27th September (Issue 366)
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
North Docklands, Dublin 1 The South Korean owners of No. 2 Dublin Landings have instructed joint selling agents CBRE and Savills to hit the pause button on the proposed sale of their investment. Having paid €106.5m to acquire the north docklands building in November 2018, the owners had been preparing to bring the property to the market shortly at a guide of €140m. One of five office blocks built by Ballymore in partnership with Oxley at their wider 1m sq. ft. mixed-use development, No. 2 Dublin Landings extends to 100,000 sq. ft. and is fully let to WeWork. While the global flexible workspace provider has been paying a rent of €4.87m annually since 2018, this figure is set to increase to €5.38m in year five of its lease agreement. The Irish Times, 21st September
Clonskeagh, Dublin 14 Boole House at Beech Hill Office Park in Clonskeagh has been sold to Eagle Street Partners Group for €10.5m. The 42,000 sq. ft. office building was previously owned by Meath-based businessman Eamon Waters who paid the Layden Group c. €9m to secure ownership of the Dublin 14 office block. According to market sources, Eagle Street has secured the HSE as tenants for Boole House on a 12-month temporary lease and is in the process of formulating a plan for the property and its adjacent development site. Boole House itself comprises efficient floor plates of 14,000 sq. ft. that could be further subdivided, if required. There are also 89 car parking spaces available with the building. The Irish Times, 21st September
Fenian Street, Dublin 2 Hibernia Real Estate Group (formerly Hibernia Reit) has achieved full occupancy at 2 Cumberland Place following the agreement of two final leases at the building. In the first instance, Experian plc, an American — Irish multinational credit reporting company, has signed a 10-year lease for the entire second floor extending to c. 8,785 sq. ft. The first floor meanwhile has now been let to Castlelake Aviation Holdings (Ireland) Limited, who are an aircraft leasing and financing company. They have taken c. 8,697 sq. ft. on a 15-year term. Castlelake and Experian join a strong line-up of existing occupiers in the building including Electroroute, BGC, 3M and Invesco. The Irish Times, 21st September
6 Northbrook Road, Dublin 6 is being offered to the market with the benefit of full vacant possession by joint agents MSP Consulting and Savills at a guide price of €5.85m. The Victorian redbrick has been refurbished to provide 9,431 sq. ft. of office accommodation over four floors. 6 Northbrook Road offers the benefit of modern open-plan and cellular office accommodation, and the building has 11 car-parking spaces and bike storage. The Irish Times, 21st September
For lending terms on this asset please contact rossmetcalfe@origincapital.ie
Leopardstown, Dublin 18 Maple House in South County Business Park in Leopardstown is being offered to the market by Cushman & Wakefield at a guide price of €7.5m. The subject site extends to 1.512 acres and comprises a two-storey office block which extends to 14,735 sq. ft. with 65 surface car parking spaces. The building is let on a multi-tenancy basis via a number of licence agreements, with all tenants executing deeds of renunciation. The income from the property is c. €200k pa net, and as the property is only 65% occupied, this can be significantly increased in the short term with further licence agreements. In terms of its future potential, the site is zoned “Residential” under the terms of the Sandyford Urban Framework Plan 2022-2028. The Irish Times, 21st September
For lending terms on this asset please contact rossmetcalfe@origincapital.ie
Harcourt Road, Dublin 2 The final phase of the Clancourt Group’s Park Place office scheme is nearing completion, with the topping-out ceremony for the property’s 10th floor held on Monday last week. With One, Two and Three Park Place complete and occupied by a range of corporates including Gartner, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Slack, Aviva, KPMG and IDA Ireland, joint letting agents JLL and Knight Frank are now seeking tenants for the two interconnecting headquarter office buildings at Four and Five Park Place. Due for practical completion in May 2023, this final element of the campus overlooking Adelaide Road and Harcourt Road will extend across a total area of 198,000 sq. ft. distributed across two blocks measuring 124,000 sq. ft. and 74,000 sq. ft. respectively. The office accommodation will be complemented by 48 car parking spaces, 38 clubhouse-standard showers and 274 bicycle parking spaces. The office space is available to let in its entirety or as two independent blocks. The Irish Times, 21st September
