14th October (Issue 518)
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.
MIXED-USE
Baggot Street, Dublin 4 The Baggot Street Hospital has been brought to the market by Knight Frank on behalf of the HSE, which is hoping to generate more than €5.5m from its sale. It is likely to attract bidding competition from hotel and residential property developers because of its attractive facade and location close to the Aviva Stadium and Dublin’s central business district. It extends from three to five storeys over basement and has an impressive Victorian facade and high ceilings and some impressive views over the city. An additional period two-storey granite building, the Drummond Wing, is situated in the courtyard at the rear of the site fronting on to Eastmoreland Lane. Zoned as Objective Z4, it means that a developer could get planning permission for a hotel, residential complex or embassy office project. Student accommodation or many other high-value uses are also possible. The Irish Independent, 9th October
Industrial
Park West, Dublin 12 ICG has taken ownership of a significant portion of Dublin’s Park West Business Park. ICG is understood to have paid Harcourt Developments over €62m in an off-market deal for a large portfolio. The units included in the deal are said by market sources to comprise a total area of 445,000 sq. ft distributed across several blocks. That price equates to a capital value of €140 psf. The majority of the portfolio was developed originally by Harcourt on the site of the former Semperit tyre manufacturing plant which it acquired for £16m in 1999. Prior to its redevelopment, the Semperit facility comprised more than 550,000 sq. ft of buildings. The buildings acquired by ICG are occupied by a number of tenants including Silent-Aire and Nissan Ireland. Silent Aire expanded its footprint at the scheme in September 2023, when it entered into two new long-term leases on two blocks measuring 40,000 sq. ft and 67,000 sq. ft respectively. The Irish Times, 8th October
Clondra, Co. Longford Harvey has been instructed to re-launch the sale of the former Atlantic Mills facility in Co Longford by way of public tender on Tuesday, November 4th. While the property had originally been offered for sale by private treaty in June, the vendor has opted now to go the public-tender route to secure certainty on the timing of the property’s disposal. The guide price has also been reduced from its original level of €7.25m to €4.95m. The new price equates to just €13.75 psf after allowing €10,000 per acre on the 60 acres that would be surplus to standard site densities. In addition, the property is now being offered with the benefit of a lease to Flamers (Ireland) Sales & Distribution Ltd. in a 83,000 sq. ft section of the building for another 7.8 years and paying a rent of €247,000 pa rising to €300,000 pa in 2028. The building, originally a jeans factory, has an overall floor area of 360,000 sq. ft, with clear internal height of 7.7m-10.5m. Those heights lend themselves to a wide variety of industrial uses and warehousing, with planning permission in place for both. The Irish Times, 8th October
Santry, Co. Dublin A South African investor has paid €1.325m for a fully let industrial investment at Airways Industrial Estate. While the figure represents a 13% premium on the €1.15m which had been guided by Colliers, the new owner is in line for a NIY of 6.52% after standard purchaser’s costs of 9.96%. Unit 23 comprises a purpose-built industrial facility extending to a gross external area of 10,950 sq. ft, with two-storey office accommodation to the front and warehouse space to the rear. The property is fully let to Global Entserv Solutions Ireland Limited, a subsidiary of DXC Technology. The tenant has been in occupation for nearly 40 years and in May 2023 committed to a new lease at €95,000 pa. The Irish Times, 8th October
Office
Fitzwilliam Square, Dublin 2 Number 16, a four-storey over-basement Georgian building and rear mews located in the heart of Dublin’s traditional central business district is guiding €2.6m. The main building extends to 3,960 sq. ft and is let in its entirety on a new 20-year lease with a stepped annual rent of €125,000 increasing to €140,000 in year 3. The mews, which extends to 770 sq. ft, is let on a two-year licence at an annual rent of €27,000. BDM are guiding €2m for the main building, offering the prospective purchaser a NIY of 6.36% or €2.6m for the entire, which equates to a NIY of 5.84%. The Irish Times, 8th October
Retail
Dún Laoghaire, Co. Dublin Alderan has made its second investment in the Irish market, paying €11.5m for Blocks 1 and 2 at The Pavilion. The investment comprises a portfolio of 12 retail units let to a variety of tenants that include Eason, O’Briens and Eddie Rockets. The deal represents Alderan’s first acquisition in Ireland on behalf of its real estate fund SCPI Comète. The two blocks acquired by Alderan form part of the wider Pavilion mixed-use scheme that includes the Pavilion Theatre and apartments. The investment comprises approximately 50,000 sq. ft of retail accommodation, all of which is fully let, with an average lease length of more than eight years. Alderan stands to secure a NIY of approx. 7.5% from this latest investment. The Irish Times, 8th October
Raheny, Dublin 5 A former car showroom premises is guiding €1.95m through Cushman & Wakefield. It is the former premises of Harmonstown Motors, a Ford dealership which also serviced the Porsche car market. Located at 146 Harmonstown Road, the main building has a gross internal area of 9,718 sq. ft and is located on a 0.7 acre plot. The property is zoned Inner Suburban and Inner City Sustainable Mixed-Use. This detached, self-contained property currently comprises a car service centre and showroom, first-floor office space, canteen facilities and a small external storage warehouse. The property enjoys frontage onto Harmonstown Road to the north and is bordered to the south by the Dublin-Howth commuter rail line, with Harmonstown Dart Station just 200 metres away. The Irish Independent, 2nd October
