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
Trim, Co. Meath FBD has agreed to buy Knightsbrook hotel, the Sunday Times understands. The hotel was put on the market in April for €25m, and hotel industry sources say it has achieved that figure. FBD, a farmer-owned investment company, is the largest shareholder in the quoted insurer FBD Holdings. It already owns five hotels in Ireland, including the Castleknock hotel, the Heritage in Killenard and Faithlegg in Waterford. The company owns two hotels in Spain and has a residential property development at La Cala with Taylor Wimpey. The acquisition of Knightsbrook will bring the number of hotel rooms in its portfolio to over 1,500. Knightsbrook has 131 rooms and 28 self-catering holiday homes. On 172 acres, the property also has an 18-hole golf course and a spa. The hotel has been run by the Cusack Hotel Group but since 2017 has been owned by a group of investors who bought it for €19.5m. It was being pitched by property agents as having “significant potential”, with “target capital investment”, to be repositioned as a destination resort. The Sunday Times, 28th June
Lucan, Co. Dublin Having failed to find a buyer when it was offered for sale for €5.25m on behalf of Oakmount in 2024, the Foxhunter pub has returned to the market guiding €3m. The sale is being handled by joint agents Colliers and John P Younge on behalf of receivers Interpath. While the €3m now being sought for the Foxhunter matches the price paid by Oakmount for the pub and its adjoining 1.06-acre site in 2019, the property had been dormant when they acquired it. On this occasion, the investment is underpinned by a 25-year FRI lease to Rocket Fusion Ltd from September 2019, providing a secure annual income of €275,000, with five-yearly rent reviews. A former company within the Press Up group, Rocket Fusion now forms part of Eclective, the group established in 2024 by London-based finance firm Cheyne Capital. The Foxhunter comprises a substantial licensed premises (16,264 sq. ft) along with two restaurants trading as Elephant & Castle and Wowburger respectively. The venue also includes a private function room with its own bar and outdoor terrace. The property also has two self-contained two-bedroom apartments at first-floor level. The Irish Times, 24th June
Brick Yards, Dublin 1 A new “world-class” entertainment venue is being planned for Dublin’s north docklands by Ticketmaster owner Live Nation, Gaiety Investments and US firm Oak View Group. Live Nation confirmed to the Business Post that the partners are in the “early stages” of planning the venue at the recently acquired Brick Yards site in the docklands. The eight-acre site, now known as Merchants Yard, was bought off-market for close to €90m, according to The Irish Times. It was previously brought to market by Savills Ireland in 2021 for more than €80m. The proposed entertainment venue is expected to host a venue larger than the 3Arena, though detailed plans have yet to be finalised. Live Nation formed a new company in Ireland called Live Nation Brickyards Limited, with €35.4m put into the company by investors to date. Gaiety Investments is led by Irish concert promoter Denis Desmond and his wife Caroline Downey, while Oak View Group is a US entertainment company headquartered in Colorado. The Business Post, 25th June
Warrenpoint, Co. Down The seafront Whistledown Hotel has come to the market and CBRE Hotels is guiding in excess of £2.5m (approx. €2.9m) for it. Overlooking Carlingford Lough and framed by the Mourne Mountains, the hotel extends to approx. 18,775 sq. ft. and 21 boutique bedrooms. Full planning permission has also been secured for a sea-facing garden terrace, while additional expansion opportunities include enhanced meeting and event facilities. The sale also includes a vacant, ground floor retail unit located across the street from the hotel which offers potential for redevelopment into a commercial retail space, including a coffee shop. The Irish Independent, 25th June
PURPOSE BUILT STUDENT ACOMMODATION
Church Street, Dublin 7 Greystar closed the acquisition of a 216-bed PBSA property on Church Street from Valeo Groupe Europe. It is believed the property sold for approx. €37m. The deal is Greystar’s third major investment in the Irish student sector. It bought Point Campus in Dublin in 2024 and two blocks in Dublin and Galway last year. The four properties now add up to 1,906 student beds under Greystar’s student-focused ‘Canvas’ brand which operates in seven countries. Greystar owns close to 900 additional rental apartments across Dublin, including Griffith Woods, Brickfield Square and Monkstown. Earlier this year, Greystar is understood to have agreed a deal to sell one of its Dublin blocks, Quayside Quarter, which accommodates 268 apartments, for around €180m. The Irish Independent, 25th June
MIXED USE
Phibsborough, Dublin 7 DCC has given the green light to plans for the refurbishment and extension of Phibsborough Tower and its change of use to become a nine-storey 150-bedroom hotel. The development by Stormborn Capital Acquisition Three Limited also includes a PBSA block over five to nine storeys, providing 411 bedspaces. The overall scheme involves the regeneration of Phibsborough Shopping Centre and No’s 345-349 North Circular Road, and adjacent lands. The council concluded that “the enhanced mix-use redevelopment, along with the redeveloped Dalymount Stadium will also help serve the needs of the surrounding catchment, providing a range of retail, commercial, cultural, social and community functions that are easily accessible by foot, bicycle or public transport in line with the concept of the 15-minute city”. The proposed development comprises three blocks, the third of which will be a four-storey building incorporating residential and retail/restaurant uses. The council is requiring the developers to pay a combined €3.09m in planning contributions towards public infrastructure and the Luas Cross City Scheme. The Irish Times, 25th June
RESIDENTIAL / DEVELOPMENT
