7th April (Issue 541)
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
Leeson Street, Dublin 2 JLL is guiding €8.5m for the Leeson Inn, a refurbished boutique hotel located at the junction of Leeson Street Lower and Hatch Street Lower. The Georgian building features 26 recently refurbished guestrooms, a breakfast room and a reception and has undergone a comprehensive, property-wide refurbishment in recent years. JLL said Leeson Inn has development potential and comes with restaurant space at garden level with access to the outdoor space. The 0.03-acre rear development site at 32 Hatch Street Lower is available for sale either together with the hotel or as a separate lot at a cost of €750,000. The site has historic planning consent for 10 additional guestrooms and offers potential for a new residential or hotel scheme. The Business Post, 2nd April
Dalkey, Co. Dublin Joint agents BDM Property and JP Younge Auctioneers confirmed the sale of The Dalkey Duck pub, which occupies a prominent corner position at the entrance to Dalkey village, at the junction of Castle Street, Ulverton Road and Barnhill Road in a deal understood to be in line with its €2.5m guide. The purchaser is a consortium of private investors that includes publican Alan Hughes, whose family is associated with The Grange in Deansgrange. The group also owns and operates Boland’s of Stillorgan. The Dalkey Duck came to market in March 2025. It is a two-storey licensed premises, with multiple trading areas including a snug and a central bar. At the rear, there is a large, partly covered patio and beer garden, while overhead accommodation comprises a two-bedroom apartment with its own south-facing terrace. The Business Post, 2nd April
Cork Pub Sales Lisney Commercial confirmed that the vendors of Paddy the Farmers have accepted an offer of the €1.9m asking price. The Old Blackrock Rd/Summerhill South premises, along with nine overhead apartments, is being sold by the Seán McCarthy-led local hospitality group, who disposed of Soho bar/restaurant on Grand Parade in 2023. The group is also selling waterfront premises Tequila Jack’s, via Lisney, where advanced talks are under way with a Dublin-based restaurant operator. Tequila Jack’s, a Mexican restaurant and tequila bar on Lapps Quay, is guiding €1.3m. The sale of The Grange bar, via Cohalan Downing, is expected to close shortly at a price in excess of the €1m guide. The premises sits on a 0.54-acre site on Grange Rd. Meanwhile, the tender deadline was yesterday for The Viaduct bar and restaurant, a 7,000 sq. ft property which is guiding €1.6m. The Irish Examiner, 2nd April
INDUSTRIAL
Swords Road, Santry UK logistics developer Chancerygate and investor Bridges Fund Management have completed their €40m logistics development, Airport Trade Park, close to Dublin Airport where three units have also been pre-let. The 120,260 sq. ft development is located on a five-acre site on Swords Road in Santry, 1.7km south of Dublin Airport and approx. 8km north of Dublin city centre. It comprises 13 units ranging from 3,615 sq. ft to 22,670 sq. ft. The three pre-let units totalling 31,200 sq. ft were all secured ahead of practical completion. Corporate gifting and branded merchandise company Imprint Engine took a 16,100 sq. ft unit on a 15-year lease, while electrical connectors and tooling manufacturer Cembre will occupy a 7,550 sq. ft unit on a 10-year term. Networking and firewall software company Netgate, took a 7,550 sq. ft unit on a 10-year term. The Independent, 2nd April
Ballymount Road, Dublin 12 A warehouse facility on Lower Ballymount Road has been brought to the market to let with a guide rent of €1.275m per annum being quoted by joint letting agents Savills and JLL. The property was formerly let to EuroGeneral, the company which operated a chain of 77 EuroGiant stores nationwide, which went into liquidation in February. The agents are offering the premises on a new lease of up to five years. Extending to approximately 131,100 sq. ft it occupies a prominent position within an established industrial and logistics location. The property comprises a twin-span detached warehouse with integrated office accommodation and benefits from extensive yard space and loading facilities. Its warehouse has a clear internal height of 6.87 metres and is currently fitted with racking which can be made available. The Independent, 2nd April
RETAIL
