23rd May (Issue 398)

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.

 

HOSPITALITY

Malahide Road, Dublin 17 The Canadian owners of the Hilton Dublin Airport hotel are preparing to put it on the market for more than €30m. Westmont Hospitality Group bought the property in 2018 for in excess of €22.5m. The purchase was its first acquisition in the Irish market. Market sources say the company has now appointed JLL to begin marketing the property. The company renovated and extended the four-star hotel in 2020. It has approx. 180 bedrooms. Latest accounts for Dublin Malahide Operations Limited, the hotel operator, show it had revenues of more than €3m in 2021. The Sunday Times, 21st May

Planning Permissions, Dublin Plans have been lodged for two hotels in Dublin’s city centre that would add 312 bedrooms to the stock of accommodation in the capital. A scheme by ORHRE Camden Row Ltd has proposed a seven-storey 195-bedroom hotel at Camden Row in Dublin 8. In a separate application, Dalata subsidiary DHG Dalton Ltd has lodged plans for a 10-storey 117-bedroom hotel extension for its Clayton hotel on Cardiff Lane in Dublin 2. Decisions are due on the applications in July. The Irish Times, 22nd May

Kenmare, Kerry The Park Hotel Kenmare and its sister hotel, the Lansdowne Kenmare are being offered to the market by CBRE individually or together with a combined guide price of €20.5m. The Park Hotel Kenmare, which dates from 1897, has long been regarded as one of Ireland’s foremost five-star hotels. The hotel’s 41 guest rooms and suites are complemented by five dining rooms, among other amenities. The Park Hotel Kenmare has, in recent years, benefited from more than €3m in capital investment involving refurbishment. The Park Hotel Kenmare occupies a 7.5-acre site next to the 18-hole Kenmare Golf Club and has direct access to the town’s Main Street. The Lansdowne Kenmare is a 28-bedroom boutique hotel in the town itself. The Irish Times, 17th May

 

OFFICE

Ballsbridge, Dublin 4 With the embassy of South Korea having relocated to a new address on Merrion Square, HWBC has been retained to find a buyer for its former premises in Dublin 4. Clyde House and Clyde Lodge (15 and 15A Clyde Road) are being offered to the market at a guide price of €4.75m. The sale is being conducted on behalf of Clyde Property Management (Dublin) Limited, a company owned ultimately by a Cullen family trust. Clyde House comprises a substantial two-storey over garden-level detached Victorian house with a total gross internal area of 5,011 sq. ft and ample on-site parking to the front and rear. Clyde Lodge, the adjacent two-storey mews, extends to 1,604 sq. ft and comes with five car-parking spaces included as part of its sale. The property is let until March 2026 to Cullen Communications, the public relations and marketing agency paying a rent of €62k pa. The Irish Times, 17th May

Ringsend, Dublin 4 Finnegan Menton is guiding a price of €3.95m for the Dublin headquarter office of global PR and marketing giant, FleishmanHillard. 14-15 Fitzwilliam Quay comprises a modern office block of 9,408 sq. ft distributed over three floors. There are eight car-parking spaces in a cobblelock front courtyard, with an option to acquire an additional 14 spaces close by if required. The accommodation is fully fitted and laid out in a mix of open-plan and partitioned offices, meeting rooms, boardroom and staff facilities. With FleishmanHillard set to relocate to new offices later this year, the subject property is being offered for sale on behalf of its owner with the benefit of full vacant possession. The guide price of €3.95m equates to a cost of €420 per sq. ft, including the eight car-parking spaces. The Irish Times, 17th May

 

MIXED-USE

South William Street, Dublin 2 Metro Cafe on Dublin’s South William Street has been acquired by a private Irish investor with its adjoining premises on Chatham Row for €2.35m. The property, at 43 South William Street and 1 Chatham Row, comprises a four-storey over-basement building of 3,041 sq. ft and is in a location just 300m from Grafton Street. Metro Cafe occupies the ground floor and basement of the subject property and pays a rent of €87.5k annually, under two separate leases, expiring in 2030, with upwards-only rent review provisions. There is 800 sq. ft on the ground floor and a further 380 sq. ft at basement level. There are three two-bedroom apartments overhead, which together are producing €74.9k pa under separate residential tenancy agreements. All told, the investment is generating €162.4k pa. The Irish Times, 17th May

 

INDUSTRIAL / LOGISTICS

Blanchardstown, Dublin 15 Harvey has been instructed as the sole selling agent of Unit 7 Blanchardstown Corporate Park, a refrigerated warehouse, with a guide of €4m. The detached warehouse and office facility extends to a total gross external floor area of approx. 28,621 sq. ft. The property is let to Fitzpatrick’s & Hanley’s Ltd, trading as Caterway on a ten-year FRI lease from the December 1, 2018 at a rent of €200k pa, exclusive of all other outgoings. The lease incorporates a tenant-only break option at the end of year seven of the term, subject to 12 months’ notice. The lease incorporates a market rent review in December 2023, with a substantial increase in rent likely achievable at that time based on recent evidence. The Business Post, 20th May
For lending terms on this asset please contact rossmetcalfe@origincapital.ie

 

