26th March (Issue 440)
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
Clonskeagh, Baggot Street and Lucan, Dublin Oakmount has instructed CBRE to find a buyer for three of their best-known Dublin pubs. The sale of Ashton’s in Clonskeagh, Thomas Rody Maher’s on Baggot Street and The Foxhunter in Lucan is expected to see strong interest from both publicans and investors. The portfolio is being offered to the market at an overall guide price of €13.5m. The venues are also being made available for sale individually at guide prices of €4.75m for Ashton’s, €3.5m for Thomas Rody Maher’s, and €5.25m for the Foxhunter (including an adjacent development site). Ashton’s was acquired by Oakmount from a group of private investors for €3m in 2022. It paid approx. €1.7m to secure ownership of the then Larry Murphy’s pub in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2021, and set about transforming the Baggot Street landmark into Thomas Rody Maher’s. It acquired the Foxhunter and its adjoining site for €3m in 2019. The Irish Times, 20th March
Ashtown and Dame Street, Dublin Examiners of Mulligan & Haines Hospitality Ltd, the company behind the Lock Keeper gastropub in Ashtown, have succeeded in rescuing the business. The business was owned by Dublin-based Chinese businessman Colm Wu but, under the terms of the deal agreed, new investor ATM Hospitality Services Limited will invest fresh capital in the company and take it over. However, an agreement could not be reached to rescue a separate company called Castor Ventures Ltd, which is behind the city-centre Mulligan & Haines bar and restaurant on Dame Street in Dublin. A €1m investment proposal in this pub, which was also previously controlled by Wu, was sourced by the examiners but a restructuring of the property arrangements with the charge holder on the premises could not be agreed so this business has now gone into liquidation. ATM Hospitality Services will put up €150k to discharge an initial dividend to creditors in the Lock Keeper gastropub, form a new board and provide additional funds for working capital purposes. The Currency, 19th March
OFFICE
Parkgate Street, Dublin 8 14-16 Parkgate Street is being offered for sale fully let by Finnegan Menton at a guide price of €7.5m (NIY approx. 7.2%). Situated immediately next door to the Ashling Hotel, 14-16 Parkgate Street briefly comprises a four-storey office building of 16,253 sq. ft. Extended in 2017, the property is let in its entirety to First Ireland Risk Management. The building is occupied on a 25-year FRI lease from July 2022. This agreement is a renewal of previous leases with the tenant in occupation for approx. 20 years. The current passing rent is €599k pa and the lease is subject to five-yearly mutual-break options. The Irish Times, 20th March
Molesworth Street, Dublin 2 Deka Immobilien has agreed terms to buy a prime office Dublin building for approx. €40m (NIY approx. 5.25%). In a positive move at the core end of the market, the German fund manager is pushing on with a deal to buy 40 Molesworth Street, a 30,000 sq. ft office owned by the State Street-managed WindWise Property Fund. The office element is leased in its entirety to law firm DLA Piper, while Specsavers occupies the retail space. Offering a WAULT of approx. 12 years to expiry and 5.25 to break, 40 Molesworth Street generates a rent roll of €2.175m a year. React News, 19th March
St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2 With insurer Royal London Ireland having recently moved all of its employees over to its main offices at 47-49 St Stephen’s Green, the firm’s space at 4 Earlsfort Terrace has become available to let by way of assignment until August 2028. Located on the ground floor of the building, the accommodation, which extends to 2,097 sq. ft, is being offered to the market by Cushman & Wakefield at a rent of €62.50 per sq. ft. The offices are plug-and-play and fully fitted with seating for 26 people. The Irish Times, 20th March
Citywest Business Campus, Dublin Lisney is guiding a price of €4.5m for a standalone office building at Dublin’s Citywest Business Campus. 3008 Lake Drive comes to the market with the benefit of full vacant possession and an attractive capital value of €197 per sq. ft. The subject property comprises an L-shaped building of 22,862 sq. ft distributed over two floors. The Irish Times, 20th March
Mahon, Cork The first proper office space used by Voxpro, the call centre firm, is up for rent for €92k pa. The asset is up for rent via ERA Downey McCarthy. Accommodation at Unit 6 includes a 301 sq. ft ground floor, with a private lobby and lift access; a 5,608 sq. ft first floor; and 1,055 sq. ft second floor. The overall area of the building is 6,964 sq. ft. The Irish Examiner, 22nd March
