30th September (Issue 516)
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.
INDUSTRIAL
Ballyfermot Road, Dublin 10 The former Pat the Baker premises at Unit 25 in Cherry Orchard Industrial Estate has come to the market, with Savills guiding €6.5m. Extending to 55,287sq. ft, the vacant property has been in continuous use as a distribution centre and comes with 5,594 sq. ft of offices. Occupying a prime position on Ballyfermot Road, the premises includes a warehouse of steel frame construction with a clear internal height of about five metres, with two automated dock levellers and three automated roller shutter doors at ground level. Developers may be interested in its 2.1-acre site which is zoned as Enterprise and Employment under the current South Dublin County Development Plan, with the stated objective “to provide for enterprise and employment related uses”. It may also appeal to owner-occupiers or investors. Ballyfermot Road is accessible from the M50 motorway at Junction 7 and is well connected to the N4 and N7 national routes. It is within a 30-minute drive of Dublin city centre, the airport and the Port Tunnel. The Irish Independent, 25th September
OFFICE
Baggot Street, Dublin 2 QRE is guiding €3.5m for a multi-let office investment at 142-143 Baggot Street which comes for sale on the instruction of receivers Deloitte with several tenants already in place and generating approx. €202,000 pa in rental income. The property comprises three floors of office space with dual access off Baggot Street Lower and Rogers Lane. Recent leasing activity includes Ryan & Lamb Architects agreeing a new 10-year lease from September 2025 on the third floor and Sony extending their current agreement, which is now an 11-year nine-month lease from July 2015. The first floor, which extends to 3,600 sq. ft is vacant, with the selling agents quoting €39.50 psf. Should a sale proceed at the €3.5m guide, the new owner would be in line for a NIY of 5.27% based on the current rental income of €202,000. With full occupancy and projected rental income of €347,000, the reversionary yield would be 9%. The Irish Times, 24th September
St Stephens Green, Dublin 2 IPUT is understood to be closing in on the purchase of the former headquarter offices of leading Dublin law firm, Ivor Fitzpatrick & Co, at 44/45 St Stephen’s Green. The property, at the junction of St Stephen’s Green and Hume Street, was offered to market in May with the benefit of full vacant possession by Knight Frank at a guide of €10m. 44/45 St Stephen’s Green extends to a net internal area of 16,830 sq. ft, has a mix of open-plan and cellular offices over six floors, with typical floor plates of about 3,150 sq. ft. The property has 15 car-parking spaces. Should Iput complete its acquisition, it will likely explore the options for refurbishment or a full-scale retrofit set out in the feasibility study prepared in advance of the sale by Reddy Architecture + Urbanism. The Irish Times, 24th September
Ballymount Avenue, Dublin 12 Home Store + More has signed a new long-term lease for the entire top floor of Quadrant House on Ballymount Avenue, 500m from Junction 10 of the M50 motorway. While the full terms of the 20-year lease agreement, handled by Lisney and Colliers, have not been released, the company is understood to be paying approx. €20 psf for the 20,000 sq. ft of office space it will occupy. There is a break option in year 10. Lanthorn, the asset manager for the property, oversaw a comprehensive upgrade of Quadrant House, improving both its sustainability and tenant facilities prior to Home Store + More’s decision to base its office operations in the building. The Irish Times, 24th September
MIXED-USE
South Mall, Cork City The move by private health insurer Vhi from 70 South Mall is likely to spark interest in a major site assembly for hotel, office, residential or mixed-use development. Vhi House, guided at €1.5m by Cohalan Downing, served for decades as the insurer’s public office. It comes to market this week as Vhi relocates 25 staff to new premises at Horgan’s Quay, after closing its South Mall office earlier this month. The 1980s-built Vhi House sits between two properties with development potential: 67–69 South Mall, including vacant offices, and No. 71, a former NIB bank branch. Planning for a 58-bed boutique hotel valued at €18m was granted several years ago at No. 71. The site later sold with planning permission for €3m. The Examiner, 25th September
South Mall, Cork City Immediately west of Vhi House, at 67–69 South Mall by Cook Street, sits Carbery House. Formerly Irish Life offices, it has full planning permission for conversion into 17 apartments. Carbery House, which spans 15,000 sq. ft across seven floors, also goes to market this week with full vacant possession. It carries a guide price of €2.25m through Frank V Murphy & Co, whose client typically buys and upgrades commercial properties but has decided to sell rather than take on the redevelopment themselves. Carbery House was sold off-market in 2022 by Savills for close to €2m. The buyer was Swiss Property Management Ltd, adding to its expanding Cork property portfolio. The Examiner, 25th September
Charleville, Co. Cork Developed in 2007 at a cost of €20m and sold by receivers to the current owners, Solas Financial, for €2.1m in 2018, Charleville Town Centre is back on the market, seeking €3.5m through Sherry FitzGerald. While just two of its 17 retail units were occupied in 2018, today just three of the scheme’s newly consolidated 15 units remain vacant. Charleville Town Centre extends to 45,177 sq. ft and comprises 15 retail units, nine office units and a two-bed duplex apartment. The anchor tenant, Dunnes Stores, along with Elverys Sports, own their own stores and are not included in the sale. The development has a multistorey car park with 450 car-parking spaces, which serves as the primary off-street car park for the entire town and generates footfall through the centre. The centre has an annual average footfall of more than 750,000, according to the selling agent. Total passing income is €520,000 pa. Existing tenants, which are not affected by the sale, include Insomnia, 5th Avenue Hair Salon and RDF Architects. The WAULT to expiry is 10.8 years. Should a sale of Charleville Town Centre proceed at the €3.5m guide price, the purchaser would be in line for a NIY of 12.2%. The Irish Times, 24th September