Tallaght, Dublin 24 Located on Greenhills Road, Greenhills Court comprises a purpose-built residential scheme of 15 apartments and two townhouses, all of which are let on a 20-year lease from June 2024 to an approved housing body (“AHB”). The investment is generating total annual rental income of €318,720 with Hooke & MacDonald guiding €6.25m (NIY 4.88%). The yield is based on a breakdown of €5.8m being paid for the investment’s 17 residential units and €450,000 being paid for its development site. The property comes for sale with full planning permission for the development of 10 additional apartments and a retail unit on an adjoining development site and above the existing basement car park. The leaseholder, Focus Housing Association CLG, is Ireland’s seventh-largest AHB and currently provides more than 1,200 affordable, sustainable homes for individuals and families, with a presence in 11 counties. The Irish Times, 24th June
Ballsbridge, Dublin 4 Cushman & Wakefield is guiding a price of €4.5m for the Lansdowne Collection, a portfolio of three properties. Number 14 Lansdowne Road and its two mews buildings, 91 and 92 Lansdowne Park, are being offered for sale with the benefit of vacant possession and are available to purchase individually or as a collection. Number 14 is a three-storey, semidetached property extending to 3,359 sq. ft and was most recently in use as office space. The building retains numerous of its period features. The property has a light-filled extension and ample off-street car parking. The house could revert to its original residential use, subject to planning permission. Located to the rear of number 14 and accessed off Northumberland Road, 91 & 92 Lansdowne Park comprise two self-contained, three-storey midterrace redbrick buildings which extend to 1,054 sq. ft each. Both properties have four bedrooms and four bathrooms, with rear gardens and one off street parking space each. The Irish Times, 24th June
Sandyford, Dublin 18 Lamb Doyle’s has moved a step closer to being replaced by new homes. Having traded from 1832 until recent years, the pub which sits on an elevated 0.97-acre site on Blackglen Road in the foothills of the Dublin Mountains, has been acquired by Bourke Builders for €1.6m. The price paid represents a discount of 41.8% on the €2.75m which had been sought by Oakmount when they first offered it to the market in 2024. The site’s sale ultimately saw JLL acting for receivers Interpath. While Oakmount had submitted a planning application to DLRCC in 2024 for the development of 14 three- and four-bedroom houses on the site, that proposal was subsequently withdrawn. The site is zoned Objective A under the current DLR County Development Plan 2022–2028. That objective supports residential development while protecting existing residential amenities. The Irish Times, 24th June
Schull, Co. Cork A development site with full planning permission for 57 homes in Schull has been launched to market with a price tag of €3.7m. Permission for the scheme was granted last year to Carmina Properties Ltd. The latest scheme is for a mix of housing types, including seven detached homes, 22 semi-detached units, 18 townhouses, and 10 duplex apartments, spread over a site of approximately 5.5 acres. The scheme was permitted on appeal with more than 50 conditions attached. The cost per stand, based on the €3.7m asking price, is €65,000. The Colla Road location is expected to be a significant selling point. The Examiner, 26th June
OTHER
Military Road, Waterford Corrib Oil acquired the Motorpoint service station on Waterford’s Military Road. While the price paid in the off-market transaction has not been disclosed by the joint agents Cushman & Wakefield and Sherry FitzGerald Rohan, The Irish Times understands the property secured approx. €3.2m. The vendor, a private owner, had acquired the station, which sits on a 0.4-acre site, in the mid-1990s. The property had been trading until recently as a Maxol service station with a Daybreak convenience store but has been repositioned as a Circle K service station, Spar and Corrib Deli offering by its new owner. All Corrib Retail convenience stores are branded as Spar, while all its forecourts are branded as Circle K or Texaco, with instore partners including Insomnia, Apache Pizza, Subway and Zambrero. Corrib Oil also owns the franchise in Ireland for Wendy’s Restaurants, the first of which opened last year in Cork city, with the second due to open this month in Tullamore, Co Offaly. The Irish Times, 24th June
Various Billionaire fashion mogul Amancio Ortega’s Irish real estate portfolio is valued at €324m, new financial filings have shown. The owner of the clothing firm Inditex, which controls Zara, Bershka and Pull & Bear, has built up a large global property empire valued at close to €20bn. In the past three years Ortega’s family office Pontegadea has spent hundreds of millions of euro on Irish real estate to add to its worldwide collection. New financial filings for his Irish holding companies show they control a combined €324.5m of property. Last year these properties earned Pontegadea a combined €19.5m in revenue and after-tax profits of €5.8m. Ortega’s Pontegadea made its first move into the Irish real estate market in 2023 when it acquired the Opus 6 apartment block on Hanover Quay for €104m from Angelo Gordon and Carysfort Capital. In late 2023 his family office paid close to €225m for 1.2m sq. ft of logistics space at Baldonnell Business Park. Ortega’s latest Irish property deal came in June 2025 when he bought Ten Hanover Quay, a 68,286 sq. ft Dublin docklands office block, from Kennedy Wilson and Nama for close to €70m. The Irish Times, 24th June
Dublin Airport Maurice Regan, the founder of building firm JT Magen, is set to buy Gerry Gannon’s car park at Dublin airport in a deal to be signed next week. The New York-based construction tycoon has been partnered with Gannon on the site since 2024, when he provided €250m to buy Gannon’s loans out of Nama. The car park, which trades under Regan’s Park2Travel brand and is managed by Apcoa, turned a profit in its first nine months of trading and is expected it to do so again this year. The car park was at 100% capacity last June, July, August and September. The Sunday Times, 28th June
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