Fibonacci Square, Dublin 4 Amancio Ortega, the Spanish billionaire founder of Inditex, the retail group behind the fashion chain Zara, is preparing to enter the Irish property market with the purchase of Johnny Ronan’s Fibonacci Square. Pontegadea, a family office that invests on behalf of Ortega, is in advanced discussions to buy the asset for €550m (NIY 4%). Meta has agreed to lease Fibonacci Square for an initial annual rent of €22m. While it paused its fit-out of the office blocks over the summer, the social media giant is not thought to be looking to sublet them. The US investor Blackstone was lined up to acquire the buildings but pulled out to focus on its purchase of Salesforce Tower Dublin, also developed by Ronan. Pontegadea invested c. €2.06bn in property last year. The Sunday Times, 25th September
South Docklands, Dublin Mapletree Investments, the real estate arm of Singapore’s state investment fund, is considering the sale of its prime €250m+ Dublin office holding. The Temasek-backed investor is reviewing a potential disposal of the Sorting Office, a 210,000 sq. ft. office block that is leased to TikTok. Mapletree forward-purchased the eight-storey block, located in the heart of Dublin’s Silicon Docklands, in the middle of June 2019. It was bought for €240m, with vacant possession. In September 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, US tech giant Google walked away from a 200,000 sq. ft.+ office letting deal at the site. However, TikTok signed a deal at the end of November 2021 to rent the entire building on the basis of a 15-year lease with 10 years’ term certain and a rent-free period of c. 18 months. React News, 27th September
HOSPITALITY
Oranmore, Co Galway The four-star Maldron Hotel in Oranmore, Co Galway is being offered to the market by Savills at a guide price of €13m (NIY 6.3%). The hotel, which opened for business in 1998, comprises 113 bedrooms along with extensive conference facilities, a full leisure club and swimming pool. The investment comes for sale subject to the existing occupational lease with Caruso Limited, guaranteed by Dalata (with more than 11 years remaining) and operated by Dalata Ireland under the four-star Maldron brand. The Maldron Hotel’s current upward-only annual rent is €900k with the next rent review due in January 2023. The Irish Times, 21st September
Little Britain Street, Dublin 7 Kula, the British hotel group, will open its first location in Ireland after reaching an agreement to manage a new site in Dublin city centre acquired by Gold Tree Group, an international real estate investment firm. Kula has said its new Dublin hotel, on the corner of Little Britain Street and Little Green Street in Dublin 7, will open in 2024. The Dublin site will be managed by Kula, but is owned by Gold Tree Group, which bought the disused warehouse from Sam Dennigan & Company, the food wholesaler and distributor. The site on Little Britain Street is currently occupied by a two-storey warehouse building. Several applications to build a hotel on the site have already been granted planning permission by Dublin City Council. Gold Tree Group has lodged new plans with Dublin City Council to significantly alter the plans already approved for the site. The new application by Gold Tree Group said it intended to build a hotel with 132 rooms. The Business Post, 24th September
O’Connell Bridge, Dublin City Centre The Bachelor Inn pub, less than 50 metres from O’Connell Bridge, Dublin, is being sold with planning permission to convert it into a 26-bedroom hotel. Joint selling agents Savills and John P Younge are guiding €2.75m for The Bachelor Inn along with an adjoining premises which together extend to 4,355 sq. ft. That price is less than half the estimated €7m which the current owner reportedly paid for it in 2008. The property has in place planning permission for a three-storey building. Adjoining the pub at 3 Bachelors Way is the former Smallmans Plumbing Centre and it extends the total site to 0.1 acres with frontage to three sides including Lott’s Lane. The Irish Independent, 22nd September
Newbridge, Co Kildare The Athgarvan Inn near Newbridge will be auctioned on September 29th with a €2.5m guide price. The subject property comes with seven bedrooms which have a separate entrance and it sits on a 2.09-acre site. The vendors have also secured planning permission for a village centre with five commercial units and three apartments along with 12 houses. The existing premises includes a 1,273 sq. ft. lounge bar, a 509 sq. ft. public bar, an 1,161 sq. ft. function lounge and a 313 sq. ft. smoking room as well as catering kitchen, stores and other facilities. The Irish Independent, 22nd September