Mullingar, Co. Westmeath JD Sports is set to join the line-up at Fairgreen shopping centre in early 2026. The European sportswear fashion retailer has agreed a deal to occupy a new 7,400 sq. ft store at the scheme. The opening of JD Sports is expected to add considerably to Fairgreen’s appeal to its estimated catchment of 88,000. The centre, which has an annual footfall of more than 1m visitors is anchored by Penneys and TK Maxx. Fairgreen opened for business in 2005 and while the centre traded well, the loans underpinning it were sold in the aftermath of the crash to Car Val Investors. In 2017, the scheme came close to being sold to US-headquartered investor Oaktree for about €11m. The centre was acquired by its current owner, a fund managed by Davy Real Estate, after it was offered to the market a year later at a reduced guide price of €8.6m. Fairgreen is now asset managed by Lanthorn. The Irish Times, 8th October
Residential/Development
Mulgrave Road, Cork City 18 apartments at Knapps Square, across the bridge from Cork Opera House, are for sale in one lot through Sherry Fitzgerald. The €4.6m price equates to an average of €255,000 per unit. The Property Price Register shows good growth in Knapps Square sale prices this year, with one two-bed selling for €288,000. The units are fully occupied and generate a gross annual rental income of €291,168. All of the apartments, owned by a local investor, are in the same block, and include 17 two-bed units and a single one-bed, with sizes varying from 592 sq. ft to 733 sq. ft. The Examiner, 9th October
Castleknock, Dublin 15 The former Dublin home of Ben Dunne is set to be demolished after it was sold for close to €11m with planning permission granted for a large residential development to replace it. Winterwood is an eight-bedroom house and measures approx. 12,000 sq. ft on a four-acre site on the Carpenterstown Road. According to the Property Price Register (“PPR”), Winterwood was sold for €2.4m on September 1st. However, the PPR doesn’t include the surrounding lands. Sources told the Irish Independent that the house and 4.4-acre site went for just over €10.5m. It is understood it has been sold to Winterwood Developments Ltd. The company had applied for planning permission to knock down the house and build 175 properties and a childcare facility in its place. The sale closed more than two weeks before An Coimisiún Pleanála (“ACP”) granted permission following an appeal. Fingal County Council approved the development plans earlier this year, but it was met with staunch opposition from locals. There were 125 submissions made from residents living nearby. ACP granted permission for the demolition of Winterwood and the construction of 30 houses, 145 apartments and a creche. The Irish Independent, 11th October
Ballincollig, Co. Cork O’Flynn Group has lodged plans for 1,150 homes in Ballincollig under the large-scale residential development (LRD) application process. The 67 acre site, which is located in the Maglin area of Ballincollig, will also feature a childcare facility and a retail area, with the units comprising a mix of houses, duplexes and apartments. The Business Post, 13th October
Ballsbridge, Dublin 4 Badlands Property has appealed Dublin City Council’s (“DCC”) refusal of its plans to build a new six-storey hotel at the former Ulster Bank branch in Ballsbridge. A planning application lodged with the council said the proposed boutique hotel would include 24 bedrooms and a roof terrace with a swimming pool. The application for the Shelbourne Road site was refused by DCC on 2nd September, based on the scale of the structure and the negative impact it would have on traffic in the area. The Business Post, 10th October
Other
Churchtown, Co. Cork. The sale has completed of the ex-Padre Pio nursing home on 5.4 acres in Churchtown. It has 50 beds across 47 bedrooms and had planning permission granted in 2021 for a further 31 bedrooms, with further possible development scope on some of the lands. Previously operated by the Aperee group, the nursing home sold for over €2.1m. It has been acquired by an operator with another nursing home in the same village and aims to reopen by December of this year. Windmill Healthcare has six other Irish nursing homes. The former Aperee home was for sale as part of a portfolio for four ex-Aperee owned homes with a combined €8m guide via Cohalan Downing, with other sales in that bundle also progressing. The Examiner, 9th October
Purchasing Managers Index Construction activity retracted for a fifth month running amid falling orders and employment, with the headline index falling at its fastest pace since December 2022, according to AIB’s Ireland construction PMI for September. Ireland’s figure for September came in at 43.7, a sharp fall on the 45.9 recorded in August and remaining below the 50.0 “no change” mark. Work on housing projects also decreased for the fifth consecutive month, albeit at a softer rate than the decline seen in August. Meanwhile, civil engineering activity had the sharpest decline, notching its fastest drop since October 2022. The civil engineering sector recorded a level of 38.1, by far the lowest sector rating. Commercial construction had its most pronounced drop since December of 2023, ending the month with a 43.1 score, while housing came in with a 45.3 rating. The Business Post, 14th October
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