28th May (Issue 449)
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.
RETAIL
Blanchardstown, Dublin 15 Morgan Stanley, AIG and Hayfin Capital Management, senior lenders to the Blanchardstown Centre in Dublin, have agreed to extend the term of the debt secured on the country’s largest shopping mall, effectively ruling out a quick sale. Goldman Sachs, which is a junior lender, brought the 1.2m sq. ft development to the market earlier this year, appointing Eastdil Secured and CBRE to handle the sale. Northwood Investors tabled the highest opening bid on the centre at an estimated €580m. The Sunday Times, 26th May
Tallaght, Dublin 24 AIB has appointed Interpath Advisory as receiver to The Square Town Centre which is owned by Oaktree. The bank is understood to have more than €140m of loans outstanding against the centre. Oaktree put The Square on the market for €170m last year with Hines selected as the preferred bidder for a price of approx. €125m. The lower price meant AIB was going to take a haircut, while a junior lender, M&G Investments, faced losing its investment. Sources said AIB had grown frustrated by the pace at which the Oaktree process with Hines had been progressing. The Irish Times, 23rd May
Midleton, Co Cork Lisney Commercial Real Estate and Thomas J O’Driscoll Auctioneers are offering a petrol filling station and convenience shop with a forecourt and external canopy, car showroom, a car wash, workshop and vehicle display yard with a guide price of €1.9m. The petrol filling station is leased to Valero Energy (Ireland) Limited on a 20-year lease from July 1, 2009. The rent is €82.5k pa. The motor dealership is leased to Keary Motors Limited on a two-year lease from July 1, 2023 at a rent of €73k pa. The combined rental income is €155.5k pa. The Business Post, 24th May
South William Street, Dublin 2 Irish-owned fashion retailer Folkster is to open for business on South William Street in Dublin city centre. The brand has agreed a deal for the former premises of the famed McCullough Pigott music shop at no. 11 South William Street. The company is understood to be paying a combined initial rent of €103k pa for the property, which extends to 2,999 sq. ft (€52.44 per sq. ft). The Irish Times, 22nd May
HOSPITALITY
Eden Quay, Dublin 1 Investment manager Colm Wu is selling the Clifton Court Hotel at 10 and 11 Eden Quay, Dublin 1 and agent Robert Colleran is seeking offers of over €8m. The investment property is currently generating €854k pa in rents from two tenants. One of those tenants operates the 30-bedroom hotel and pays €620k pa. The other operates the James Connolly bar and Kyodai Izakaya restaurant and pays €234k pa (gross yield 10.04%). The hotel tenant holds a 10-year lease from May 2022 and there is a mutual break option at the end of the fifth year, subject to six months’ notice. The Irish Independent, 23rd May
Ballyconnell, Co Cavan Accounts for Slieve Russell Hotel Property Ltd show that revenues at the hotel last year increased 16% to €19.1m. The hotel was put on the market last month for €35m and CBRE is running the sale of the 224-bedroom hotel on behalf of the liquidator of IBRC, Interpath Advisory. The business recorded operating profits of €1.85m in the 12 months to the end of June last. The Irish Times, 27th May
OFFICE
Merrion Square, Dublin 2 HWBC and Cushman & Wakefield are offering Nos. 28 Merrion Square, 29 Merrion Square and 29 Holles Place for sale by Private Treaty in one lot at a guide price of €4.5m. The assets produce a combined annual income in excess of €300k. No. 28 Merrion Square comprises a four storey over basement, mid-terrace period property of approx. 6,103 sq. ft NIA. No. 29 Merrion Square comprises a four-storey over basement period property of 4,768 sq. ft NIA. 29 Holles Place mews at the rear is accessed off Holles Place and comprises a refurbished self-contained two-storey mews of 1,582 sq. ft NIA. The Business Post, 25th May
Warrington Place, Dublin 2 11 and 12 Warrington Place has come to the market with a €7m guide price. It is generating annual rents totalling €528.5k from five office tenants and one residential tenant (initial yield 7.55%). Its office accommodation extends to 12,593 sq. ft. Two of the office tenants have leases due to expire in 2025 while two others hold their offices on licenses. The fifth is Co-Operative Housing whose lease extends to 2034 with a break clause in 2029. The residential tenant occupies 1,646 sq. ft of the third floor on an annual rent of €22k and notice has been served. The Irish Independent, 23rd May
Wilton Park, Dublin 2 Stripe is understood to be weighing up the possibility of locating its new Dublin headquarter office at Wilton Park, the 580,000 sq. ft office campus being developed by Irish property company, Iput, at Wilton Place in Dublin 2. Should Stripe decide to locate its operations at Wilton Park, it would be taking on a portion of the scheme’s four blocks which are let in their entirety on a 25-year term from January 2020 to LinkedIn. The Irish Times, 22nd May
