21st October (Issue 519)
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.
MIXED-USE
Middle Abbey Street, Dublin 1 Having failed to secure a buyer when it was offered to the market for €3.75m in 2023, number 94-96 Middle Abbey Street is back for sale at a discounted price of €3.4m through Colliers. The property comprises a four-bay, five-storey-over-basement mixed-use building and is located next to Arnotts and adjoins Independent House. Both of these buildings are set to play a significant role in the regeneration of Middle Abbey Street with planning permission granted recently for the development of a student-accommodation scheme at Independent House and a new 245-bedroom hotel above Arnotts. 94-96 Middle Abbey Street extends to a total area of 9,348 sq. ft with retail accommodation at ground floor and basement levels, six apartments on the upper floors and a first-floor office. The ground floor and basement are let to City Electrical Factors, an international electrical wholesaler, at an annual rent of €100,000. The upper floors are generating €140,832 from six apartments, comprising a mix of two and three-bedroom units. The first-floor office space, which extends to 1,143 sq. ft, is vacant. The property is generating overall rental income of €240,832 a year. The Irish Times, 15th October.
Industrial
Dunshaughlin, Co. Meath U Value Insulation, a distributor of insulation and building products, is selling a brand new logistics facility which it is developing in Dunshaughlin MMC Park. Savills is guiding €7.95m for Unit 3 which extends to approx. 42,022 sq. ft and offers modern, energy-efficient accommodation with a clear internal height of 12 metres. It has two dock levellers, two grade-level access doors and a 35-metre-deep secure yard to facilitate plenty space for large vehicles to turn. It also has 35 on-site parking spaces and two-storey open-plan offices. The unit is targeting a BER rating of A3 and completion is due in the first quarter of next year. Occupiers already within the park include Pod Factory, Thermotech and CPAC, while the wider area is home to major employers such as MSD, Facebook, IBM and An Post. The Park is located within close proximity to the R147 and junction 5 of the M3 motorway. The Irish Independent, 16th October.
Bracetown, Co. Meath A 15-acre landholding at Bracetown is being offered to the market by Harvey and Coonan Property at a guide price of €5.25m. The subject property is zoned ‘Objective E2/E3 – General Enterprise and Employment/Warehousing and Distribution’ under the 2021–2027 Meath County Development Plan, permitting a wide range of commercial and industrial uses, subject to planning permission. The site occupies a strong location next to junction 5 and the park & ride facility of the M3 motorway and is positioned just seven minutes’ drive from junction 6 of the M50 motorway. The lands are located equidistant from Dunboyne and Damastown at the Dublin/Meath border. The Irish Times, 15th October.
RETAIL
Drumcondra, Dublin 9 Cushman & Wakefield is guiding €1.8m for a property which is leased to Flyefit. Should a sale proceed at that level, the new owner would be in line for a NIY of 6% after standard purchaser’s costs of 9.96%. The property, just off Upper Drumcondra Road, comprises three interconnected units extending to a total floor area of 17,222 sq. ft. The property is leased to Flyefit Eight Ltd with Flyefit Group Ltd acting as the guarantor, on a 20-year lease from March 2017 at an annual rent of €120,000. The lease includes stepped rent reviews, increasing to €160,000 a year in 2027 and €210,000 a year in 2032. Flyefit has operated in Ireland for more than 14 years and has 21 gyms across the country. The Irish Times, 15th October.
Nationwide Bookmaker Paddy Power is to close 28 shops in Ireland, putting 119 jobs at risk. Parent company Flutter UKI has announced that a total of 57 outlets will close across Ireland and the UK following a review of its high street estate. A Flutter UKI spokesperson said that in light of increasing cost pressures and challenging market conditions, it will be closing 28 shops across Ireland within the next month. Rte.ie, 15th October.
OFFICE
Bonham Quay, Galway City Having secured a strong line-up of tenants that includes Genesys, Liberty IT and CVS, Edward Capital is seeking a buyer for Alcantara, a newly developed and fully let office block at Bonham Quay in Galway city’s docklands. Offers in excess of €33.5m are being sought for the property by Cushman & Wakefield. The subject property, which comprises a total area of 70,977 sq. ft across eight storeys, comes for sale with an A3 Ber rating. The building is fully let and generating €2.4m in annual rental income. The Irish Times, 15th October.
Sir John Rogerson’s Quay, Dublin 2 Three Ireland is closing in on a deal to relocate its headquarters to the newly developed Tropical Fruit Warehouse in the city’s south docklands. The mobile operator is understood to be in advanced stage of negotiations to take the building’s entire 85,000 sq. ft of office space from TikTok. The social media platform pulled back from its own plan to occupy the property in September 2024 having signed a long-term lease with its developer Iput in August 2022. TikTok decided instead to bring all its Dublin-based workers together under one roof at its European headquarters in the Sorting Office on nearby Cardiff Lane. Should an agreement be concluded between Three Ireland and TikTok, the mobile operator’s employees would see minimal disruption to their office commute as the company’s current headquarters are located immediately adjacent to the Tropical Fruit Warehouse on Sir John Rogerson’s Quay. The Irish Times, 16th October.