RETAIL
Donnybrook, Dublin 4 Acquired by developer Sean Dunne for €17m at the height of the last boom, the Donnybrook Mall is being offered to the market by Lisney at a guide price of €6.8m. The mall last changed hands in 2014, with its current owner, a private Irish investor, paying €6.6m to secure ownership of the 15,590 sq. ft. property. The sale of Donnybrook Mall offers the prospective purchaser the opportunity to secure immediate rental income of €450.3k pa (NIY 6%) from a strong tenant line-up which includes Tesco, Lloyds Pharmacy, dry cleaners Lyknu, Abrakebabra, and the long-established bridalwear boutique Marian Gale. The Irish Times, 21st September
For lending terms on this asset please contact rossmetcalfe@origincapital.ie
South William Street, Dublin 2 HWBC is marketing a new restaurant leasing opportunity at One Coppinger Row and 57 South William Street on behalf of the landlord, Aviva Life and Pensions Ireland DAC (Aviva). The restaurant comprises the ground floor of One Coppinger Row which interconnects with the lower ground floor of 57 South William Street. The property, which is currently being reconfigured and refurbished by Aviva, will offer 1,356 sq. ft. of restaurant/kitchen space on the ground floor. The lower ground floor will provide 1,173 sq. ft. of additional restaurant seating area, ancillary storage and staff accommodation. The agent is guiding a rent of €140k pa. The Business Post, 23rd September
RESIDENTIAL / DEVELOPMENT
Dundalk, Co Louth Knight Frank is guiding a price of €5m for a 15.2-acre (€329k per acre) residential development site in Dundalk, Co. Louth. The subject site falls under the Louth County Development Plan 2021 – 2027 with the majority zoned objective ‘A2 New Residential’ and a small element zoned objective ‘H1 Open Space’. The Irish Times, 21st September
Rathgar, Dublin 6 Cushman & Wakefield are guiding a price of €1.5m for a 0.28-acre site (€5.3m an acre) on Maxwell Road in Rathgar, Dublin 6. The subject site in this instance comes with full planning permission for the construction of four high-end three-bedroom semi-detached houses, ranging in size from 1,292 sq. ft. to 1,421 sq. ft. The site comprises a garage, an office, 15 lock-up units and three residential units, which include two two-bedroom apartments and a three-bedroom apartment. While the site is being sold with full vacant possession, a number of the units were in occupation up until recently and could provide an estimated rental value of c. €145k pa if re-let. There is also an opportunity to refurbish these units and increase the short-term income potential to in excess of €200k pa. The Irish Times, 21st September
Montenotte, Co Cork Ennismore House and grounds in Montenotte, 3.5km northeast of Cork city, is being offered to the market by Avison Young on behalf of the Dominican Fathers at a guide price of €3.25m. The order bought the property in 1952 and have used it as a retreat and conference centre. The house is a Georgian property extending to 26,024 sq. ft. with 39 bedrooms and on-site parking. There are also walled gardens, coach houses and a gate lodge on the 24.7-acre site. The gate lodge of 595 sq. ft. is at the entrance to the property and the coach houses, consisting of 10 buildings extending to 4,982 sq. ft., are positioned on the northeastern corner of the site. Montenotte has long been acknowledged as one of the most sought-after residential areas of Cork. The Irish Times, 21st September
Ringsend, Dublin 4 Dublin City Council has refused planning permission for a contentious seven-storey senior living build-to-rent scheme in Ringsend, Dublin 4. More than 65 objections were lodged against the 30-unit plan lodged by Glencarra Ringsend Ltd. A planning statement lodged by the applicant’s planning consultants, Tom Phillips & Associates, stated that the scheme would provide accommodation for 30 professionally managed social homes for senior citizens on Dublin City Council’s housing list. The site currently accommodates the two-storey Cambridge House. The Irish Times, 22nd September
Dalkey, South Co Dublin Clós Nua Ltd has lodged an objection with Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council, claiming a proposed three-storey, eight-unit apartment scheme next door on Dalkey’s Castle Street will “devalue” the company’s Tramyard site. Clós Nua bought the Tramyard site for a reported €3m to allow the regeneration plans to be lodged. A decision is due on the application next week. The Irish Times, 23rd September
