1st October (Issue 466)
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.
RETAIL
Tallaght, Dublin 24 The Square shopping centre has been sold for €130m. Eagle Street Partners has partnered with Arrow Capital in the acquisition of the facility. The Square’s outgoing owner, Oaktree Capital, had been in exclusive talks earlier this year to sell the centre to Hines for up to €129m. That deal encountered a roadblock however following an objection from one of the lenders to the extent of the proposed discount to be applied to the scheme’s already heavily discounted guide price. The Square has over 130 retail units and a 13-screen cinema distributed across 570,486 sq. ft of space. The Irish Times, 25th September
Lucan, Co Dublin Having sold for €43m to Savills IM in 2017, Lucan Shopping Centre has returned to the market through Cushman & Wakefield at the reduced price of €38m. The shopping centre comprises 24 retail units with a combined floor area of 129,252 sq. ft, on a 9.5-acre site. The scheme is anchored by SuperValu. The centre’s other main anchor, Dunnes Stores, owns its own premises. There are 702 free car-parking spaces. The passing rent of the centre is approx. €2.7m, with SuperValu accounting for approx. 60% of the income. The WAULT to expiry is approx. 12.5 years. The Irish Times, 25th September
Opera Lane, Cork Cushman & Wakefield is guiding a price of €22m (NIY 9.10%) for the Opera Lane retail portfolio in Cork City (previously guiding €26.75m in March 2023). Developed originally in 2009, the investment occupies a prime location just off St Patrick’s Street. The units within the subject portfolio extend across a total area of 107,251 sq. ft, are set out over lower-ground, ground, first and mezzanine levels, and have the benefit of 25m frontage to St Patrick’s Street. The investment comes for sale with a strong tenant line-up. The Irish Times, 25th September
Grafton Street, Dublin 2 Ted Baker’s former premises at 42 Grafton Street is now available under a new lease through Colliers at a guide rent of €500k pa. The subject property comprises 4,360 sq. ft of retail accommodation spread across a ground floor of 2,476 sq. ft and first floor of 1,884 sq. ft. Ancillary accommodation is available at basement, second and third floor levels. The Irish Times, 25th September
Co Kildare and Co Meath TWM, acting on behalf of An Post, has brought two post offices to the market for sale in counties Kildare and Meath. The first is the Naas Post Office building on South Main Street in Naas, Co Kildare for which the agent is guiding €1.05m. Naas Post Office will remain in situ in a lease-back agreement following the sale. The second post office is on Kennedy Road in Navan for which the agent is guiding €1m. Navan Post Office will also continue to operate from part of the building on a lease-back agreement following the sale. The Business Post, 28th September
MIXED-USE
Drogheda, Co Meath Drogheda’s Southgate Shopping Centre has been sold in two lots for a total of €22.475m (29% discount to guide price). StarStone Property Group has paid €13.2m for all of the centre’s retail units apart from its anchor store, which is owned by Dunnes Stores, along with its offices and 11 apartments. The remaining 53 apartments were sold by Colliers to a private investor for €9.275m (avg €175k per unit). The retail portion of Southgate Shopping Centre accounts for just 17% of the overall annual rental income of €2.47m pa with offices accounting for 44.5% and residential units for 38%. The Irish Times, 25th September
Kevin Street, Dublin 2 New York-based investors lost €90m on the Camden Yard, a big office and residential development in Dublin. Construction on the site, formerly the DIT campus on Kevin Street in Dublin city centre, has ground to a halt as Westridge Real Estate and Oaktree Capital Management scramble to secure finance to bail out the scheme and stop its senior lender, BGO, appointing a receiver. Approx. 409,028 sq. ft of office space in four office blocks, alongside 325 apartments and retail and restaurant units are planned for the 3.6-acre site near St Stephen’s Green. The Sunday Times, 29th September
HOSPITALITY
Co Wicklow JLL has been appointed to find a buyer for the four-star BrookLodge & Macreddin Village resort. The venue is being offered for sale as a going concern with freehold title and carries a guide price of €17.5m. Located in Co Wicklow, the asset comprises an 85,000 sq. ft complex set within a 16-acre site. The BrookLodge Hotel forms the centrepiece of the resort and of the sale. It has 54 guestrooms, including 20 suites and junior suites, a lounge bar, the flagship Strawberry Tree Restaurant and The Waterside Lounge. The Irish Times, 25th September
Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan Having ceased trading almost immediately after its acquisition in 2023 by Nubility Capital, the former four-star Nuremore Hotel in Monaghan is being offered to the market once more at a guide price of €6m. The sale on this occasion is being handled by CBRE on behalf of the liquidator of Nubility Capital. The Nuremore Hotel briefly comprises 70 bedrooms with facilities that include a restaurant, bar, leisure centre and a large function room. The hotel sits on 160 acres of parkland with a championship golf course as its centrepiece. The Irish Times, 25th September
