25th November (Issue 524)
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
Stillorgan & Blanchardstown, Dublin Parking fees of €1.20 per hour have been introduced at Stillorgan Village Shopping Centre. The hourly charge will be in operation from Monday to Saturday between 9am and 6pm, and on Sundays and Bank Holidays between 12pm and 6pm. The car park, which is owned along with the shopping centre by Kennedy Wilson, are operated by private parking company Euro Car Parks Ireland. The announcement comes days after residents protested plans to introduce car park barriers at Blanchardstown Shopping Centre. Locals were reacting to a planning application submitted to Fingal County Council in September by Blanche Retail, a subsidiary of global investment firm Strategic Value Partners, which acquired the shopping centre and car parks in February. The application includes a proposal to introduce “car parking management controls” to the multistorey and surface car parks. In 2022, the Liffey Valley Shopping Centre in west Dublin introduced charges of €2.50 for the first three hours of parking, after which an hourly rate of €2.50 is in place. At the time, the shopping centre’s manager, US property giant Hines, said the fees were being introduced to grow “new and more sustainable ways to access Liffey Valley”. The Irish Times, 19th November
INDUSTRIAL
Oranmore, Co. Galway The Nightline Logistics Group facility at Deerpark Industrial Estate in Oranmore is being offered to the market by Harvey guiding €5.95m. The subject property comprises a detached, purpose-built warehouse and office building of 56,292 sq. ft. Developed in the year 2000 and refurbished earlier this year, the building has six dock levellers, a 47m-deep service yard to the rear and a clear internal height of 12m. Deerpark Industrial Estate is located 2km from junction 19 on the M6 motorway and 11km from Galway city. The property is let to Nightline Logistics Group Unlimited at a passing annual rent of €447,545. Should a sale proceed at the guide price, the new owner would be in line for a NIY of 6.8%. The tenant has been in occupation of the building since 2013 and in June 2023, extended its commitment to the building for a further five-year term. Nightline Logistics Group Unlimited is an Irish registered company, founded in 1992, and was acquired by US logistics giant UPS in 2017. This building is the main distribution hub for UPS in the western region of Ireland. The Irish Times, 19th November
Tallaght, Dublin 24 M7 Real Estate is seeking a tenant for its refurbished Unit K South City Business Park, Whitestown Way. CBRE is quoting €20 psf for the industrial/logistics property which extends to 16,854 sq. ft and incorporates two-storey office accommodation and secure private yard on a site of approx. 0.94 acres. Specification comprises of steel portal frame construction with an insulated metal deck roof incorporating translucent roof panels and a clear internal height of 9.6m metres. Loading access is provided via one dock leveller and one grade door with the benefit of a private and secure concrete yard. The office accommodation extends to 3,976 sq. ft and will be predominantly laid out in an open-plan configuration. South City Business Park is well-established and offers easy access to Dublin’s arterial routes such as the M50 (Junction 11) eight minutes away. The Irish Independent, 20th November
Hospitality
Cork City The Flying Enterprise bar and business premises has just sold for over €5m, making it the biggest bar sale across Munster this year. The vastly expanded licensed and entertainment premises includes the Courtyard Bar, a shop, off-licence, and five overhead apartments. Agent Cohalan Downing said the buyer was local, with international backing, and it would continue to run as a trading entity, with all staff retained after the O’Shea family owner’s decision to retire. Near St FinBarre’s Cathedral, the South Mall, and the Brewery Quarter, the mixed-use commercial/licensed property earns €185,000 per year in rents separate to bar income: Munster Technological University pays €105,000 a year to lease three classrooms in the building, and the five apartments add another €80,000 annually. It was this very level of combined income that drove the sale price to just under the €5.3m asking price. The Examiner, 20th November
OFFICE
Harmony Row, Dublin 2 Knight Frank is guiding €2.9m for the second-floor office at Unit 7, Harmony Court. Located just 400m from Pearse Street Dart station, the subject property comprises 5,536 sq. ft of fully fitted office accommodation along with four secure basement car-parking spaces. The offices are largely open-plan and are complemented by a reception and seating area, three private offices, a dedicated boardroom and a fully fitted kitchen. Unit 7 comes for sale with vacant possession. Designed by Henry J Lyons Architects and completed in 2005, Harmony Court occupies a prime location within Dublin’s central business district between Grand Canal Dock, Merrion Square and Trinity College. The surrounding area is home to a range of leading occupiers including Google, Accenture, HSBC and William Fry. The Irish Times, 19th November
RESIDENTIAL/DEVELOPMENT
Blackrock, Co. Dublin Vincent Finnegan is offering a high-profile residential site for sale by tender at a guide price of €6m. Located on Newtownpark Avenue and just 50 metres from the N11 quality bus corridor, the subject property, which extends to 1.6 acres, comprises two houses – Selandia and the Paddock – and an afterschool centre known as the Willow House Afterschool. The subject site is zoned Objective A under the terms of the DLRCC Development Plan 2022-2028. This objective supports residential development and residential amenities. The subject site is for sale by tender with the final date for receipt of tenders set for Friday, January 30th, 2026. The Irish Times, 19th November
