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
Burlington Road, Dublin 4 Crownway Investments has secured permission by DCC to refurbish and extend a 1990s office building on Burlington Road called Temple Chambers. Located off Mespil Road, the existing five-storey office building on 0.3 acres spans 24,003 sq. ft and was previously occupied by the law firm Addleshaw Goddard. The proposal would involve retrofitting the existing block and adding a new extension. The redevelopment project has proposed the construction of a new six-storey extension on to the side of the current block, which would increase the size of the office space on site by 61% to 38,577 sq. ft. The Irish Times, 7th August
Styne House, Dublin 2 Anthropic is set to take a lease on Styne House on Hatch Street. In March, the AI firm behind the Claude chatbot announced plans to create 200 jobs in Ireland by 2027. It is now expected to imminently take 21,000 sq. ft of space at Styne House, which is owned by Iput. That will mark a six-fold increase in the office space it currently holds in the capital, as part of plans to build out its European headquarters from Ireland. Anthropic now has a workforce of more than 85 people in Dublin. Iput acquired Styne House, a six-storey, 70,400 sq. ft building that overlooks the Iveagh Gardens, in 2012. In July, the Business Post reported OpenAI and Anthropic had lured scores of employees from established Big Tech firms, including senior employees at long-established firms like Google, AWS, Microsoft, Twitter and Stripe. The Business Post, 8th August
INDUSTRIAL
Greater Dublin Area AI and data-centre investment is driving occupier demand in Dublin’s industrial and logistics property market, which is also benefiting from rental growth. In its Q2 report on the market, CBRE point to the impact AI is having, as reflected in recent data from the Central Statistics Office. They showed that goods imports in the office machines and data-processing equipment category, which covers computer servers, GPUs and AI computing hardware, reached €20.5bn in 2025. This was more than double the €9bn recorded in 2023. In the first five months of 2026 alone, the value of imports reached €16.2bn. The largest transaction was CEL Critical Power’s new letting of Unit 7 at Mountpark Grange Castle West, covering 138,983 sq. ft on the N4 corridor in west Dublin. The deal was the only transaction in the first half of the year that exceeded 100,000 sq. ft, and the most significant new-build industrial letting recorded in Dublin this year. Prime rents for new stock rose 2% in Q2, reaching €14.50 psf. Second-hand prime rents also rose, up 4% quarter-on-quarter to €12.00 psf. The Irish Independent, 6th August
RETAIL
Grafton Street, Dublin 2 An application has been lodged with Dublin City Council (“DCC”) for a makeover of the Victoria Secret’s outlet on Grafton Street. The American lingerie brand is to move from its premises at 28/29 Grafton Street to retail units 1 and 2 at 40-43 Nassau Street. The owner of 28/29 Grafton Street, Sretaw Limited, has lodged two planning applications with DCC. One application is for a change of use to the sale of cosmetics and beauty products, and the second application relates to proposed upgrades to the existing shopfront and facade at ground-floor level. The planning documents do not name the skincare and cosmetics firm involved, but it was reported last May that the new occupier is to be luxury beauty brand Space NK. It plans to relocate from its current, smaller premises at 82 Grafton Street. The move by the US-owned Space NK to open a bigger Irish store comes on the back of the success of its business here, with revenues more than doubling from €3.3m to €8.43m in the 12 months to the end of March 2025. The Irish Independent, 6th August
Naas, Co. Kildare Applegreen is to create 150 new jobs with the opening of a €15m new EV hub and roadside service area later this year. The new Applegreen service area, which will be located close to the Naas Ball at Junction 9 on the M7, is part of a multi-million-euro investment that Applegreen is making in its Irish business this year. The new M7 Naas Ball site will be a state-of-the-art facility that will initially include Popeyes and Taco Bell outlets, M&S Food, Crafted Kitchen & Deli, and an Applegreen forecourt and convenience store. The Popeyes outlet in Naas will be the first Popeyes Drive-Thru in the Republic of Ireland. An additional Drive-Thru outlet will also open at the new Naas site this winter. The site will also have eight Applegreen fast charge ultra-fast EV chargers with a total of 16 charging points, a separate truck stop for HGV fuelling and an Applegreen carwash. The Irish Independent, 6th August
MIXED-USE
Parnell Square, Dublin 1 Dublin’s long-delayed Parnell Square Cultural Quarter is finally set to move ahead, with construction due to begin in the coming weeks. DCC has appointed Purcell Construction Limited as the main contractor for the first phase of the project, which has an estimated cost of €173.2m. The council said the project is being funded through the Towns and Cities Regeneration Investment Fund and DCC resources, with €105.14m in government funding confirmed. The first phase includes the delivery of a state-of-the-art City Library at Parnell Square North, comprising more than 65,659 sq. ft. It will replace the existing Central Library at the Ilac Centre. The project was originally unveiled in 2013, when it was expected to be completed by 2017 at a cost of €60m. By 2016, costs had skyrocketed to €100m. DCC began tendering for the project in December 2024. The project had previously been given a start date of September 2025. The Business Post, 11th August
RESIDENTIAL / DEVELOPMENT