Martin’s Terrace, Dublin 2 Dublin City Council has given planning permission to convert a seven-storey office development in Dublin’s docklands into a 496-bed tourist hostel. The planning authority has given the green light to Marlet Group for the planned scheme at Martin’s Terrace and adjoining lands at the corner of Macken Street and the newly realigned Hanover Street East despite local concerns that the scheme would result in an over-concentration of tourist accommodation in the area. The decision now paves the way for the Berlin headquartered a&o, to establish its first hostel in the Irish market. The Irish Times, 30th September
Malahide, North Co Dublin FBD Hotels & Resorts is understood to have been named preferred bidder for the Grand Hotel in Malahide. The group has entered into exclusive negotiations to buy the hotel from its current owners, the Ryan family, according to sources. While a deal is not guaranteed, buying the Grand would expand the company’s portfolio to seven properties. The 203-bedroom Grand went on the market during the summer with an asking price of €60m. The Irish Times, 1st October
Grand Canal Dock, Dublin 2 Dublin City Council has invalidated Harry Crosbie’s planning application to construct a two-storey “glass box” in Dublin’s docklands to house a new four-star, 35-bedroom Misery Hill hotel. The council has invalidated the application after the public notices stated that the hotel would have 34 bedrooms but the plans showed that 35 bedrooms were planned. The planning authority has told the applicant firm, Misery Hill Entertainment, that it is “the applicant’s responsibility to ensure the notices adequately describe the works proposed in the drawings submitted with the application”. The Irish Times, 27th September
INDUSTRIAL/LOGISTICS
Grange Castle West, South Dublin Industrial and logistics property development specialist Mountpark has commenced construction of the first phase of a €325m+ logistics campus in south Dublin. The 78-acre site at Grange Castle West can accommodate up to 1.24m sq. ft of logistics space. Mountpark has planning permission for Phase 1 of Grange Castle West, which upon completion will comprise five buildings totalling 626,234 sq. ft. These units will range in size from 70,000 sq. ft to 197,000 sq. ft. The Irish Times, 25th September
Residential / Development
Online Auction, Galway A portfolio of residential investment properties comprising six buildings with 24 residential units in Galway city are being offered for auction on 24th October next with combined guide prices totalling €4.96m. BidX1 plans to auction them in six lots but is willing to accept bids for the overall portfolio. Together they produce €414k in annual income from one tenant, a private Galway professional landlord who is leasing them on leases of up to 30 years. The most valuable of the lots is Apartments 1- 10, Salt Lake Apartments, Lough Atalia Road, a five-storey detached, purpose-built residential block with a €1.35m guide price. The Business Post, 27th September
Stillorgan, South Dublin A 0.34-acre site in Stillorgan with full planning permission for the development of 15 apartments (€90k per unit) is for sale. The Stillorgan Gate site, which includes surface car parking for 14 cars, is being offered to the market on behalf of Eir by Hooke & MacDonald at a guide price of €1.35m. The planning permission comprises a mix of six one-bedroom units, eight two-bedroom units and one three-bedroom penthouse with a wraparound terrace of 1,292 sq. ft. The Irish Times, 25th September
Cabra, Dublin 7 An Bord Pleanála has refused permission for 64 apartments in north Dublin due to concerns the development “would endanger public safety”. Patrick Goslin and Sons Ltd sought planning permission from Dublin City Council for the demolition of all the buildings at 52 and 54 Quarry Road and the redevelopment of the site to provide 64 apartments across three separate apartment blocks. There would also be a commercial premises. The planning application said there would only be five car-parking spaces and 138 places for bikes. The Irish Independent, 30th September
BPFI Report A total of 30,583 first-time buyer mortgages valued at €9.2bn were approved in the 12 months to August 2024, according to the (BPFI). According to figures from the BPFI Mortgage Approvals Report for August 2024, first-time buyers made up 61.5% of mortgages approved in the month. In total, 4,650 mortgages were approved in August, with first-time buyers accounting for 2,862 approvals while mover purchases accounted for 991, accounting for 21.3% of the total volume. The number of mortgages approved fell by 12.5% MoM and rose by 2.6% compared with the same period last year. The Business Post, 27th September
Bank of Ireland Report Ireland has a significantly lower home to population ratio compared to other European countries, according to the latest data from the Bank of Ireland. With a housing stock of approx. 2.18m, Ireland has just over 400 homes for every 1,000 people, the bank found. This places it close to the bottom of a range of European countries led by France and Norway. To close the gap with the UK, the bank said in its latest economic outlook that Ireland would require an additional 200,000 homes. The Business Post, 29th September
Dunsoghly, North Dublin Knight Frank has brought a strategic land holding in North Dublin to the market for which it is seeking offers of €4.5m. The land, located between the M2 Motorway and Dublin Airport in Dunsoghly, St Margaret’s, extends to approx. 129 acres and comprises prime agricultural land currently laid out in tillage. The entire is zoned objective Green Belt ‘to protect and provide for a greenbelt’ under the Fingal Development Plan 2023 – 2029. The Business Post, 28th September
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