Residential/Development
Northern Cross, Dublin 17 A 191-unit scheme, which was developed by ESR Europe and its local partner, Lugus Capital, is being offered to the market by Knight Frank at a guide price of €71.8m (4.25% NIY). The price equates to an average of €376k per apartment, a level which is below replacement cost. Completed in 2023, Burnell Place comes for sale fully let to Tuath Housing Association on a 25-year lease from September 2023 with uncapped index-linked rent reviews and low operations costs due to the nature of the lease structure. ESR Europe, a wholly owned subsidiary of global real estate investor ESR Group, have an established track record in the area of social and affordable housing, having completed the sale of Airton Plaza, a scheme of 328 units to Clúid Housing in January 2025. The Irish Times, 15th October.
Cashel, Co. Tipperary The Spiritan Order has engaged Sherry FitzGerald to find a buyer for Rockwell Farm. Located in the heart of the Golden Vale, the lands, which extend to 805 acres, are being offered for sale in one or more lots at an overall guide price of €21m. While the lands were in use as an agricultural college up until 2001, today, Rockwell Farm is a fully operational dairy farm. The property is being offered for sale in three lots: Lot 1 – Carrigeen: Extending to 268 acres, this land includes two residences and a farmyard and is situated across the road from the lands at Rockwell Farm. The guide price is €6m. Lot 2 – Rockwell Farm and Dogstown: Extending to 537 acres, this portion of the lands includes the farm’s milking parlour and full farmyard with modern facilities. The guide price is €15m. Lot 3 – The entire extending to 805 acres. The Irish Times, 15th October.
M2 Interchange, Co. Dublin A strategic large land bank extending to 116 acres has come to the market on the Dublin side of Ashbourne and the Dublin/Meath border. CBRE and JPM Doyle are guiding €18.5m for the holding which equates to just under €160,000 per acre. Located inside the county boundary of Dublin, the acreage is just 23km from Dublin city and 19km from the airport. The lands are currently zoned General Employment, which provides for logistics, warehousing and light industrial uses. The strategic positioning of the site ensures that the property also holds significant long-term potential for rezoning or alternative uses under future county and regional development plans. The Irish Independent, 16th October.
Tralee, Co. Kerry A 32.8 acre site in Ballybeggan, directly adjacent to the entrance to Munster Technological University in Kerry Technology Park, is seeking offers in excess of €4.5m through McQuinn Property Services. The entire holding is fully zoned under the recently amended Tralee development plan and is available in one or multiple lots. The land is located less than 1km from were Astellas Pharma is building a new €330m state-of-the-art facility. A feasibility study by Kane Williams Architects indicates that the C7-zoned lands could support a student village for up to 900 students, while the R1 lands could accommodate around 140 homes, subject to planning permission. The commercial yard comprises seven units and a four-bedroom detached house. Six units are currently let, generating a combined rental income of €66,800 pa, with potential to increase by approximately €3,000 pa when the remaining unit is occupied. The N69 Tralee Bypass is just 1km away, while Tralee town centre lies about 2.5km to the south. The Examiner, 16th October.
Clonskeagh, Dublin 14 Harley Issuer DAC has filed an appeal with Dublin City Council in a bid to have the site of the former Smurfit paper mill in Clonskeagh removed from the vacant site levy net for 2024. Following site inspections in August 2021, the local authority took the view that work had stopped and the site had become idle, putting it forward for inclusion on its vacant site register. The annual levy is charged at 7% of the market valuation of the property. According to the council’s latest register, last updated in August 2025, it values the site at €10m. The company failed in a previous appeal against the levy in 2022. The site had planning permission in place for 126 apartments in multiple blocks. According to quotes from sales agents Knight Frank, the site was valued somewhere between €18m and €20m at the time. In July, the company was granted planning permission for a 439-bed student accommodation complex across five blocks at the site. The case is now before An Coimisiún Pleanála, however, with two appeals lodged by two locals and separately by a residents’ group. The appeal case is due for decision in mid-November. The Currency, 20th October.
Glanmire, Cork City A 1.85 acre site located on New Line Rd, which comes with a waste recycling licence permitting the handling of up to 12,000 tonnes pa, has come to the market seeking in the region of €2.2m through Dominic J Daly & Co. Originally developed in the early 1990s for can recycling, the property comprises of two warehouse-style units constructed by the current owner. Unit 1 is approx. 7,000 sq. ft with Unit 2 approx. 5,500 sq. ft. The property, which has a private water supply, is immediately available. The Examiner, 16th October.
Other
Killowen, Co. Waterford Waterford City and County Council approved a landmark investment proposal that will secure the future of Waterford Airport and deliver a transformative €30m redevelopment project, fully funded through private investment. The proposal, which was brought forward by the Bolster Group and is being advanced through a new company, Waterford Airport Ltd, will deliver the full airport development works set out in the existing business plan. This includes a major runway extension and infrastructure upgrades that will enable the return of commercial passenger services to the airport. The works will commence early next year and will take approx. 12 months to complete. They include extending the existing runway to 2,287 metres and widening it to 45 metres so that it can land large jet planes, expanding car parking facilities and Terminal and ground equipment upgrades. The Irish Independent, 20th October.
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