14th May (Issue 447)
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
East Wall Road, Dublin 1 Colliers is guiding €35m for the Beckett Building on behalf of receiver Grant Thornton. The price represents a reduction of 56% on the €80m guide price when CBRE offered the building for sale in January 2023, and a discount of 65% on the €101m Kookmin Bank paid when they acquired it from Comer Group in 2018. While Meta has now vacated the Beckett, it remains responsible for its annual €5.75m rent (€29.30 per sq. ft; NIY 14.9%) until the break option of its lease on July 31st, 2027. The Beckett Building extends to 188,228 sq. ft. The Irish Times, 8th May
Molesworth Street, Dublin 2 Deka Immobilien has secured ownership of 40 Molesworth Street, having paid State Street Global Advisors approx. €40m (€1,195 per sq. ft) for the property. The asset comprises 29,820 sq. ft of office space over six floors, along with a ground and basement retail unit extending to over 3,649 sq. ft. The offices are occupied in their entirety by DLA Piper. The lease which is due to expire 2037 has a term certain of 12 years and has a headline rent of approx. €60 per sq. ft. Specsavers occupies the retail element of the building, and the property is generating overall rental income of €2.175m pa (approx. NIY 5.4%). The Irish Times, 10th May
City Quay, Dublin 2 The developer behind a bid to build Dublin’s tallest building on the site of the former City Arts Centre at City Quay has suffered a further setback after An Bord Pleanála ruled against its appeal of Dublin City Council’s rejection of its plan. Ventaway is seeking to develop a 24-storey structure on the site. The proposed scheme would be office-led with 243,124 sq. ft of office space over 23 of its floors. The Irish Times, 10th May
Dublin Workday is searching for a new EMEA headquarters in Dublin. The buildings under review include Coopers Cross development, where Building Two is a 288,000 sq. ft grade A office block. Meta’s Fibonacci Square, the 375,000 sq. ft office space in Ballsbridge, is another option under review. Workday is also appraising College Square, a 540,000 sq. ft office development by Marlet Group. 325,000 sq. ft of office space is currently being marketed at the Tara Street project. React News, 8th May
IFSC, Dublin 1 A significant area of the 2 Custom House Plaza is now being offered to let by joint agents TWM and Cushman & Wakefield with full planning permission in place for a change of use to medical. Approx. 18,500 sq. ft of the 29,000 sq. ft property is now available for immediate occupation. The quoting rent is €42 per sq. ft and €3.5k per car-parking space. The Irish Times, 8th May
RETAIL
Grafton Street, Dublin 2 JLL has brought No. 6 Grafton Street to the market guiding in excess of €3m. There is a prime retail unit on the ground floor at street level with additional ancillary accommodation above. The mid-terraced building extends to an overall NIA of approx. 2,604 sq. ft (€1,152 per sq. ft). The ground and basement levels are let to Greggs Ltd trading as Bus Stop Newsagents and the upper floors are fully let as a tanning salon and internet café to Reetont Limited. Combined, the two tenants generate rent of €140k pa (approx. 4.67% yield). The Business Post, 11th May
HOSPITALITY
Deloitte Report Approx. 1,650 new hotel rooms opened in 2023 with another 2,850 under construction, according to Deloitte’s latest annual Crane Survey. Over 550 of the rooms came onto the market in the first quarter of 2024, with another 1,080 due for completion by the end of the year. The completions will bring Ruby Hotels, Hoxton and Citizen M into the Irish market. According to the Deloitte report, the ADR charged by hotels in Dublin was €204 last year, the highest since records began. The RevPAR was €164 in Dublin, also a record. The Irish Independent, 13th May
INDUSTRIAL / LOGISTICS
Swords, Co Dublin A large logistics facility in Swords, just off Balheary Road, which is let in its entirety to the OPW, is guiding €21m through joint agents Finnegan Menton and Cushman & Wakefield. The property is occupied by the State on a 20-year lease from September 2010 at a passing rent of €1.3m (NIY approx. 5.8%) pa increasing to €1.35m pa in September 2024 with rent reviews every 5 years. The property extends to 211,034 sq. ft (€6.24 per sq. ft rent) and is situated on a site of 8.56 acres. The Irish Times, 8th May
HEALTHCARE / NURSING HOMES
Swords, Co Dublin A major €50m day-care hospital and primary care centre project in north Dublin is in doubt after a developer told the HSE the project is not viable at the agreed price. The eight-storey development at Airside in Swords, which has full planning permission, is at a standstill due to a standoff over construction costs. Developer Vanguard International originally won the HSE tender for the long-promised new primary care centre. The Irish Independent, 12th May
RESIDENTIAL / DEVELOPMENT