Swords, Co. Dublin Iroko Zen has paid €24.5m for two car showroom investments in Swords. The off-market sale and leaseback deal for Bright Motor Campus and Unit 4 at Airside Motorpark represents Iroko’s eleventh investment in the Irish property market. Bright Motor Campus comprises four car-showroom buildings extending to 54,930 sq. ft. Bright Motor Group Ltd will take a new 20-year FRI lease, with a tenant-only break option in year 15. The passing rent is €1.502m pa. Completed in 2023, the Bright Motor Campus buildings are A rated. Unit 4, Airside Motorpark comprises 30,000 sq. ft of accommodation, together with surface and basement parking. The property is also let to Bright Motor Group Ltd on a new 20-year FRI lease, including a tenant-only break option at the end of year 15. The passing rent is €458,000 pa. Together, the two assets generate a total passing rent of €1.96m pa, with both leases CPI linked rent reviews every five years. The Irish Times, 24th September
Residential/Development
Donnybrook, Dublin 4 Jefferson House, located on a landmark 0.27 acre site at the junction of Eglinton Road and Donnybrook Road, comes on to the market through Savills at a guide price of €10m, with full planning permission for a scheme of 20 large 2,000 sq. ft apartments. The former Smurfit office block, which dates from the 1980s is being sold on behalf of Silver Bloom, a consortium of investors led by Hong Kong-based businessman Fergus Lynch. Designed by OMS Architects, the approved 12-storey Jefferson House scheme is aimed towards the top end of the owner-occupier market and features large winter gardens, roof gardens, high ceilings and flexible internal layouts customised to meet the individual requirements of its residents. Each unit is dual, triple or quadruple aspect to maximise the sunlight and views available for occupiers. The Irish Times, 24th September
Merrion Road, Dublin 4 The Religious Sisters of Charity is preparing to sell a 16-acre site beside St Vincent’s University Hospital, which could raise €50m for the order. The site is allocated Z15, which allows for the provision of healthcare and community uses but is open to the building of residential accommodation. The Religious Sisters of Charity said the order was “in the early stages of planning the disposal” of the site. For more than 100 years, the site housed St Mary’s, a home for the blind and visually impaired. It was later used as a nursing and convalescent home but closed in 2020 when the operating company went into liquidation. In recent years the buildings on the site have been used to house refugees. In a 2022 submission for the Dublin city draft development plan, Avison Young, on behalf of the Sisters of Charity, sought to have the zoning designation changed to Z12, to reflect “future development potential”. There is a range of buildings on the land, including the two-storey St Mary’s home, the main part of which was built in 1866 and fronts on to Merrion Road. Other structures include a single-storey, 11-bedroom building and a disused swimming pool. The institutional buildings are said to be “physically and functionally obsolete”. Any future development would have to accommodate the 19th-century period building, which is on the list of protected structures. The Sunday Times, 28th September
Drogheda, Co Louth A site just 1.3km from Drogheda town centre and extending to 9.39 acres is being offered to the market with full planning permission for 192 new homes by CBRE for €3.8m. The scheme provides for the construction of 42 houses and 150 apartments distributed across six blocks of up to four storeys. The development at Boyne Road also includes a creche, cafe and gym facility and was designed by Plus Architecture. An alternative feasibility study has also been prepared by Plus Architecture illustrating the potential for 113 homes comprising 69 houses and 44 duplexes, subject to planning permission. The site is zoned A2 New Residential under the Louth County Development Plan 2021-2027, with a specific objective to provide for 40% public open space within any future development. The site is less than three kilometres from MacBride train station, which offers direct rail services to Dublin city centre in about 35 minutes. The Irish Times, 24th September
Enniskerry, Co. Wicklow A 55.5 acre residential development site located 1km from Enniskerry village is guiding €13m, and is being sold on the instruction of Declan McDonald of PwC, in his capacity as receiver for Bluetone Properties Ltd. Kilgarron Hill site, as it is known, has a “strong planning precedent” for more than 300 homes across a number of planning applications, according to Savills, and is one of the largest development opportunities to come to the market in the Greater Dublin Area in recent years. The Irish Times, 24th September
Citwest, Dublin 24 Guiding €1m through Savills, the site on Citywest Village Avenue comprises a ready-to-go residential site of 0.54 acres, with full planning permission for 12 homes, a creche and a coffee kiosk. The site, which is being sold on behalf of listed housebuilder Glenveagh, is well connected thanks to its proximity to the Luas red line. The Irish Times, 24th September
Inflation House prices rose by an average of 0.8% in the three months to September, according to the latest Daft.ie property price report. Daft.ie said the average price of a three-bedroom semi-detached house is now just over €421,000. Asking prices are now almost 6% higher than a year ago, and 39% above their pre-Covid levels. Home values have shot up to such an extent in the last five years that they are now just 10% below their Celtic Tiger peak. Prices in the capital were up by 4.5% in the past year, compared with an average of almost 6% across the rest of the country. In Munster prices were up 5% annually, and rose below the national average in Cork, Galway, Limerick and Waterford. But there were rises of close to 9% in the area outside Galway city, and a rise of 7.2% outside Dublin. The Irish Independent, 30th September
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