Dún Laoghaire, Co. Dublin Brian M Durkan Ltd is understood to have paid over the €5.25m guide price for a site close to the waterfront in Dún Laoghaire. Fitzwilliam Real Estate group (“FRE”) had secured full planning permission for 74 build-to-rent apartments on the site on Crofton Road located to the rear of St Michael’s Hospital which has been accommodating a car park and a two-storey house. The price for the 0.8 acre site was the equivalent of about €6.5m per acre which was the highest price per acre paid in Dublin during the third quarter of this year. The selling agent was Knight Frank. The approved scheme will have uninterrupted views across Dún Laoghaire harbour and have a number of amenities on its own site including a gym, and social and co-working areas. Its existing planning approval consists of a mix of 55 one-bedroom units and 19 two-bedroom units along with one commercial cafe unit over two buildings with heights ranging from part four to eight storeys. FRE had previously offered it for sale in 2019 with an asking price of €6.5m even though at the time it did not have the planning permission. FRE had also submitted an alternative strategic housing development application for 102 rental apartments and An Coimisiún Pleanála’s website showed no decision on that application by the time we went to press. The Irish Independent, 20th November
Celbridge, Co. Kildare The state has purchased around 235 acres of land surrounding the Castletown House estate for €11.25m, €4m more than it was valued at two months ago. The Office of Public Works (OPW) already owned the house itself and about 237 acres of the surrounding landscape. Minister of State at the OPW, Kevin Moran, said the agreed purchase price was supported by a business case as well as a report from Lisney, who advised in September of this year that the market value of the lands was between €7.25m and €7.5m. The lands are set to be conserved and managed as a heritage amenity, and a plan for this will be drawn up alongside Kildare County Council. The Business Post, 19th November
Cork University College Cork is to review its extensive land and property bank to identify which if any of its sites surplus to requirement might be suitable for housing/rezoning. UCC is among the 119 applications this month to Cork City Council’s call under the National Planning Framework for additional residential lands, to accelerate housing delivery. The dozens of applications span city core and fringe area, including from the likes of Cairn Homes at Lotamore, JCD Group off the Mallow Road, Jacobs Engineering for a site in Mahon, along with a raft of house builders and landowners, for tracts of land, from infill to some in excess of 100 acres on all corners of the city boundary. UCC employs over 3,000 people and has expansive land assets, including at Curraheen, North Mall and the city centre, spanning some 86 hectares, with over three million square feet of built structures over approx. 150 buildings. The Examiner, 21st November
Other
Raheny, Dublin 5 The Little Sisters of the Poor is selling the Sacred Heart Residence, a fully operational nursing home in Raheny. The sale is being offered to the market as a going concern through Avison Young. Market sources expect it to command offers in the region of €20m. Located on Sybil Hill Road, the subject property comprises a large complex of 199,543 sq. ft on a landscaped 6.53 acre site adjacent to St Anne’s Park. It includes an 85-bed registered nursing home, 26 independent-living apartments, a chapel, auditorium, former convent accommodation and parking for 55 cars. Originally purpose-built on behalf of the sisters by Sisk in the early 1970s, the complex is divided into six interconnected blocks and offers scope to an incoming owner for immediate operational uplift. A feasibility study prepared by CWPA Planning & Architecture outlines the options for reconfiguration and redevelopment to increase the number of rooms at the complex, subject to planning permission. The property is zoned Z15 (“Community and Social Infrastructure”) under the Dublin City Development Plan 2022–2028. The Irish Times, 19th November
Dublin MetroLink plans to collaborate with the LDA, housing bodies and organisations to deliver dedicated accommodation for its estimated 8,000-strong workforce. Once the project is completed, the new housing stock could then be transferred back to the state, a spokesman from MetroLink confirmed to the Business Post. On Wednesday, MetroLink programme director Sean Sweeney told an Oireachtas committee that the 18.8km Dublin metro project will require 8,000 workers to complete, with many to be brought from overseas due to the limitations of Ireland’s workforce. “There are no firms of the scale and expertise in Ireland to run those major contracts,” Sweeney said. “They will bring a proportion of workers in and they’ll be looking to supplement that with local labour.” “The top line is that the Irish construction industry cannot support the construction of this project,” he added. MetroLink, approved last month by An Coimisiún Pleanála, will run 18.8km from Swords Estuary to Charlemont in Dublin 2. It will include 16 stations and have the capacity to carry up to 20,000 passengers per hour in each direction. The upper-end Department of Transport estimate for MetroLink stands at €23 billion, though final costs are expected to be lower. The Business Post, 20th November
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