Naas Road, Southwest Dublin Michael O’Flynn, the Cork housebuilder, is in talks with the LDA about forward-funding part of his planned €625m development on Naas Road. The Sunday Times understands the LDA could forward-fund the construction of approx. 500 homes on the old Nissan site, which was granted planning permission in 2021 to build more than 1,100 apartments and a 15-storey hotel. The Sunday Times, 12th May
Hollystown, Dublin 15 The LDA has launched 57 new A-rated homes in Hollystown. The homes are part of the Wilkinsons Brook development and are being delivered through the agency’s Project Tosaigh initiative. The homes were developed by Glenveagh Properties and include 13 two-bedroom houses, 39 three-beds and five four-bed homes. The Business Post, 10th May
Claregalway, Co Galway BV Real Estate has brought to market a development land in Claregalway Corporate Park. The total area of the site is approx. 4.4 acres. Purchasers have the option to acquire either the entire site or Plot’s A & B respectively (approx. 2.2 acres each) with a guide price of €1.5m each. The Business Post, 11th May
Housing Target Ireland will need to build as many as 80,000 homes a year between now and 2050 in the most extreme scenario, the Housing Commission has warned the government in a report. The heavyweight commission, set up by the government to produce a report on long-term housing policy, submitted its findings to Darragh O’Brien, the housing minister. The Business Post, 12th May
Social Housing The state has agreed approx. 9,000 long-term social housing leases with a combined price tag of more than €3.24bn over their 25-year lifetime. Department of Housing data shows that >70 deals are costing more than €2.5k each month. The rent set for each property leased by the state on a long-term basis is subject to upward-only reviews every three years, with the increases linked to inflation. The Business Post, 12th May
Ires Reit saw total revenue decline by 3.9% in the first quarter of 2024 compared to 2023. Ahead of its AGM, the company said that the fall reflected the impact of “strategic asset disposals” completed in the second half of 2023. Ires Reit reported 99.5% occupancy across its portfolio, compared to 99.4% for the same period last year, as well as 99% rent collection in the first months of the year. Ires Reit’s LTV ratio at the end of March was 44.7%, compared to 44.3% at the end of December. The Business Post, 10th May
Cairn Homes is now building out more than €1bn worth of housing projects in Ireland. In a trading update ahead of its AGM, Michael Stanley, chief executive of Cairn Homes, said the company is on track to increase its annual output by approx. 30% to 2,200 homes this year. The company is now developing 2,750 homes across a range of large projects. The trading update said the company has maintained its operating profit forecast at approx. €145m for the year. The Business Post, 10th May
Construction Activity Activity in the Irish construction sector grew by the fastest rate in more than two years, the latest industry index has shown. The index, carried out by BNP Paribas Real Estate Ireland, shows that headline construction activity rose to 53.6 in April this year. This is also the first consecutive increase in the index for approx. two years, rising from 51.6 in March. These figures are above the 50 no-change mark, indicating expansion. April saw much stronger growth in commercial development (54.6) than housing (53.4). The Business Post, 13th May
Tallaght and Sandyford, South Dublin Lisney Commercial Real Estate is guiding prices of €4.75m and €2.75m respectively for two development sites in Tallaght and Sandyford. The sales are being conducted on the instruction of receivers over certain assets of Ravensbrook Ltd. The Tallaght site is 2.2 acres and comes for sale with a planning history involving a SHD application for a build-to-rent scheme of 310 apartments, retail, creche and associated works. The second site is occupied by an industrial building of 7,718 sq. ft. The Irish Times, 8th May
Dennehy’s Cross, Cork Permission has been granted for the development of a multi-storey residential accommodation and artisan food market at the long-vacant site of the former Dennehy’s Cross Garage in Cork city. The plans were lodged by Galway firm, Dennehys Cross Construction Ltd. The company was also given the green light for the construction of a four-storey residential development comprising 30 apartments. Permission for the development was lodged in May last year after the firm revised the size of its plan following concerns raised in pre-planning meetings with Cork City Council. The Irish Examiner, 7th May
Leopardstown, Dublin 18 An application for permission to build 463 homes at St Joseph’s House, near Brewery Road in Leopardstown will be considered afresh by An Bord Pleanála following successful High Court challenges to the original approval. Sliverpines Limited, a subsidiary of Homeland Group, had secured fast-track permission for its project under the SHD scheme. The proposal is for six apartment blocks of up to 10 storeys and would be a mix of one-, two- and three-bedroom homes. The Irish Times, 13th May
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