18th February (Issue 234)

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.

 

 

RESIDENTIAL / LAND

IFSC, Dublin 1 US-based Exeter Property Group has acquired the student residences at the National College of Ireland (NCI) in Dublin’s IFSC for c.€35.6 million. The Irish Times understands that when the residences were developed NCI had a call option to purchase them 10 years after completion of the development, or by September 2013 at the latest, for €24.9 million. NCI did not exercise the option. The 53 apartments in the scheme are understood to comprise 286 bedrooms, each with en-suite bathrooms (€124k per room). The Irish Times, 12th February

Dublin 11 & Dublin 24 RediResi Icorp, a joint venture between RediResi in the UK and Irish investors, has bought 51 residential properties in two Dublin locations as the first stage of its acquisition of units for refurbishment and letting to local authorities. They paid c.€3.4m for 19 units dispersed among the 400-unit development at Mayeston Hall, St Margaret’s Road, Dublin 11. RediResi has also acquired all 32 units in the crescent-shaped block on a 0.83 acre site at the Round Garden Citywest. Savills had been guiding €7.25m for all 32 units. The Irish Independent understands that the joint venture has secured funding of €91m from NatWest Markets PLC and the global investment boutique Alvarium Investments to procure and refurbish up to 500 units nationwide for long-term leasing to local authorities. The Irish Independent, 13th February

Rathmines, Dublin 6 Dublin City Council has granted planning permission for a 97 bedroom shared “co-living” apartment block at 143 – 149 Rathmines Road Lower, despite local concerns about the project. Permission had been sought for 110 units and change of use at Rathmines House from office use to accommodation in a project that would involve the addition of three floors to create a seven-storey building. However, the council has reduced that plan to six floors to safeguard the visual and residential amenities of the area and of future occupants. The individual bedroom units will vary in size, with shared kitchen, dining and living communal facilities on each floor level. In addition, on the ground floor, there will be reception, gymnasium, residents’ lounge and laundrette. The Irish Times, 7th February

The Liberties, Dublin 8 Harrison Street, along with Global Student Accommodation Group (GSA), is developing a 235 bed student accommodation property in Dublin 8. The project also includes 37 build-to-rent units, which will be managed by GSA. The property, known as Sweeney’s Corner, is scheduled for completion prior to the start of the 2021 academic year, and is located in the Liberties area. The property will include studios and one bed apartments. It will also have communal spaces including a gym and garden. This is the seventh asset that Harrison Street and GSA have developed in Dublin under their joint venture here, which was launched in December 2015. The Irish Independent, 18th February

Merrion Road, Dublin 4 Dublin City Council has granted planning permission for a six-storey block with 63 apartments on the corner site of a former Gowan Motors site on Merrion Road in Dublin 4, despite local objections. The grant of permission follows 1 Merrion Land Ltd previously being refused planning permission for an eight-storey apartment block with 66 apartments at the same site at 143 Merrion Road. The council said the new plan would not seriously injure the residential amenity in the vicinity. The Irish Times, 12th February

Camden Quay, Cork Cushman & Wakefield is guiding €4 million for a largely cleared 0.49 acre plot on Cork’s Camden Quay. The site is opposite Cork Opera House and just one minute’s walk from St Patrick’s Bridge. A six bay, three storey Venetian style period building is located to the fore of the property, the remainder of the site has been cleared to facilitate development. Planning permission was previously granted for an office development of 65,000 sq.ft. It is thought that new applications are likely to obtain permission for larger-scale development in line with the scale of developments being achieved in the city’s docklands. Zoning in the Cork City Development Plan 2015 – 2021 is “City Centre Commercial Core Area,” which allows for a wide mix of uses, with an objective of supporting the retention and expansion of commercial, cultural, leisure and residential uses.The Irish Examiner, 7th February

Ballyboughal, North Co Dublin A 4.7 acres residential development site in Ballyboughal, in north Co Dublin, is being offered for sale by CBRE with a guide price of €975,000. (€207,447 per acre) The site is zoned RV – Rural Village and OS – Open Space under the Fingal Development Plan 2017-2023. It also falls within the Ballyboughal Local Area Plan with an objective “to promote the development of a village park” and “to provide for a community garden and playground”. A feasibility study indicates that it has potential for 18 houses subject to planning permission. The site is located 10km north of Swords, 14km from Dublin Airport and about 24km from Dublin city centre. The Irish Independent, 13th February

 

