25th February (Issue 485)
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
Dublin 15 Having already secured some 150 occupiers at Blanchardstown Corporate Park, Channor Real Estate Group has commenced construction on a new 30,177 sq. ft facility. Upon completion, Unit 271 will comprise warehouse space of 23,754 sq. ft and 6,423 sq. ft of grade-A two-storey offices and staff facilities. The property is being made available under the terms of a new, long-term lease through joint agents CBRE and Harvey at an annual rent of €450,000 (exclusive). The Irish Times, 18th February
HOSPITALITY
Co. Monaghan A consortium of investors, led by the McGettigan family, has acquired the former four-star Nuremore Hotel & Country Club in Carrickmacross. The Irish Times understands the new owners secured the property for around the €6m price which had been guided by agent CBRE on behalf of Declan De Lacy, liquidator of Nubility Capital. The hotel and golf resort will now undergo a refurbishment. The hotel 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, 18th February
Kilkenny An Bord Pleanála has given the green light for the construction of a new 136-bedroom hotel in Kilkenny City. The hotel, by Salway Limited, will be located on lands adjacent to the Hebron Road/N10 in Blanchfieldsland in Kilkenny City. The development will comprise of a hotel, leisure and conference complex incorporating the refurbishment and change of use of Hebron House into a hotel reception with meeting rooms and offices, the development of hotel parkland and the construction of an access road off the N10. The Irish Independent, 21st February
Dublin 2 Michael Wright has applied for planning permission to open a gastropub at the site of the former Dylan McGrath restaurant Rustic Stone. The building on the corner of South Great Georges St and Exchequer St is a protected structure and has been vacant since liquidators were appointed to the McGrath restaurant late last year. Wright’s firm Mink Fusion has applied for permission for a change of use of the building from a licensed restaurant to a gastropub, as well as permission to carry out internal alterations. The Business Post, 18th February
Crowe Report National hotel occupancy decreased by 0.5% in 2024 to 79.5%. However, the Average Daily Rate (ADR) rose by 1.2%, with significant gains in the Galway (+4.1%) and Limerick (+2.7%) markets. As a result, national RevPAR increased by 0.5% yoy. In Dublin, occupancy for 2024 increased by 0.3% to 82.3%. ADR for the year fell by 2.6% (to €175) compared to 2023. Consequently, RevPAR decreased by 2.2% year-on-year. Cork’s 2024 performance saw a decline of 2.1% in occupancy compared with 2023, and a decline of 1.0% in ADR. RevPAR fell to €119, a 3.5% yoy decrease. This decline is partly attributed to the impact of new supply in the Cork city market, which saw the opening of two new hotels during 2024. Crowe Market Update, 20th February
IHF Report The Irish Hotels Federation has said advance bookings are down, approx. 2% and worth about €100m, in 2025 compared with this time last year. 2025 would be the second year in a row that business sentiment among hoteliers was down, with just 37% reporting a positive outlook for trading conditions over the next 12 months. This contrasts with 47% who reported a positive outlook this time last year and 74% the previous year. The research conducted among the federation members showed average national hotel room occupancy stood at 74% in 2024, down 2% on 2023. While the domestic market and North America are holding up so far, hoteliers are reporting a net drop in bookings from Britain, Northern Ireland and the rest of Europe. The Irish Times, 24th February
OFFICE
Sandyford Office space is available to rent at €25 psf in Heron House, Sandyford Business District through Maguire Chartered Surveyors. The owners may also consider a sale, though no price was quoted. Heron House extends to a total of 18,584 sq. ft over three storeys, but smaller businesses can also avail of smaller amounts of floor space, starting with from 7,000 sq. ft. In addition, there are up to 50 surface car spaces available. It occupies a high-profile corner site of 0.75 acres, on the corner of Corrig Road and Blackthorn Road. The Irish Independent, 19th February
Cork City The Director of Public Prosecutions is to open a regional office at Navigation Square, in its first move out of Dublin since it was established 50 years ago. The Irish Examiner understands that the State prosecution service is to lease 9,000 sq. ft at the O’Callaghan Properties developed Navigation Square 1 which the developer sold to French investors Corum XL for €60m in 2021. The Examiner, 21st February
RETAIL
Medical Portfolio Colliers is guiding €5m for a long-income medical-use portfolio. The investment, which is being offered for sale in one or more lots, offers the prospective buyer the opportunity to secure a Net Initial Yield (NIY) of 6.5%. The portfolio comprises four assets across Lucan, Co Dublin, Maynooth, Co Kildare and Ennis, Co Clare. All four properties are fully occupied by a mix of tenants, including Centric Health, the OPW and Claremed Pharmacy. The Irish Times, 18th February
New Look Fashion retailer New Look is to exit Ireland with the High Court approving the appointment of Shane McCarthy and Cormac O’Connor of KPMG Ireland as provisional liquidators. New Look employs a total of 347 staff across its 26-store network in the Republic of Ireland. A majority of its stores are of small to medium size, employing an average of 12-13 staff per store. New Look first entered the Irish market in 2003. Rte.ie, 19th February
