1st April (Issue 490)
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
Retail Parks Oaktree has sold its portfolio of eight retail parks across Ireland to Realty Income Reit in a deal valued at around €220m. The eight have a combined floor area of 1.4 million sq. ft. They are Navan Retail Park, Naas Retail Park, Sligo Retail Park, Drogheda Retail Park, Bray Retail Park, Waterford Retail Park, Parkway Retail Park in Limerick and Gateway Shopping Park in Galway. Sigma Retail Partners has been managing the portfolio and says that it has increased the rent roll across the portfolio by over 40% since Oaktree’s acquisition of them. It is understood to have a combined rent roll of about €17.5m so the purchaser can expect to earn a net initial yield of approx. 7%. The deal also includes adjoining land in Navan, Sligo and Waterford. The Irish Independent, 26th March
Galway City Edward Square retail complex is guiding €8m through joint agents TWM and JLL and comprises five modern retail units with a combined floor area of 24,984 sq. ft. Purpose-built in 2000, the building has large glass facades, open floorplates and high ceilings, making it a suitable proposition for big-box retailers. The development is producing an annual contracted rent of €601,200 and is occupied by three tenants, namely Starbucks, Intersport Elvery’s and New Look. Upon reletting, New Look’s premises together with the scheme’s two other vacant units, are expected to increase Edward Square’s overall annual rental income to approx. €800,000. The Irish Times, 26th March
Castleknock, Dublin 15 Hooke & MacDonald has completed the sale of all four commercial units at the Phoenix Park Racecourse residential scheme in Castleknock, Dublin 15. The four units, which were offered to the market in February last year with guides ranging from €250,000 to €325,000 (plus VAT) have all been acquired by owner-occupiers for above their quoting prices. Multiple underbidders are understood to have competed for each unit. The Irish Times, 26th March
OFFICE
Darty Road, Dublin 6 Tramway House on Dartry Road, which has been home to Web Summit’s operations since 2015, has been put up for sale by public tender through Lisney. The property, on a 1-acre site, was on the market for €3m in 2014 when it was acquired. The existing office building extends to 24,930 sq. ft over two floors. Tramway House is currently held under a lease dating from October 2014 that was extended by 18 months from November 2024 to May 2026 at a rent of €220,000 pa. The Business Post, 31st March
Merrion Square, Dublin 2 61 Merrion Square is being offered for sale by Colliers on behalf of receivers Interpath Advisory at a guide price of €3.3m. No. 61 is a four-storey over-basement mid terrace Georgian building extending to 5,491 sq. ft, with parking for four cars to the rear. The building is occupied by four tenants and is generating a passing rent of €186,360 a year with a WAULT of 2.23 years. Primo Productions occupies the ground and first floors, and account for approx. 50% of the rent roll, paying €91,784 pa. Its lease expires in 2027. The €3.3m guide price equates to a net initial yield of 5.13% and a capital value of €600 psf. The Irish Times, 26th March
Spencer Dock, Dublin 1 The owners of One Spencer Dock have decided to put it up for sale through joint agents JLL and CBRE at a much-reduced guide of €170m, a 36% drop on the €265m price that had been mooted four years ago, and a 30% reduction on the €242m Middle Eastern investors paid to acquire it in June 2016. The €242m sale price set a record for the Dublin office market with a capital value of just under €1,068 per square foot. The nine-storey over-basement PwC office complex has an overall floor area of 226,624 sq. ft and was developed in 2007. One Spencer Dock is let to PwC under a 25-year lease with about seven years left to run, and PwC is understood to be paying an annual rent of about €11.9m, or approx. €52 psf. The Irish Times, 26th March
MIXED-USE
Merrion Collection, Dublin 2 The Merrion Collection is being offered for sale through Colliers for €5.5m and comprises a mix of retail, food & beverage and residential uses distributed across Merrion Row and Merrion Court. The sale offers the prospective purchaser the combination of immediate rental income along with the opportunity to pursue the development of a new office-led mixed-use scheme on the site. There is potential to generate further rental income from a number of residential units which are being sold with vacant possession. The Merrion Collection covers 8,584 sq. ft and generates a combined annual rent of €235,000 from the commercial element, which includes a diverse tenant base including The Unicorn restaurant. The Irish Times, 26th March
HOSPITALITY
Howth, Dublin 13 Tetrarch Capital has proposed a potential deal for Fingal County Council to take Howth Castle on a 99-year lease to allow it to develop a tourism destination similar to nearby Malahide Castle, according to sources. The developer, which bought the hugely historic castle and its 470-acre estate in 2019 from the Gaisford St Lawrence family for an undisclosed sum, has planning permission from Fingal for a €10m transformation of the castle into a retail, food and tourist destination. That plan has ground to a halt since last September when Tetrarch failed to convince An Bord Pleanála to lift planning conditions that restricted elements the developer said were critical to the project. Sunday Independent, 30th March
Hanover Quay, Dublin 2 Residents have lodged objections with Dublin City Council against the plan by Misery Hill Entertainment Ltd for a four-star, 35-bedroom hotel and “Baby Vicar” venue at Hanover Quay in Dublin 2. The hotel and venue would be housed in a two-storey glass box designed by PRC Architecture & Planning. The glass cube would “oversail’” the original protected structure at 9 Hanover Quay. A decision is due on the new application in mid-April. The Irish Times, 31st March