INDUSTRIAL

Blanchardstown, Dublin 15 Cushman & Wakefield are guiding €16.5 million for the Aurora Building in Ballycoolin Business Park, Blanchardstown. The property comprises two interconnecting office blocks extending to 121,490 sq.ft. (€136 psf) on a site of 6.64 acres (€2.485m per acre). There are also 311 car parking spaces. Extensively refurbished between 2013 and 2015, the Aurora Building is let in its entirety to Veritas Storage (Ireland) Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Veritas Holdings Ltd, under a seven-year lease from December 2015 at a current passing rent of c.€1.21 million per annum. In addition, the tenant is paying an annual fit-out rent of c.€1.79 million per annum, payable for the duration of the lease. Veritas has sublet c.23,000 sq.ft. to eBay Europe Services Ltd until September 2022. The Irish Times, 12th February

 

HOSPITALITY

Talbot Place, Dublin 1 The Jacobs Inn hostel at 21-28 Talbot Place has been sold for c.€30 million to a pan-European investment partnership involving BlackRock Real Assets and specialist hostel operator, Amistat Continental. The sale of the 412-bed property comes just 16 months on from its acquisition by Patron Capital and joint-venture partner, CoDE Pod Hostels for c.€14.5 million. Since securing ownership of the hostel, Patron completed a comprehensive asset management programme aimed at repositioning the property as the leading hostel in Dublin. Patron is understood to have invested c.€5 million on refurbishing the property prior to disposing of it. The Irish Times, 12th February

Newmarket Square, Dublin 8 Premier Inn owner Whitbread has secured a site for a 151-bedroom Premier Inn hotel in the Distillery Quarter at Newmarket Square in Dublin 8. The deal increases the group’s secured development pipeline in Ireland to more than 1,000 bedrooms. Whitbread currently operates one Premier Inn hotel in Ireland at Dublin Airport, with 213 bedrooms. The Irish Times, 12th February

 

OFFICE

Eccles St, Dublin 1 Knight Frank is guiding €2.25 million for 72 Eccles Street, a Georgian four-storey over garden level building let to The Mater Private Hospital. Extending to 4,112 sq.ft. (€547 psf) in total, the building is situated on the south side of Eccles Street, close to its junction with Dorset Street and directly opposite the main entrance to The Mater Private Hospital. The property produces €150,000 per annum in rental income and there is a full repairing and insuring (FRI) lease which includes upward only rent reviews every five years and dates from June 2006 and runs until 31 December 2030. The Irish Independent, 13th February

Sandymount, Dublin 4 Agent Harvey is offering the Tram Depot in Sandymount for rent at €250,000 per annum. The former tram depot building has been extensively restored throughout and converted for office use. The office accommodation extends to 8,434 sq.ft. (€30 psf) and is arranged over two floors comprising a mix of open plan and glazed cellular offices together with other ancillary accommodation. The property also benefits from onsite car parking. Sandymount Village is an eight minute walk and Sandymount Dart Station is an 11 minute walk. The Irish Times, 12th February

 

OTHER

Irish Property Market Up to €24bn is estimated to have been spent buying Irish property last year when the figures for sales of development land, farm land as well as commercial and residential properties are combined. The residential sector accounted for most of the sales both in terms of numbers of deals as well as the value of those deals. A survey by Myhome.ie of the Property Price Register shows €17.88 billion was spent buying residential properties in 2019 – compared with €16.84 billion in 2018, an increase of more than €1 billion. Dublin accounted for over half residential sales with 18,247 residential deals worth a combined €9.11 billion. In Cork, 6,447 residential lots changed hands for a combined €1.7 billion and in Kildare 3,385 sold for a total of €1.02 billion. The Irish Independent, 13th February

Irish Residential Market The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has revealed that residential property prices in Dublin fell by 0.9% over the course of 2019, while the average price across the State rose by 0.9%. In the entirety of 2019, 45,276 purchases were filed with Revenue. Of those, 31.9% were bought by first-time buyer owner occupiers while 52.6% were bought by those trading up. Across the State, households paid a median price of €259,000 to buy a home. The Dublin region had the highest median price of €370,000 and, within the region, Dun Laoghaire Rathdown had the highest median price of €525,000. The Irish Times, 13th February

Irish Residential Market The number of completed homes reached its highest in a decade in the Republic last year, with the number of apartments jumping almost 60% compared with 2018, figures from the Central Statistics Office show. Overall, 6,450 new homes were completed during the final quarter of the year, compared with 5,445 completions during the same period the year before. That equates to an increase of 18.5%. The increase in the fourth quarter brought the total number of new home completions last year to 21,241, which was an increase of 18.3 per cent on the 17,952 built in 2018. However, the figure still falls well short of the 34,000 new homes that the Central Bank estimates are required each year between now and 2030 in order to meet demand. The Irish Times, 11th February

 


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