24th October (Issue 420)
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
Sandyford, Dublin 18 Colliers has launched the investment sale of three fully let suburban offices including 15 designated car parking spaces, with a guide price for the lot of €2.3m (NIY 8.78%; WAULT 2.65 years). Unit A is fully let to Allied Pension Trustees Ltd on a 25-year lease from April 2003, at a passing rent of €112k pa. The expiry is April 2028 and the lease contains five basement car parking spaces. Unit B is occupied by licence agreement to ARMD Ltd, on a two-year agreement to expire in December 2023. The licence fee is €58.97k pa. There are five basement car parking spaces included in the licence agreement. Unit D is fully let to Ethos Engineering by way of a ten-year lease from March 2016 and at a passing rent of €51.13k pa and five designated car parking spaces. The Apex Business Centre is a five-storey, modern office building housing self-contained office suites. The office suites are located on the first, second and third floors of the building and are laid out to provide modern open-plan floor plates which extend to a total (all three) of 8,115 sq. ft. The Business Post, 20th October
Point Depot, Dublin Docklands Property agents for Dublin’s tallest office building, The EXO, say the block is now 80% let. Yahoo is understood to have taken 35,703 sq. ft of offices in the tower across the first and second floors. Yahoo already occupies a headquarters building at the nearby Point Village. The signing is the largest office leasing deal in the second half of this year so far. A Post, which moved its corporate headquarters to the EXO earlier this year, is the biggest tenant and occupies six of the 17 stories. Architecture and design firm, Corgan, has secured 5,575 sq. ft. on the 11th floor, while Ancestry, the digital family history platform, is set to occupy 5,576 sq. ft. on the 10th floor. The EXO is being funded by SW3 and EPISO 4, a fund managed by Tristan Capital Partners, who bought the site in 2018 from Nama appointed receivers. The Irish Independent, 20th October
BNP Paribas Real Estate Ireland Office Report Declining demand among large tech firms and remote working have fuelled further contraction in the Dublin office market, according to BNP Paribas Real Estate, with office vacancy in the capital rising to 12.5% in the three months to September. New research from the global real estate and financial services company has shown that office take-up in the third quarter of this year declined sharply, down two thirds compared with the same period last year. This was driven by a reduction in average deal size, which fell from 16,253 sq. ft to 7,050 sq. ft. The finding comes amid turmoil in Ireland’s €50bn commercial property market, with owners surrendering properties to lenders in a sign of acute stresses that have emerged in the market over recent months. A growing shift in demand away from tech firms in Q3 fed the trend towards small deals, according to BNP, with tech firms accounting for just 8.4% of take-up between July and September – its lowest share since quarterly records began. The Business Post, 23rd October
Pembroke Row, Dublin 2 Principal Global Investors has agreed a deal to occupy the ground floor (2,392 sq. ft) of Kildress House on Pembroke Row on a new 10-year lease and at a rent of €53.50 per sq. ft. Developed originally by MRP approx. 35 years ago as a three-storey office block, Kildress House has undergone a full redevelopment and been transformed into a six-storey grade-A office scheme of 22,200 sq. ft. The Irish Times, 18th October
South Docklands, Dublin TikTok has told its Dublin-based employees that they will begin working from the company’s new offices at the Sorting Office in the city’s south docklands from December. While the Sorting Office has the capacity to accommodate 2,000 people, market sources believe that the move to occupy the 202,000 sq. ft building will be a gradual process with individual teams taking their places there over a number of months. The news of TikTok’s arrival to the Sorting Office comes just under two years on from its agreement of a new long-term lease of 15 years on the property. The Irish Times, 19th October
HOSPITALITY
JD Wetherspoon, the UK pub chain, has placed its regional portfolio on the market in a move that will halve its Irish presence. The hospitality giant, which has eight trading pubs in Ireland, is seeking in excess of €10m for pubs in Waterford, Cork, Carlow and Galway. Savills and CBRE have been jointly appointed to look after the sale. Three of the properties – An Geata Arundel, Arundel Square, Waterford, The Linen Weaver, Paul Street, Cork and The Tullow Gate, Tullow Street, Carlow – are trading and in “turnkey condition”. The fourth premises – the former Carbon Night Club, 19-21 Eglington Street, Galway – is not currently in business, but has recently been granted planning permission to permit licensed premises and restaurant use. It is understood the group will continue to operate in Dublin, where it currently operates out of five premises. The Business Post, 18th October