Quiz has also shut 23 stores in the UK and Ireland after falling into administration, putting around 200 jobs at risk. It said that its Irish stores in Athlone, Tallaght and Newbridge would close, while stores in Derry and Enniskillen will also shut. Last month, the company said it was searching for emergency funding. Quiz confirmed that it hired insolvency practitioner Teneo as administrator to Zandra, its subsidiary business which runs its shops in the UK and Ireland. Rte.ie, 19th February
Normal Danish retailer Normal, which specialises in branded toiletries, is planning a move into the Irish market. Normal was founded in 2013 and is controlled by Danish billionaire Anders Holch Povlsen, who also owns chains Vero Moda and Jack & Jones. Normal currently has about 900 stores across Europe. It has added about 600 stores to its network in the past five years. It generated revenue of €1.6bn in the financial year to the end of last July and made a €91m profit after tax. The Irish Independent, 21st February
Victorian Market The €26m redevelopment of Dublin’s Victorian fruit and vegetable market is finally getting under way, six years after it was closed by Dublin City Council. Construction and conservation work at the 127-year-old market building close to Capel Street is scheduled to begin by June with a new retail and restaurant complex, housing at least 80 stalls. Completion is expected in the third quarter of 2027 at a cost of €26.4m. An operator to manage the new market will be appointed before this date, the council said. The Irish Times, 25th February
RESIDENTIAL/DEVELOPMENT
Cork Docklands Glenveagh Properties has completed a deal worth €150m to deliver 337 homes in Cork’s Docklands for the Land Development Agency (LDA). The transaction follows the LDA’s appointment of Glenveagh to a Framework Panel last September. Under the terms of the transaction, the LDA has bought the homes through a “forward funding” mechanism and construction has already commenced. Glenveagh has planning permission at the site for an additional 176 units, bringing the total available homes to 1,178. The Examiner, 24th February
Dublin 11 91.4 acres, located near Charlestown Shopping Centre on St Margaret’s Road, has been sold to three separate buyers for a combined total in the region of €34m. The site was first brought to market in 2022 at a guide price of €34m. Sandymark, the commercial property group, paid approx. €14m for 57 acres of the portfolio. Last week, the Central Bank of Ireland confirmed it bought 29.5 acres to develop a new cash centre. The Business Post understands a similar fee of close to €14m was paid by the state body for the site. The third buyer was an individual, who acquired the remaining 4.9 acres. The Business Post, 18th February
Hooke & MacDonald Report For the first time in a decade, there were no newly built private homes sold to, or funded by, institutional investors for the private rental market in 2024. Where 9,031 apartments were built in Dublin in 2023, this figure fell by 27% to 6,608 in 2024. Most of these units were built for the public sector or the traditional build-to-sell (owner-occupier) market, highlighting what the report’s authors describe as the deepening supply crisis. Having accounted for between 40%-51% of all investment from 2019 to 2023, transactions in the multifamily/PRS market in 2024 amounted to approx. €230m, or just 9.7% of the €2.4bn spent across all asset classes last year. The largest multifamily investment in 2024 saw €66m paid for an existing, stabilised portfolio of 136 units in Malahide at a NIY of approx. 5.2%. The Irish Times, 18th February
Planning rules on cabins and modular homes in back gardens could be relaxed as part of Government efforts to tackle housing supply issues. Under current regulations, extensions of up to 430 sq. ft to a home can be built without planning permission, whereas habitable structures of this size must have approval if they are not attached to the home itself. Under a proposal being developed in the Department of Housing, planning exemptions are being considered which would exempt free-standing modular or cabin-style homes from planning permission. The Irish Times, 18th February
Daft Report Open-market rents across the country are now 43% higher than before the Covid-19 pandemic. The Daft.ie report also found that at the beginning of February, there were fewer than 2,300 homes available to rent across the country. The average open market rent nationwide in Q4 2024 was €1,956 per month. The report said that in Dublin, rents in the final quarter of last year were 4% higher than a year earlier – at €2,481 – while outside the capital, they were 7% higher on average. In Cork and Galway cities, rents rose by 10% during 2024, while in Waterford city, they rose by 7.4%. However, in Limerick, inflation remained very high, with market rents increasing by 19% during 2024. Outside the cities, rents increased 6.2% on average. The Irish Times, 24th February
Zoning Special powers are going to be used to rezone large tracts of land for building houses, with the Government planning to go over the heads of local councillors to identify areas for significant development. The focus will be on the Greater Dublin Area, particularly the north county, with land both adjacent to existing urban centres and standalone greenfield sites. Existing laws, in place for the past 25 years but rarely used, allow a minister to tell a local council what land to rezone in line with national policy goals. Housing Minister James Browne is expected to start making orders to rezone land later this year, using this law, and advice has been sought from the Attorney General’s office. The Irish Independent, 25th February
If you have an article which you would like to have considered for inclusion in our next weekly report, please contact us at info@origincapital.ie