jewellers H Samuels will continue to trade from the ground floor commercial unit, having recently signed a 10-year lease, up to June 2035. Frank V Murphy, acting for the Swiss buyer, said the intention is to rent out the upper floors to a restaurant operator at an annual lease of €45,000 pa. Savills brought the property to market late last year with a guide price of €1.7m. The Irish Examiner, 9th April
O’Connell Street, Dublin 1 A prominent mixed-use building on O’Connell Street in Dublin with planning permission in place for a hotel development has been sold for approx. €7m. JLL has confirmed the sale of 1-2 Upper O’Connell Street, 29 North Earl Street and 10 Cathedral Street, Dublin 1 to Star Stone Property Group. The building was launched to market in May 2025 with a €9m guide. The six-storey over-basement property extends c.23,000 sq. ft and occupies a high-profile corner site overlooking the Spire. The building, constructed in 1917 and listed as a protected structure, is best known as the former location of the Kylemore Café. Planning permission was granted in May 2023 for a change of use to a 38-bedroom hotel across the upper floors. The ground floor and basement levels retain retail accommodation, with part of the property currently producing income through a lease to Dunnes Stores. The Business Post, 9th April
RETAIL
Blanchardstown, Dublin 15 US institutional investor Strategic Value Partners may be at the early stages of considering selling Blanchardstown Centre. It bought the shopping centre from Goldman Sachs only a little over 18 months ago for approx. €600m. The shopping centre has 1.2m sq. ft of space and 180 tenants. The Sunday Times reports that the fund has speedily secured a lot of lease deals, new tenancies and renewals. Blanchardstown Centre was developed by Stephen Vernon’s Green Property before being sold to Blackstone for €950m in 2016. Goldman Sachs took control of the centre at the start of the pandemic in 2020 in a debt-for-equity swap that valued the complex at close to €750m. The Sunday Times, 12th April
OFFICE
IFSC, Dublin 1 French investor Iroko Zen has paid €23.165m for Macken House, a fully let and fully upgraded office investment in the IFSC. The 51,347 sq. ft modern six-storey building is located on Mayor Street Upper and includes 42 basement car-parking spaces. The first to fifth floors comprise office accommodation and are let to Italian luxury jewellery brand, Bulgari, and FM104 owner, the Wireless Group. The ground floor includes an office unit of 15,635 sq. ft let to Virgin Media, along with two retail units with a total combined space of 3,717 sq. ft let to Insomnia and Mulligans chemist. The property is generating a passing rent of €2.02m pa, with the three office leases accounting for almost 90% of the total rent. Macken House has a WAULT of 5.3 years to earliest break/expiry. The Irish Times, 8th April
Half Moon Street, Cork City Empyrean Solutions, a fintech firm is set to move into the former Apple offices on Cork city’s Half Moon St, which John Cleary Developments (JCD) bought in January in a deal valued c. €30m. Empryean Solutions has been working out of Penrose Quay, also owned by JCD for the past few years. It is expected the company will relocate to Half Moon St next month, where they will be early tenants at the refurbished building. JCD previously said it was investing €5m in upgrades and in improving the building’s energy credentials. The Wilson Architecture-designed premises was developed by O’Callaghan Properties and completed in 2010. It extends to over 115,000 sq. ft. Tech giant Apple Europe previously had offices in the building, before relocating in 2021 to BAM/Clarendon’s new development at Horgan’s Quay. The Irish Examiner, 8th April
Dublin Office Market Dublin’s office market saw a healthy start to the year when take-up of space totalled 396,095 sq. ft across 45 transactions during the first three months, according to preliminary research by JLL. Take-up equates to 39.5% above first-quarter averages for the last five years. Furthermore, the number of office occupier deals is 33% more than first-quarter averages over the same period. Relocations to new offices accounted for 60% of take-up and 195,318 sq. ft taken across 27 deals. New entrants to the market represented 22% of take-up, 113,445 sq. ft, across 10 deals. Expansions of existing offices accounted for the remaining 18%, 87,332 sq. ft, across eight deals. At the end of March, as much as 818,967 sq. ft was under offer or reserved. Prime headline rents in Dublin currently stand in the region of €62.50 to €65 psf. The Irish Independent, 9th April
Townsend Street, Dublin 2 Enterprise Ireland, has selected the Dublin office development, 160 Townsend, as its preferred new headquarters. Developer John Byrne’s Alstead Securities’ 160 Townsend is located in the heart of the city centre, close to Trinity College Dublin and Tara Street train station. The property has up to 100,494 sq. ft available, which could accommodate up to 933 desks. Property agent JLL’s website lists the rent as up to €65 psf a year. Sources told the Sunday Independent that Enterprise Ireland is seeking to lease the entire office building, indicating a potential rent of over €6.5m per year for the agency. However, it is understood that the amount set to be paid will be lower. A combination of factors would allow a lower rent, including a likely long-term lease and Enterprise Ireland renting the entire property. The Sunday Independent, 12th April
RESIDENTIAL / DEVELOPMENT
Stepaside, Dublin 18 The chief executive of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council is asking councillors to support the redesignation of south Dublin golf facilities for future housing despite strident opposition from locals and the owner of the lands. Councillors will vote on amendments to the county development plan to increase the amount of land available for housing. Lands identified for rezoning are primarily in the growth areas of Sandyford and between Shankill and Bray. However, the council also identified “long-term strategic and sustainable settlement sites” that it does not plan to rezone immediately, but “may deliver housing” in the future. These are currently greenbelt, agricultural or amenity lands in areas such as Rathmichael, Carrickmines, Kilternan and Stepaside. Lands at the Stepaside Golf Centre have been included in this category. More than 700 submissions were made to the council of which 60% were objections. The Irish Times, 8th April
OTHER
Commercial Real Estate Investment in Irish commercial real estate was €2.5bn in 2025 and was tipped to push towards the €3bn for 2026. In Q1 2026 total investment in the sector was c.€440m. This represents a drop of around 19% from figures reported by Lisney and CBRE last year of around €545m. Of the €440m invested in Q1, through 22 transactions, the single-biggest investment was the acquisition of Newmarket Yards in Dublin 8 by Beo Ventures. The site was acquired for c.€210m and comprises 203 studio apartments, 136 one-bedroom apartments, 72 two-bedroom apartments and two three-bedroom homes. The sale reflects a net initial yield of slightly less than 5%. MEAG, a German real estate asset manager, bought 18 Newmarket Square in Dublin 8, which comprises 134 apartments, in a deal worth around €75m. Ires Reit acquired 77 residential units in Naas for €31.75m. The Business Post, 9th April
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