Baggot Street Upper and Dundrum, South Dublin Two southside Dublin pubs have come to the market in recent days through Lisney. The most valuable of them is Bar Eile on the corner of Baggot Street Upper and Mespil Road in Dublin 4, which has a price guide in excess of €2m. Formerly known as The Wellington, in 2021 it was bought for approx. €2.3m by investment group Dunmore which also owns Walters pub in Dún Laoghaire and is believed to be refocusing its business. The property extends to over 3,444 sq. ft and has bars at ground, basement and first floor levels. Further south, Ryan’s Arbour House in Dundrum has a €1.75m-plus guide price. It stands on a 0.37-acre site with ‘neighbourhood centre’ zoning. It is being sold by the Ryan family who also own Ryan’s pub in Dundrum village. The property is currently laid out with public bar and lounge bar to ground floor level, former residence to first floor and stores to basement level complemented by on-site car parking. The Irish Independent, 19th October
Smithfield, Dublin 7 The operators of the Hampton by Hilton in Dublin’s Smithfield have said they will be “forced to close” their on-site café due to a six-figure loss since it opened in 2022. The JMK Group, which has proposed replacing the café with four additional hotel rooms, said it could boost the hotel’s after-tax profits by €86k and avoid the café space becoming vacant. The three-star Hampton by Hilton hotel in Smithfield opened in July 2022. The development on Chancery Street contains 249 rooms spread across seven floors. A subsidiary of the JMK Group, which runs the hotel, has now applied for permission to convert its Guud Day Café on the ground floor of the hotel into four extra hotel rooms and two meeting rooms. Dublin City Council will now rule in the coming weeks over whether the hotel operator can convert the café into extra meeting rooms and hotel bedrooms. The Business Post, 19th October
INDUSTRIAL / LOGISTICS
North Dublin CBRE, on behalf of Dublin City Council, has brought five light industrial units to the market in North Dublin on a leasehold basis by way of assignment. Three of the properties are located within the established North Ring Business Park, which benefits from easy access to both the M50 motorway and Dublin Airport. Unit N4 is a modern end of terrace unit extending to a total gross external area of 3,520 sq. ft. Units M4 and M5 are adjoining units of 5,715 sq. ft and 5,790 sq. ft respectively. Unit F2 Eklad Park, Malahide Road Industrial Estate is a mid-terraced unit extending to a total GEA of 4,510 sq. ft. Unit E1-5 Carton Way, Ballymun Industrial Estate extends to 6,253 sq. ft and includes two-storey office space of 2,680 sq. ft. Dublin City Council has recently completed its new build-to-suit HQ facility in North Dublin and will be offering each of the subject properties to the market on a leasehold basis by way of assignment. The remaining unexpired lease terms on each range from three to six years. The Business Post, 21st October
MIXED-USE
Trim, Co Meath Plans have been lodged for a €17.5m mixed-use development in Trim. The project for Marina Quarter Limited calls for the construction of 102 residential units, a two-storey commercial building, crèche and medical centre. The development is expected to have a planning decision made in late November. The Business Post, 21st October
Dooradoyle, Co Limerick Planning permission has been sought from Limerick Council for a €27m mixed-use development in Dooradoyle. The project for Can2 Investments will see the construction of 104 apartments, in a mix of one, two and three-bedroom units, a childcare facility, gym, library and retail units. The scheme proposes a link to the existing South Court Hotel. A decision is expected in November. The Business Post, 21st October
RESIDENTIAL / DEVELOPMENT
Dublin and Waterford An Bord Pleanála has decided not to contest two High Court challenges to its planning permissions for 749 homes in counties Dublin and Waterford. The board told the court it is no longer defending its approval for the development of 531 build-to-rent apartments in Dundrum, south Dublin, and 218 dwellings in Dungarvan. The proposed €316m development at Marmalade Lane, Wyckham Avenue, Dundrum, includes a 10-storey block, an outdoor cinema, a yoga studio and a rooftop garden allotment. The April 2022 decision to approve the five-block scheme came before the High Court by way of a judicial review challenge by a local group, Residents WBC CLG. The board is understood to have conceded on the ground that it failed to publish an environmental impact assessment on its website. This is the second time permission granted to developer 1 Wyckham Land Ltd for a large residential scheme on the site has been challenged in the High Court. The previous approval, for 446 apartments, fell after the board consented to an order quashing its decision. The Irish Times, 23rd October
Monkstown, South Dublin Greystar is contesting Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council’s decision to refuse planning for a 488-unit scheme on grounds around Dalguise House on Monkstown Road in south Dublin. Greystar subsidiary GEDV Monkstown Owner Limited has appealed the council’s planning refusal to An Bord Pleanála. The refusal came after more than 70 objections were lodged against the scheme. It would comprise 488 new-build units and three two-storey, three-bed terraced units across ten blocks. One of the blocks would reach to nine storeys. The Irish Times, 18th October
Residential Zoned Land Tax (RZLT) Several landowners, including a university, have brought legal challenges against findings that their properties are eligible for RZLT. The High Court judicial review actions all centre around An Bord Pleanála’s decisions to uphold earlier findings by local authorities that properties should be included on maps of sites where the ‘land-hoarding tax’ applies. One of the parties taking the actions, property developer Kinwest Ltd which owns land in Malahide, Dublin, claims that the sections of the Taxes Consolidation Act that underpins the RZLT is unconstitutional and is also contrary to the European Convention on Human Rights. The tax, introduced last year and is due to come into being in 2025, is set at 3% of the properties’ market value. Dublin City University (DCU) obtained permission from Ms Justice Niamh Hyland to challenge the board’s decision to include two sites, one at Griffith Avenue, Glasnevin in Dublin 9 and the other at Albert College Park, close to DCU’s campus at Glasnevin. The Irish Independent, 24th October
Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) The median income of working households dependent on HAP last year was less than €20k, with single parents with one child the most common household type to enter a HAP tenancy. The latest HAP data from the CSO also shows the growing concentration of HAP properties in the ownership of large landlords and decreasing among smaller ones. In its analysis of the HAP scheme for 2022, the CSO finds there were 68,180 “unique HAP households” – up from 65,590 in 2020. The CSO reports the median gross household earned income for working HAP households was €19,341 last year – up slightly from €18,867 in 2021. The proportion of HAP properties owned by landlords with 50 or more properties has increased every year from 1.3% in 2015 to 19% in 2022. The increase in the number of HAP properties owned by these larger landlords is mirrored by a decrease in the proportion of landlords with just one or two properties, with this decreasing from close to three-quarters (74%) in 2015 to just under a half (48.7%) in 2022. The Irish Times, 20th October
Foxrock, South Dublin Knight Frank is guiding a price of €1.695m for a residential development opportunity in the South Dublin suburb of Foxrock. Located within the existing Knocksinna residential scheme, the subject property currently comprises a detached house known as Windrush. The house sits on a 0.55-acre site. Windrush is zoned “Objective A” under the terms of the Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Development Plan 2022-2028. This designation allows for residential development and for the improvement of residential amenity while protecting the existing residential amenities of the area. The Irish Times, 18th October
Tralee, Co Kerry Plans are in the pipeline for a €41m residential development in Lisloose, Tralee. The development, for Ned O’Shea and Sons Construction, proposes more than 250 residential units in a mix of apartments and houses. A decision is expected in late 2023/early 2024. The Business Post, 21st October
Tullamore, Co Offaly An Bord Pleanála has upheld Offaly County Council’s decision to grant planning permission to Daingean Road Residential Limited for a €20.4m large residential development application in Tullamore. The project will see the construction of 102 residential units in a mix of apartments and houses. The Business Post, 21st October
Adamstown, South Dublin Plans have been approved by South Dublin County Council for a new phase of Quintain Developments’ Adamstown project. This new phase will see the construction of 205 residential units in a mix of houses, apartments and duplexes. The Business Post, 21st October
Tullamore, Co Offaly Works have commenced on a €31m residential development in Arden, Tullamore. The project for Whitebox Property Developments will see the construction of approx. 80 residential units and a 90-bedroom nursing home. This first phase will see the construction of 61 houses. The Business Post, 21st October
Tullow Road, Co Carlow Work is expected to commence imminently on a €16m residential development on the Tullow Road. The project for Nesselside Builders will see the construction of more than 80 residential units in a mix of apartments and houses. The project is estimated to reach completion in the next two-three years. The Business Post, 21st October
Duke Street, Dublin 2 The sale of the last remaining period house on Dublin’s Duke Street is expected to attract interest from a range of parties including high-end retailers, restaurateurs, cafes and boutique hoteliers. No. 17, the current home of the Duke Street Gallery, is being offered to the market by Finnegan Menton with the benefit of vacant possession at a guide price of €2m. The subject property briefly comprises a four-storey over-basement building with a net internal area of 2,675 sq. ft and a gross internal area of 3,550 sq. ft. The Irish Times, 18th October
Bray, Co Wicklow A 16.4-acre site on Bray’s southern fringe has been brought to market. Located off the Vevay Road and immediately adjacent to the existing Giltspur residential scheme, Oldcourt House, its castle and extensive grounds are being offered to the market at a guide price of €5m. The subject property is primed for development, with zoning objectives of new residential, existing residential and open space. The Irish Times, 18th October
Construction Price Inflation The latest House Rebuilding Guide, published by the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland (SCSI), shows that national average rebuild costs, which include demolition and site clearance, have increased by an average of 12% over the past 12 months. The SCSI welcomed the figure as moderation on last year’s rate, which showed that home rebuild costs increased by 21% in the 12 months to September 2022. The society estimated that the minimum base cost of rebuilding a three-bed semi is now €303.2k in Dublin, while the minimum base cost of rebuilding a similar house in the northwest is €225.2k – a difference of more than €78k. The Irish Times, 20th October
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