Terenure, Dublin 6W An Bord Pleanála has given the green light to fast-track plans for a €106m apartment scheme in Terenure. Over 75 objections were lodged against the Strategic Housing Development (SHD) scheme by Lioncor Developments subsidiary 1 Terenure Land Ltd for the 208-unit apartment scheme. Dublin City Council planners also found the scheme to be acceptable. The scheme is made up of 104 one-bed apartments and 104 two-bed apartments and the developers have put an indicative price tag of €10.66m on 21 apartments to be sold to Dublin City Council for social housing. The Irish Times, 26th September
OTHER
Pepper Finance, the mortgage service provider, is imposing a 1.25% point increase on thousands of standard variable rate (SVR) mortgage holders from the end of next month. The rise will bring the average rate on SVR loans serviced by Pepper to c. 5.45% and is a further sign of the recent interest rate rises starting to hit home for Irish mortgage holders. Pepper services a total of 60k mortgages, owned by investment funds such as Carval, Goldman Sachs and Pimco. The mortgages were acquired from deleveraging Irish banks and exiting overseas institutions such as Lloyds and Danske Bank over the past decade. Non-bank lenders Dilosk, Finance Ireland and Avant Money moved to raise their fixed-rate offerings earlier this month, citing the higher cost of funds. The Sunday Times, 25th September
Social Housing, Ireland Fingal County Council signed a deal to lease two dozen homes from the pension fund of a British weapons dealer last year, despite state guidelines banning deals with arms makers. The local authority directly negotiated agreements to lease 13 homes from BAE Systems pension fund, which is linked to the British arms maker, to use as social housing in October 2021. When the agreements to lease the 13 homes were signed, Fingal County Council already had 11 homes owned by BAE Systems in its social housing stock. Based on when Fingal County Council entered lease agreements with BAE Systems, the council paid the company more than €260k in rent for the 24 homes. According to market sources, the 24 properties the council had leased from the pension fund were subsequently sold to a fund controlled by Davy called the Davy Platform ICAV in April 2022. BAE Systems spent €14.4m acquiring the entire portfolio of 43 second-hand properties in 2021 and sold on the properties in April 2022 for €16.8m. The Business Post, 24th September
Non-Household Residential Investment 2021, Ireland Property investors spent c. €1bn buying second-hand homes in Ireland last year. The sales details were outlined in a memo prepared for Paschal Donohoe, the Minister for Finance, as part of the government’s efforts to determine how significant the activity of private investors is in the second-hand housing market. The analysis was based on CSO data that showed 43,950 second-hand homes were sold last year. It found that the state, local authorities, approved housing bodies and public institutions bought 879, or 2%, of every existing units sold including new-builds. The CSO data showed charitable organisations were connected to 495 purchases on existing homes. The data showed 10% of the second-hand homes sold in 2021 were acquired by the rest of the non-household purchasers, which includes real estate firms and the finance and insurance sector. In total, purchases by non-households were €1.2bn in 2021. Last year, non-household entities spent a total of €3.5bn to acquire 11,600 new and existing homes, which represented 20% of total homes purchased – down from 22% in 2020 and 2019. The state spent €807m on new-build homes and €217m on existing stock. The Business Post, 24th September
Askeaton, Co Limerick The Aughinish Alumina refinery has secured a €2m government grant to carry out environmental protection work on its “red mud” waste dump. The Limerick-based company imports c. 4.6m tons of bauxite ore per year and uses it to create 2m tons of alumina, which is shipped to smelting plants in Europe to make aluminium. According to the European Commission’s register of state aid, it received a €2.1m grant from IDA Ireland this year. Aughinish Alumina recently secured planning permission from An Bord Pleanála to expand its red mud waste dump despite the opposition of local farmers and environmental groups. It is going to be allowed to raise the height of the dump by 12 metres so that it can put another 1m cubic metres of red mud waste there annually until 2039. The Business Post, 24th September
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