Upgrading Office Blocks The cost of upgrading older office blocks to modern standards could cost individual landlords from €90 per sq. ft to €300 per sq. ft, the head of sustainability at Savills has warned. Based on the costs per sq. ft, the owner of an office block in the range of 10,000 to 20,000 sq. ft could face a renovation bill of between €900k to €6m. Landlords of offices >50,000 sq. ft are likely facing renovation bills of between €5m and €15m. Analysis of the Irish office market found only 10% of office stock in the city has a B rating, while only 2% has an A-status. The Business Post, 28th May
MIXED-USE
Mervue, Galway The Crown Square Campus development, which is being built by the Rhatigan Group, has reached a number of milestones including the topping-out ceremony of the Radisson RED Galway hotel and the completion of the first two office blocks, spanning more than 120,017 sq. ft. One of these two completed office blocks will soon be occupied by City Hall, as the new headquarters for Galway City Council. Three additional office buildings and 345 one, two and three-bed apartments will also be landmarks of the development, designed around a series of public plazas on 12.65 acres of landscaped grounds off the Monivea Road in Mervue. The Business Post, 25th May
STUDENT ACCOMMODATION
Kill of the Grange, South Dublin The Baker’s Corner pub in Kill of the Grange is guiding a price of €7m. While the property was last sold as a going concern and has been trading since then under the management of the well-known Loyola Group, it is being offered for sale by CBRE with the benefit of vacant possession and planning permission for a PBSA scheme on its 1.235-acre site. The approval from An Bord Pleanála provides for 276 bed spaces comprising 38 clusters of six, seven and eight-bedrooms units. The Irish Times, 22nd May
RESIDENTIAL / DEVELOPMENT
Donabate, North Co Dublin Cairn is set to build more than 1,000 homes in Donabate after the housebuilder paid more than €50m for a site there. The Sunday Times understands that Cairn has done an off-market deal with Oaktree-backed Cannon Kirk to purchase the land. At Donabate, the company will likely build 1,020 homes in a €300m+ development. The Sunday Times, 26th May
Home Building Finance Ireland (HBFI), the state-backed housing lender, has provided a €50m debt facility to Cairn Homes. The deal, HBFI’s second transaction with a commercial developer since the launch of its Accelerate lending facility, will see the agency join Cairn’s existing €327.5m banking syndicate, which includes AIB, Bank of Ireland and Barclays. The Business Post, 27th May
Mortgage Approvals Data from the Banking & Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI) indicated that €1.32bn worth of mortgages were approved in April, up 18.4% from the €1.12bn approved overall in April 2023. While the increase in approval volume accounted for much of the overall value increase, the average new mortgage approved in April was worth €297k – a 3.8% increase on the April 2023 average of €286k. On an annualised basis, there were 30,776 FTB approvals in the twelve months to April 2024 – the second highest level recorded since BPFI began tracking mortgage data in 2011. The Business Post, 24th May
Ashbourne, Co Meath Coonan Property has brought a farm holding to market in Ashbourne for which it has advised minimum value of €1.8m and which will go under the hammer next month. Cránn Mór Farm in Painestown extends to 102.42 acres and is being offered by public auction in three lots. Lot 1 consists of 37.36 acres. Lot 2 comprises 30.63 acres. Lot 3 will consist of the entire 102.42 acres with the farmyard. The Business Post, 25th May
Tax Payment Investment funds controlling more than €28bn worth of Irish property have almost halved their tax payments since the government introduced measures aimed at tackling their “aggressive behaviour to avoid tax”. In 2019, the year before measures to clamp down on the funds took effect, tax receipts from Irefs totalled €72.1m. Last year, the figure fell to €37.6m after years of successive declines since the government moved to tackle the funds tax avoidance. When the Department of Finance first moved to clampdown on Irefs in 2020, these entities controlled €4.1bn worth of residential property. At the end of 2022, Irefs owned €8.1bn in residential assets in Ireland. In the same period, Iref’s exposure to commercial assets has grown from €9.2bn to €10.5bn. The Business Post, 26th May
Mullingar, Co Westmeath A development site with full planning permission for 130 residential units has come to the market and agent Coonan Property is guiding more than €4.3m for it. The site is located approx. 1.5 km to the south-east of Mullingar town centre and west of Ballinderry Road. Extending to 9.9 acres (€430k per acre), it received planning permission from Bord Pleanála last July for 94 houses, plus 36 duplexes and apartments (€33k per unit). The Irish Independent, 23rd May
Dundalk, Co Louth A 98.84-acre land bank at Mount Avenue on the outskirts of Dundalk is being offered to the market by Sherry FitzGerald Commercial in conjunction with local agent Sherry FitzGerald Carroll at a guide price of €12m. The sale is being conducted on the instruction of receiver Myles Kirby. The Irish Times, 22nd May
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