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
IFSC, Dublin 1 4 Custom House Plaza is being offered to the market by TWM at a guide price of €10m. Should a sale proceed at that level, the new owner would be in line for a NIY of 8.45%. The sale comes 10 months after Ardvest’s acquisition for €24m of the neighbouring properties, numbers 3 and 5 Custom House Plaza. Those two buildings extend to a total NIA of 60,606 sq. ft and are generating €2,656,974 in annual rental income. Number 4 Custom House Plaza extends to a NIA of 19,500 sq. ft distributed over five floors, with 20 secure basement car-parking spaces. The building is fully let to five tenants and is generating annual rental income of €929,414. The property is situated immediately adjacent to Connolly Station. The Irish Times, 2nd September
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Cork Airport Business Park A multi-let office investment in Cork Airport Business Park has come to the market and Savills is guiding €6.3m. That appears to be a substantial discount to the price that the building, 5200 Cork Airport Business Park, sold for in 2018. At that time, The Irish Examiner newspaper reported that it was purchased by Irish/Singapore investor Fine Grain for €8.5m. The property is multi-let to four established tenants, including Aviva Insurance Ireland DAC, Aon Solutions Ireland Limited, Genesis Automation Limited, and Clear Insurance Ireland, formerly MBC, producing a combined rental income of €557,401 pa. That suggests a GIY of approx. 8.9%. The building also offers further income growth potential through the leasing of the remaining vacant first-floor accommodation of 21,636 sq. ft which would account for approx. 39% of the gross floor space of 55,887 sq. ft in the three-storey, standalone modern office building. At the time of Fine Grain’s purchase, it intended to refurbish 20,000 sq. ft of vacant space. The investment opportunity is being offered for sale by private treaty, with tenants unaffected. The Irish Independent, 3rd September
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East Point Business Park, Dublin 3 A three-storey office building at East Point Business Park is being brought to the market for €4m, with a NIY of more than 10%. JLL is handling the sale of Block G by private treaty. The property extends to 26,669 sq. ft and comes with 42 car parking spaces. The building is primarily let to Activision Blizzard Ireland producing annual rental income of €445,564. Block G currently has a B3 building energy rating, with an “actionable pathway” identified to achieve an A3 rating. East Point Business Park occupies a 40 acre landscaped campus and is home to occupiers including Oracle, Google, Enterprise Ireland and Ergo. The Business Post, 3rd September
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Purpose Built Student Accommodation
Monkstown, Co. Dublin Koula Rooms, a fully let student-accommodation scheme comprising 28 bed spaces across two detached two-storey blocks is being offered to the market by Colliers at a guide price of €4.5m. Koula Rooms generates income across the academic year and summer letting periods. The development’s gross and net income stand at approx. €357,000 and €307,000 a year respectively. The asking price of €4.5m reflects a capital value of approx. €150,000 per bedspace and a NIY of approx. 6.53%. Located on Abbey Road and within a short walk of the campus of the Institute of Art, Design and Technology, which has approx. 2,500 enrolled students, the subject property comprises eight self-contained three-bedroom apartments. Each bedroom benefits from its own en suite bathroom, accommodating a total of 28 student bedspaces across single and twin-occupancy configurations. The scheme extends to a total area of 5,502 sq. ft and has recently undergone a comprehensive refurbishment programme. The Irish Times, 2nd September
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Mixed Use
Saggart, Dublin 24 Knight Frank is guiding a price of €6.85m for 2024 Bianconi Avenue at Citywest Business Campus. The subject property comprises a two-storey office headquarters building of 19,127 sq. ft, together with a self-contained warehouse extending to 30,278 sq. ft. The offices, which are vacant, have a flexible layout incorporating both open-plan areas and cellular offices/meeting rooms. The South Dublin County Development Plan 2022-2028 permits office, industrial, science/technology-based uses. Appropriately scaled commercial healthcare uses may also be considered for the property subject to further consultation. The warehouse has independent access and is let to Hevac Ltd until December 2030. Number 2024 occupies a site extending to 3 acres, with frontage on to the N7. The Irish Times, 2nd September
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Retail
Santry, Dublin 9 Minaun Capital is understood to be in talks to sell Gulliver’s Retail Park in Santry to Union Investment. While the proposed deal has yet to be finalised, Minaun is on course to secure a significant return on its original investment. The company acquired Gulliver’s Retail Park for approx. €29.5m in April 2024. Union Investment is believed to be weighing the purchase of the property for approx. €45m. Should a deal proceed at that level, Minaun would be in line for a gross uplift of 52.5% on their original outlay. Built in 2005 by Cosgrave Property Group as part of a wider retail and office development comprising 270,000 sq. ft of space, the retail park extends to 142,740 sq. ft along with over 650 car-parking spaces. The scheme’s line-up includes Homebase, Lidl, EZ Living Interiors, Jysk, Petmania, McCabes Pharmacy, Eurospar, McDonald’s and Costa Coffee. The Irish Times, 2nd September
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Nationwide Paddy Power, owned by Flutter, will close up to 100 stores across the UK and Ireland by the end of the year. The move, which Flutter said is a review of its retail footprint, comes amid higher rents, energy costs and the hiking of gambling taxes in the UK, means up to 400 jobs are at risk of redundancy. The closures represent a potential fifth of Paddy Power’s retail footprint, with it having 196 shops in Ireland and 310 in the UK, including Northern Ireland. Last October, the Business Post revealed Flutter was closing 28 Paddy Power bookmaker shops in Ireland and a further 29 in the UK, including one in Northern Ireland. The Business Post, 3rd September