RETAIL

Cook Street, Cork Murphy’s, the famous Dingle-brand ice cream, has taken out a 10-year lease, at a cost of approx. €40k pa, with a break option in year four and year seven. The shop, on the corner of Cook Street and Oliver Plunkett Street, is Murphy’s first venture into Cork. Murphy’s will operate out of the 420 sq. ft ground floor of No. 7 Cook Street. The Irish Examiner, 18th May

Henry Street, Dublin 1 HMV is opening a flagship store in Dublin city centre where two previous incarnations faltered in the face of rapidly changing consumer habits. The Dublin shop will be spread over three floors stocking 5,000 vinyl albums, 5,500 CDs as well as “over 3,000 pop culture products and 1,000 different T-shirt designs”. The Irish Times, 18th May

 

RESIDENTIAL / DEVELOPMENT

North Wall Quay, Dublin Greystar, an American residential landlord, is considering the sale of its Quayside Quarter development at Dublin Landings for approx. €200m. The company bought the 268 apartments from Ballymore in 2019, which was its first investment in Ireland. The development, which is located on North Wall Quay, comprises a mix of one, two and three-bedroom apartments as well as a small number of three-bedroom duplexes. According to market sources, UBS, a co-investor with Greystar, is driving the sale. The Sunday Times, 21st May

Cabinteely, Dublin 18 CBRE has launched to the market by way of private treaty and on the instruction of PWC, a substantial residential development site of approx. 29.4 acres on Brennanstown Road, close to Cabinteely and Foxrock Villages in Dublin 18. ‘Brennanstown’, is available in one or more lots. Lot 1: Druid’s Glen, comprises approx. 8.8 acres of residential development land and 11.1 acres of forestry land. Lot 2: Lehaunstown, comprises approx. 9.5 acres of residential development land, with a small portion zoned for town centre use under the Cherrywood SDZ. Lot 3, comprising the entire, extends to approx. 29.4 acres, with development potential for in excess of 370 residential units and approx. 6,458 sq. ft of commercial space. The subject lands were initially launched in market in 2018 when CBRE was guiding in excess of €35m for the overall site. The Business Post, 20th May

Cabinteely, Dublin 18 Kelly Walsh Property Advisors has been instructed to sell a prime four-acre residential plot of land on Johnstown Road in Cabinteely, Dublin 18. The lands comprise four acres at Johnstown House, close to Cabinteely village, the N11 and Cornelscourt. Kelly Walsh is quoting in excess of €5m for the lands, which are for sale by private treaty. The Business Post, 20th May

North Great George Street, Dublin The High Court has refused to quash two sets of planning permissions for a co-living development off North Great George’s Street in Dublin city. Mr. Justice Richard Humphreys dismissed the proceedings brought by the North Great George’s Street Preservation Society, which comprises local residents, over the permissions granted for alternative schemes of more than 100 units. Permission for a 132-unit rental development was granted to developer Hillstreet Limited Partnership in 2019 by Dublin City Council and in 2020 by An Bord Pleanála on appeal. Subsequent approval was given for 150 bed spaces for an alternative development on the site. The Irish Times, 17th May

House price inflation continues to slow in the face of higher interest rates and broader cost of living pressures. The latest Residential Property Price Index shows prices nationally increased by 3.9% in the 12 months to March this year, down from an annual rate of 5.1% in February and over 15% a year earlier. The was the lowest rate of increase recorded in over two years. On a monthly basis, house prices fell for a third straight month in March – declining by 0.6% – echoing the reversals seen in other countries. The latest figures show house prices in Dublin rose by just 1.7% on an annual basis in March while property prices outside Dublin were 5.7% higher than a year earlier. Prices in the capital have been falling on a monthly basis since October. In March, they were 0.9% lower. The latest figures show households paid a median of €310k for a home in the 12 months to March. Property prices nationally have increased by 126.6 per cent from their trough in early 2013. The latest figures show there 4,132 properties bought by households in March. This represents a 5.4% increase compared with the 3,921 purchases in March 2022 and a 23.3% increase compared with the 3,351 purchases in February this year. The total value of transactions filed in March was €1.5bn. The Irish Times, 17th May

Social Housing Local authorities in Dublin are paying private building contractors significantly more for social housing than their regional counterparts, in some cases almost twice as much, according to the Department of Housing’s own data. The figures show the average per-unit cost of social housing, funded through the department’s Social Housing Investment Programme (SHIP), in Dublin City last year was €386,391. In the South Dublin County Council area and Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown the per-unit costs were €356,789 and €311,235 respectively. This compares to €194,389 in Roscommon, €209,107 in Donegal, €229,886 in Galway County Council and €236,571 in Longford. The findings highlight the rapid rise in construction costs since the pandemic and raise questions about the ability of local councils to control costs. In Dublin City the average per-unit cost for social housing rose by 63% between 2020 and 2022 from €237,377 to €386,391. In Cork County, it rose by 41% from €212,373 in 2020 to €298,657 in 2022 while in Kilkenny it rose by 90% from €178,891 to €340,559. The department’s figures come in the wake of an independent audit of more than 1,000 Dublin homes, released earlier this year, which found that Dublin City Council has been paying in excess of 40% more for the construction of social housing than private sector developers. The Irish Times, 23rd May

 

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