RETAIL
Blanchardstown Centre Northwood Investors, a US real estate company, is believed to be making an aggressive bid to acquire Blanchardstown Centre, tabling a first-round offer in the region of €580m. The investment group M&G, the waste tycoon Eamon Waters and the US property investor Hines are still in the running for the mall despite pitching materially lower offers. Northwood is working on a bid that would deliver a modest return for the owner, Goldman Sachs, and this would require a bid over and above the €560m owed to the shopping centre’s syndicate of senior lenders led by Morgan Stanley. AIB sold €175m senior debt secured on the centre at 83c on the euro to Hayfin, a UK lender, last year. A return for Goldman Sachs, which acquired the property at a valuation of €750m in December 2020, would pave the way for a consensual sale. The centre spans 1,205,557 sq. ft and has 180 stores. The Sunday Times, 24th March
Clondalkin, Dublin 22 With more than 1,000 homes scheduled for completion and occupation by next year at Kilcarbery Grange in Clondalkin, the sale of the scheme’s new, purpose-built creche facility should prove attractive to both investors and childcare operators. The building, which is to be completed to shell-and-core condition, is being offered to the market by DNG’s new-homes division at a guide price of €1.5m. The creche at Kilcarbery Grange comprises 9,785 sq. ft of accommodation laid out over two floors. The facility also includes an external play space of 1,335 sq. ft with scope to increase. The Irish Times, 20th March
INDUSTRIAL / LOGISTICS
Little Island, Co Cork Deals on two of the largest Munster region industrial lettings in recent years, totalling over 250,000 sq. ft, have been scored by rival business parks in Cork’s Little Island. The lettings include one to Munters, which specialises in cooling equipment for data centres, while the other is to logistics and freight firm Crane Worldwide. Munters is set to move into the 129,077 sq. ft Unit 7A/7B, Anchor Business Park, Little Island. The major Munters deal brings the Anchor Business Park close to full occupation. The building being taken on by Munters, No. 7A/7B is expected to be handed over by the end of this year. It’s practically the same size as another just concluded 128,000 sq. ft letting, via Lisney, of Unit 1 at Harbour Gate Business Park,also in Little Island. On an 8.4-acre site, it was just taken over by logistics firm Crane Worldwide which closes out the entire 200,000 sq. ft Harbour Gate Business Park. The Irish Examiner, 21st March
Little Island, Co Cork Global transport and logistics company Kuehne+Nagel, which is headquartered in Switzerland, has leased Unit 4 at the Anchor Park, which extends to 75,600 sq. ft. Separately, there is a letting agreed on the 33,600 sq. ft Unit 6, which is currently under construction. The contracts are due to be exchanged in the coming weeks, with an expected completion date in early Q4 2024. The Irish Examiner, 21st March
RESIDENTIAL / DEVELOPMENT
Moran Group has secured a €70m loan from Värde Partners to refinance several commercial real estate assets in Dublin. The loan is backed by the newly developed Rockpoint apartment complex in South Dublin, as well as the Red Cow Moran hotel and adjacent Red Cow Inn pub in southwest Dublin. The Moran Group, run by the Moran family, has owned and operated the Red Cow complex for more than 30 years. Rockpoint was completed in January 2024. The Irish Times previously reported that the Rockpoint development had been offered for sale in its entirety to institutional investors back in February 2023, with a guide price of €59m. It was also reported that, despite receiving several offers of €54m, the owners decided to hang onto the assets. The 1.24 acre Rockpoint site was acquired from Marlet Property Group in 2020 for around €7.5m. React News, 21st March
An Bord Pleanála will stop dealing with planning cases in a chronological order, in a fresh bid to address the board’s backlog of cases. “There are different types of cases before the board for determination” and it “will be applying different prioritisation to those cases and will therefore not deal with cases in chronological order”, An Bord Pleanála said in a statement published on its website. An Bord Pleanála has faced heavy criticism in recent years for the apparent slow pace in making decisions on planning applications. Delays have been magnified by the housing shortage especially in Dublin. A spokeswoman said there were 2,258 cases on hand, a decrease of 11% from the beginning of 2024. She said this was down from 3,613 cases on hand in May 2023 which included approx. 600 Residential Zoned Land Tax cases. The spokeswoman said the cases on hand included 56 Strategic Housing Developments applications. The Irish Times, 22nd March