Liffey Valley, Dublin 22 The Eircom Superannuation Fund, the scheme responsible for the pension benefits of current and former Eir workers, is finalising plans to sell the Retail Park at Liffey Valley. The scheme, which is located immediately adjacent to the vast Liffey Valley Shopping Centre, is expected to come to the market through Bannon in September at a guide price of approx. €60m. Acquired by the then Telecom Eireann SA Pension Fund fund in 1999 from its joint developers Grosvenor Estate Holdings and O’Callaghan Properties at a cost of €57m, the scheme comprises 205,514 sq. ft of retail accommodation distributed across 12 units and a drive-through restaurant along with 550 free surface car-parking spaces. The tenant line-up includes Sports Direct, EZ Living, Jysk, The Range, PC World, Halfords, Maxi Zoo, CarpetRight, Harry Corry and McDonald’s. The Irish Times, 1st April
Grafton Street, Dublin 2 Grafton Street, which extends to 515 metres in length, and home to 89 retail units and more than 400,000 sq. ft of retail space, has demonstrated exceptional resilience and renewal following the disruption of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a study by Colliers. There have been 25 new store openings between 2020 and 2025. Despite headline vacancy rising to five units in 2025, vacancy represents just 2% of total retail floorspace. Rental levels, which peaked before the global financial crisis and again reached strong levels by early 2020, declined during the pandemic but stabilised by 2025 at c.€500 psf. A recent landmark letting to Levi’s at No.42 Grafton Street has set a new benchmark rent of €540 psf. Pre-Covid, funds owned 51 properties, now down to 36. In the same period, private investor ownership has jumped from 22 to 39 properties, with private investors now the dominant owner type on the street. The Irish Times, 1st April
William Street, Galway City Mountain Warehouse has agreed to occupy the former Treasure Chest at 31 William Street, securing a presence on the city’s prime shopping street. The outdoor clothing and equipment retailer has taken the premises as part of its ongoing expansion across Ireland. The location at the corner of William Street and Edward Square benefits from strong pedestrian footfall and is regarded as one of Galway’s prime retail pitches. Cushman & Wakefield acted on behalf of the landlord in the transaction, while Shiells & Co represented the tenant. Mountain Warehouse’s new store is expected to open for business in the former Treasure Chest building following the completion of fit-out works, which are ongoing at present. The Irish Times, 1st April
OFFICE
Harcourt Terrace, Dublin 2 BDM Property are seeking a tenant for the offices at 6-7 Harcourt Terrrace. The 8,805 sq. ft, four-storey over-basement Palladian-style building is currently undergoing a substantial redevelopment with a view to creating a highly sustainable office building behind its original 1830s façade. Upon completion of these works, the property will have an A3 BER rating and include a range of energy-efficient features such as PV panels, high-performance insulation, an air source heat pump and 100 per cent LED lighting with motion sensors. The property also has ample car parking with two electric vehicle (EV) charge points. Situated just off Adelaide Road and the Grand Canal, 6-7 Harcourt Terrace is located within walking distance of St Stephen’s Green and the Luas green line stops at Charlemont and Harcourt Street. The Irish Times, 1st April
Sandymount, Dublin 4 Finnegan Menton is guiding €1.5m for Gilford Hall. Located on Gilford Road and within walking distance of Sandymount village and Sandymount Dart station, subject property, a former Quaker meeting hall, is in use as three independent office units and is generating €99,700 pa. This income will reduce to €67,700 annually in July when one of these offices is due to be vacated. The remaining leases with SRJ Vision and Hussey Architects are due to expire in July 2028 and June 2030 respectively. Gilford Hall comprises a cut-stone two-storey building 2,560 sq. ft with a single-storey extension of 1,055 sq. ft and has 16 car-parking spaces. The property occupies a 0.33-acre site and is located immediately adjacent to Bethany House, which was recently redeveloped by Clúid Housing as 62 apartments. The Irish Times, 1st April