RESIDENTIAL/DEVELOPMENT
Parkgate Street, Dublin 8 WP Heuston Developments Ltd, an entity controlled by Warren Private, last week applied for permission to build a 155-bedroom hotel and 22-unit apartment block at 23-24 Parkgate St, with a separate three-storey residential townhouse to be built at 29 Parkgate St. The plans for the four-to-six-storey hotel and the two-to-five-storey apartment block would see the vacated Westbrook Motors car dealership demolished. Warren Private and Greenleaf Group purchased the Parkgate St site for €6.7m last year. The apartment block would be made up of 11 one-bed and 11 two-bed units. The Business Post, 1st April
Gardiner Street, Dublin 1 A 23-bedroom guesthouse at 76 Gardiner Street Lower is being offered for sale and joint agents BDM Property and JP Younge Auctioneers are requesting offers in excess of €4.75m. Gardiner Lodge is one of the newest guesthouses on the street as it was created less than eight years ago when the former offices of the National Adult Literacy Agency were converted. The original building contains seven double, one family and one single bedroom together with a basement dining room and kitchen. The extension contains nine double, two family and three single bedrooms. The Irish Independent, 27th March
Derelict Homes Just 47 homes have been purchased so far under a €150m Government fund established to buy vacant and derelict homes in 2023, with just under €7.5m spent across the State so far. The fund is designed to allow local authorities to purchase vacant properties for resale to buyers willing to commit to bringing them back into residential use, with proceeds from the sale then recycled back into the fund. However, a one-year review found that while 1,297 properties were approved by the department for inclusion, only 47 had been acquired. A further 70 were in the process of being acquired either by agreement or through compulsory purchase. The department said that 262 of the identified properties were being brought back into use by the owner without need for local authority engagement and 72 were being dealt with under different State funding programmes. Another 170 properties identified were not in fact vacant. It said nearly 50% of the properties approved were coming out of vacancy or dereliction. The Irish Times, 30th March
Social Housing Minister for Housing James Browne is to allocate €436m for social housing needs this year. This includes capital funding allocations of €325m to be used by local authorities for the second-hand social housing acquisitions programme. This year’s second-hand acquisitions programme will be focused on Tenant-in-Situ Acquisitions; Older persons and persons with a disability; Exits from homeless services; and Buy and Renew acquisitions which tackle vacancy. Mr Browne said the Government has funded the acquisition of almost 7,000 social homes since 2020, at a cost of €2bn. Rte.ie, 31st March
Belmayne, Dublin 13 A development of 258 apartments in Belmayne near Northern Cross has been completed by developers Kajima Partnerships and Bartra. Known as O’Neill Court, around 200 of the apartments have already been launched on the private rental market with one-bedroom apartments starting at rents of €1,950 per month through agents Dillon Marshall. The remainder of the units are being assigned for social housing. The Irish Independent, 27th March
Magheramore Beach, Co. Wicklow A seafront tract of 21 acres overlooking a Wicklow beach sold at auction for €613,000, which was a discount to the €700,000 that was reported to have been paid for it by Paddy McKillen Jnr in 2021. Three bidders competed for the clifftop lands at Magheramore Beach at a BidX1 auction and the price achieved was €63,000 over its guide price of €550,000. The €700,000 that Mr McKillen paid in 2021 represented more than treble the €210,000 guided for the property at that time. The Irish Independent, 28th March
Planning Permissions granted in three of Dublin’s four local authority areas fell by more than half last year, with figures produced by the Central Statistics Office showing planning permissions fell by 21.4% nationally in 2024. Just 32,401 units were given planning permission compared with 41,225 in 2023. Permissions were down 55.1% in Dublin City Council, 55.2% in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, 61% in Fingal County Council, and 19.1% in South Dublin County Council. The fall-off in planning permissions in the capital is directly related to a rapid decline in the number of apartments being built in the State – most of which are in Dublin. Just 13,194 apartments were given planning permission in the State last year compared with 21,487 in 2023, 16,723 in 2022, 26,272 in 2021 and 24,662 in 2020. The Irish Times, 1st April
OTHER
Tralee, Co. Kerry White Thorn Lodge Care Home in Tralee is being offered for sale as a going concern and Cohalan Downing are guiding €6m. The Home accommodates 59 bedroom with 68 bedspaces extending to over 26,900 sq. ft on approx. 8.8 acres with ample room for expansion. Established over 20 years ago, the facility has a good track record with the Health Information and Quality Authority and its reputation is reflected in its 100% occupancy levels. White Thorn Lodge is about 3.5 km south of Tralee town centre and is being sold by a company controlled by investors. Contained in a detached mainly single-storey facility which was constructed in 2003, the accommodation provided includes 50 single bedrooms and nine twin bedrooms all fully ensuite with toilet, sink and shower. The Irish Independent, 28th March
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