House Prices Property prices have accelerated again with a jump of over 5% recorded nationally for the 12 months to the end of January. The latest residential property price index, compiled by the CSO, showed prices rose by 5.4% on an annual basis in January. This was the fifth month in a row that headline inflation in the property market has increased. Prices in Dublin rose at an annual rate of 4.5% while prices outside the capital rose by 6.1%, the CSO said. The latest pickup in prices comes amid expectations that the ECB will begin a cycle of rate reductions this year. Prices have also been buoyed by the various Government affordability schemes which have fuelled activity with first-time buyers. The latest figures indicate that prices increased by 0.7% month-on-month in January. Buyers paid a median or middle price of €330k for a home in the 12 months to January, the latest figures show. The Irish Times, 20th March
Housing Fund AIB has partnered with Activate Capital, which is backed by KKR, to launch a €500m fund to deliver 1,000 homes per year. The Irish apartment development fund will provide debt capital for new developments in Dublin, Cork, Galway and Limerick. The fund, which will be managed by Activate, already has several new development projects under “active consideration”. AIB previously allocated €800m in funding to support social housing by the end of this year. The fund will focus on mixed-tenure development, including for owner-occupiers, private sector rental, cost rental and social housing. All developments will have an “A” Energy Rating. The Business Post, 24th March
Housing Construction Construction work began on more than 3,600 new homes in February, the third highest number in a month since 2014. New data released by the Department of Housing showed 3,699 new homes were commenced last month. The number of homes started during the month was up 85% on the number started in February 2023, when 1,997 units were commenced. In 2024, more than 7,000 new homes have been started in the first two months of the year, an increase of 72% on the same period last year. On a 12-month rolling basis, work has now started on 35,750 new homes. The data released by the Department of Housing, which is based on figures from the Building Control Management System, showed that of the 3,699 units commenced in February, 29% were apartments and 11% were one-off units. The remainder that were commenced were homes as part of housing estate projects. The Business Post, 21st March
Chapelizod, West Dublin A 5.3-acre site on the banks of the Liffey in Chapelizod is being offered for sale by Savills with a €2.75m guide price. Known as Willow Vale, it is just 3km from the Criminal Courts of Justice and 5.5km from O’Connell Bridge in Dublin city. In addition, the sale includes two houses: Willow Vale, a four-bedroom detached house located within the site, and 5 Hibernian Terrace, a three-bedroom semi-detached property located on Chapelizod Road. The Irish Independent, 21st March
Gorey, Co Wexford Joint agents Knight Frank and Sherry FitzGerald O’Leary Kinsella are guiding a price of €3m for a 38-acre land holding in Gorey, Co Wexford, with the outcome of a planning application pending for the development of 421 new homes. The subject holding has frontage to both the Gorey-Carnew Road and Kilnahue Road. The lands are zoned under the Gorey Town & Environs Local Area Plan 2017-2023. Approx. 31 acres of the holding are zoned residential while the remaining seven acres are zoned as open space and amenity. The Irish Times, 20th March
Ires Reit US investment giant Starwood Capital has topped up its stake in Ireland’s biggest private landlord, Ires Reit, after first buying into the firm last month. A regulatory filing yesterday confirms that Starwood has lifted its holding in Ires to 2.1%. It initially notified the market last month that it had accumulated a 1.5% share of the Irish property investment firm. That sparked speculation about Starwood’s intentions at Ires, as the Irish firm emerged bruised from a battle with Canadian activist shareholder Vision Capital. The Irish Independent, 21st March
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