Eyre Square Centre, Co. Galway Normal is to open its first store in the west of Ireland after agreeing a 10-year lease at Eyre Square Shopping Centre. The retailer has taken a 3,946 sq. ft unit on the first floor of the shopping centre, formerly occupied by Bron. The store will be located beside Flying Tiger Copenhagen and Penneys. Colliers advised on the letting. The unit was acquired by Lanthorn while vacant in March this year and has now been re-let. Normal, which has been expanding its Irish presence, recently opened its first Dublin store at the Ilac Centre on Henry Street. The Business Post, 3rd September
Hospitality
Ormond Quay Upper, Dublin 7 The redevelopment of the site of the former Ormond Hotel may have moved a step closer following the property’s sale to a group of Irish investors. Having paid approx. €2.5m in 2013 to secure ownership of the Victorian-era hotel, Monteco Holdings has sold the site in an off-market transaction brokered by CBRE for approx. €12m. It remains unclear whether the Ormond Hotel site’s new owners will pursue the development of the hotel for which Monteco finally secured planning permission in 2017 or submit a new planning application of their own. The current planning consent provides for the development of a 120-bedroom hotel, along with food, beverage and meeting facilities distributed across 62,970 sq. ft over seven floors. The Irish Times, 2nd September
Residential / Development
Dunbur Lower, Co. Wicklow Niall Molloy, Echelon founder and property developer, has struck a deal to buy a 31-acre development site outside Wicklow town for up to €7m which could accommodate up to 400 new homes. Molloy acquired the land through Beakontech Dunbur Limited. Filings with the CRO show that Beakontech agreed to purchase the entire issued share capital of Seedam Limited, the company through which the lands were held. While the terms have been agreed, the full payment for the site is contingent on the site being rezoned for residential development. Seedam had previously sought residential zoning for the property, which is currently listed as unzoned land, but was unsuccessful. The property was designated as a strategic land bank under the previous Wicklow Town-Rathnew Development Plan, where it was being held for future community expansion and not used immediately for development. Wicklow County Council is preparing amendments to its county development plan to identify additional land for residential zoning. The Business Post, 2nd September
Milltown Park, Dublin 6 Ardstone has secured planning permission from An Coimisiún Pleanála (“ACP”) for a revised 562-home residential scheme at Milltown Park. The scheme will comprise 556 apartments and six courtyard houses, alongside a café or restaurant and crèche. It is the third planning approval for the Milltown Park site from ACP and the third time Dublin City Council has supported proposals for the site. The latest plans represent a substantial reduction on the previously approved scheme, with the number of homes cut from 636 to 562. The maximum building height has also been reduced from 10 storeys to eight. The redesign follows legal challenges to the two previous permissions. Although permission had already been secured, Ardstone said it chose to amend the proposals to address concerns raised in those challenges and provide a clearer route towards delivery. The approval does not, however, mark the end of the planning history surrounding the site. Two further applications remain live. A Strategic Housing Development application is awaiting a decision from ACP, while Ardstone’s first Large-Scale Residential Development application is expected to come before the courts later this year. The Business Post, 3rd September
Straffan, Co. Kildare Sherry Fitzgerald is selling a 30 acre landholding just outside the village of Straffan on behalf of their client. Located directly across the road from the entrance to the five-star K Club hotel and golf resort, and positioned along the river Liffey at Straffan Bridge, the lands at Lodge Park are being offered to the market at a guide price of €2.25m. The subject property is zoned for agricultural use at present and comprises two large grass fields with mature boundaries, a substantial barn and two-storey farm building. The land has road frontage of approx. 200m from Straffan Bridge and it has direct access to the river Liffey along an 800m stretch running towards Castledillon. While the subject property’s potential in the short to medium term is likely to remain confined to its current agricultural use, prospective purchasers will take note of plans being progressed for a nursing home and housing on nearby lands. The Irish Times, 2nd September
Magheramore, Co Wicklow The international headquarters of the Missionary Sisters of St. Columban and lands at Magheramore have been placed on the market through Bannon at a guide price of €4.5m. The asset sitting on 50 acres is located directly across the road from the entrance to Magheramore beach. There are several buildings arranged across two clusters on the site, and these extend to a total area of 78,766 sq. ft of accommodation that includes 111 bedrooms. The buildings include the original Magheramore period house. Built around 1870 and known originally as Seapark House, the property has a large extension that houses the complex’s main bedroom accommodation and a church, built in the 1960s. A nursing home, which operated until last year, has 24 en-suite bedrooms and interconnects with the main building. The Bobbio Centre, which consists of 12 en-suite bedrooms, a five-bedroom cottage and offices, is located in a separate area of the site and there is a gate lodge at the main entrance to the complex. The Irish Times, 2nd SeptemberTullamore, Co. Offaly Jordan Auctioneers are selling a substantial residential development site in Tullamore at a guide price of €4m. The Tullamore site has planning permission for 92 houses on one part of the site known as The Meadows, while another part of the site is considered to have potential for a further 38 semi-detached houses. The Tullamore holding comprises a 10.77 acre infill site situated off Bachelors Walk and Church Road, close to Tullamore town centre. Approx. 7.53 acres benefit from full planning permission for the 92 houses, most of which would be three-bedroom terraced units as well as some semi-detached houses. The Irish Independent, 3rd September