Dublin 2 The Sunday Times reports that Matheson has hired Knight Frank to help it look for more than 140,000 sq. ft of office space, before the lease at its building on Sir John Rogerson’s Quay expires in 2031. Matheson joins Mason Hayes & Curran and McCann FitzGerald which are also on the hunt for office space in Dublin city centre. Between them, the three leading law firms are hunting for 450,000 sq. ft of offices. Matheson is thought to be focusing its search on the Dublin 2 area. The company occupies Riverside IV at 70 Sir John Rogerson’s Quay, on the southside of the Liffey. It signed an 11-year lease on the building in 2020, paying annual rent of €7.35m. The building was owned by Irish Life at the time but the following year was sold to German fund Deka. The Sunday Times, 5th April
RESIDENTIAL / DEVELOPMENT
Rathmines, Dublin 6 DNG is guiding €3.6m for a three-storey apartment block in Grosvenor Square. Built in the 1970s, the apartment block in Grosvenor Square comprises 12 self-contained apartments roughly 484 sq. ft each. The property sits on a plot of some 0.39 acres with off street parking at the rear and on street parking on Grosvenor Square. The property has a BER rating of G and comes to market with current occupancy of eight units. The agent said the property could be of interest to both investors and builders, and has strong redevelopment potential given its location and the space afforded by the building. Each apartment is approximately 11m x 4m and contains one bedroom, one bathroom, one kitchen and one living room. The Business Post, 2nd April
Stepaside, Dublin 18 A tranche of six apartments in Stepaside are going for auction at a guide price that suggests a discount to market levels. BidX1 is guiding €1.245m for apartments 2,4,5,7,8 and 9 at Old Castle View, Kilgobbin Road, Stepaside. That equates to an average of €207,500 for the six which comprise five two-bedroom units and one one-bedroom unit ranging in size from 614 sq. ft to 710 sq. ft. Last October a group of four other apartments in the same complex sold for €1,081,000 which equates to a higher average of €270,250 per apartment. However, some of the October units were larger than those going in the latest auction. The October average price may also have been boosted by the fact that all four of those units were vacant. In contrast in this month’s auction, four of them are tenanted and generating €89,982 in annual rent. The Irish Independent, 2nd April
Dublin City Owners of derelict buildings in Dublin are facing a crackdown under plans to impose millions of euro in levies on more than 350 additional vacant properties. Dublin City Council will, in the coming months, increase staff levels in its derelict sites section with a view to developing a new citywide map of dereliction and more than trebling the number of sites on the Derelict Sites Register liable for levies, from just under 140 to at least 500 properties. The map is being prepared in advance of the introduction of a new Derelict Property Tax, which will replace the levy and will be collected by the Revenue Commissioners instead of local authorities. In tandem, the council is establishing a new development company or “special purpose vehicle” to regenerate the city centre. This council-owned company will be empowered to borrow money, buy sites and enter into joint ventures, separate from the council or the State balance sheet. 850 buildings are under “active investigation” for potential inclusion on the register, the council said. It expects that, over the next two years, 500 of those could be added to the register, with owners collectively facing millions of euro in penalties. The Irish Times, 4th April
OTHER
Irish Transactions, Q1 2026 Approx. €1.2bn worth of Irish property assets are currently being marketed, with an estimated €750m under active legal negotiation, according to agents TWM. TWM issued figures for Q1 2026 which show total investment spend reached €443m. The standout transaction of the first quarter was GIC’s acquisition of Newmarket Yard residential complex in Dublin 8 for €212m, the largest single asset transaction since the acquisition of Blanchardstown Shopping Centre in 2024. The second largest deal was the acquisition of a portfolio of five industrial units in Dublin for €33m. The office sector performed strongly, recording €136m in investment, the second largest share of the market. A French fund bought Macken House for c. €23m. A notable regional deal in the first quarter was Fine Grain’s sale of Hawthorne House office building in Limerick to a French fund, Arkea Reim, for €16m. The Irish Independent, 3rd April
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