Airport Road, Co. Cork Two high-profile commercial development sites with planning consent for a hotel and a neighbourhood centre have come to market with a combined guide price of €4.05m. The first site is a 1.5 acre site with full planning permission for a 158-bedroom hotel, with offers sought in excess of €1.5m. The second site has permission for a 13,100 sq. ft neighbourhood centre, guiding at €2.55m. Both commercial sites are part of a larger 7.23-acre landbank purchased by a consortium in 2018 for an undisclosed sum, after it guided at €3m. The consortium was granted permission for a mixed-use development in 2023, including the 158-bed hotel, neighbourhood centre, and 121 residential units. Site clearance began late last year, with construction of the residential element due to proceed across 20 blocks, mostly three-storey apartments/duplex units, spread over 4.5 acres. The scheme is being delivered in partnership with approved housing body Clúid, with homes to be provided under a cost-rental model. The Irish Examiner, 5th August
Dublin Standard Chartered, Affinius Capital and Macquarie Capital are collectively providing €732m to support a portfolio of 1,812 apartments developed by Marlet Property Group and owned by a client fund of M&G Real Estate. The transaction combines a €550m senior mortgage facility arranged by Standard Chartered with a further €182m preferred equity commitment from Affinius Capital and Macquarie Capital Principal Finance, creating a long-term capital structure for one of the country’s largest institutional private rented sector (PRS) portfolios. The financing underlines continued international confidence in Ireland’s residential market at a time when apartment development remains constrained by viability challenges, rising construction costs and regulatory uncertainty. The portfolio comprises six recently completed residential communities across Dublin, delivered between 2021 and 2025, including developments at Harold’s Cross, Dundrum, Grand Canal Harbour and Claremont on the Howth Road. Together they comprise 1,812 apartments and 12 commercial units. The Business Post, 10th August
Sandymount, Dublin 4 Lioncor has sold 176 social homes at Dublin’s Irish Glass Bottle site to approved housing body Co-operative Housing Ireland (“CHI”) for €82.14m. The price tag works out at around €466,000 per home. The developer said it has now “handed over” the Glass House scheme to CHI, which will manage the building. The delivery of the A-rated homes was supported by DCC, with funding from the Housing Finance Agency and the Department of Housing. Residents are expected to move into the homes “in the coming weeks”. Lioncor said many have already been allocated by DCC through its choice-based lettings system. Lioncor has also completed an additional 400 homes at the site, with another 323 due for completion by mid-September. The Business Post, 4th August
Dublin 1 & 2 The Dublin City Development Company, a Special Purpose Vehicle, is to be tasked with using the levers of the state to attract and leverage significant private investment for the revitalisation of Dublin. The newly published progress report from the Taoiseach’s office is on the delivery of the Dublin City Taskforce (“DCT”) recommendations, setting out the achievements and updates under the plan, just one year since it became operational. The taskforce had recommended 10 Big Moves that would rejuvenate Dublin city, including revamping O’Connell Street, transforming public transport, and converting derelict sites into high-density residential communities with provision for essential workers. Last week, chair of the DCT told the Business Post it would be the end of the year before the body was fully up and running. The report said that the first task of the new body would be to develop a 10-year Integrated Area Strategy for the city centre, to “optimise funding and investment”, and “tackle vacancy and dereliction”. The Business Post, 4th August
Nationwide The price of planning applications needs to increase with the system facing severe constraints and a shortage of up to 400 planners according to the president of the Irish Planning Institute. The sustained shortage of professional planners comes at a time when demand for planning expertise is increasing across housing, infrastructure, climate action and renewable energy and on the back of the arrival of new planning laws. With construction inflation threatening the viability of many developments, particularly in housing, the building industry would likely oppose any further increase in costs. However, planning authorities across Ireland were expected to process increasingly complex applications involving environmental assessments, transport modelling, climate adaptation, biodiversity protection in the context of housing, renewable energy, and major infrastructure delivery. In 2023, the operating cost of the statutory planning functions of Ireland’s 31 local authorities exceeded €186m, while income from planning fees remained below €30m, meaning planning application fees covered only around 16% of the cost of providing the service. Ireland faces a sustained shortage of professional planners, and that reflects a prolonged period of under-supply following the sharp decline in planning student numbers after 2008. Government estimates suggest that Ireland has a net shortfall of between 350 and 400 planners. The Sunday Independent, 9th August
OTHER
Nationwide Nursing homes have warned that the health service is heading for crisis, with just 38 additional beds registered last year. Nursing Homes Ireland (“NHI”) said 26,065 beds are currently registered in the Government’s Fair Deal scheme, 70 fewer than there were at the start of the year. Research by the ESRI shows we need an additional 15,000 beds by 2040 to manage the country’s ageing population, an average of 1,000 a year. NHI said seven nursing homes closed last year and two have closed so far this year. Registrations have been made for six new nursing homes in the last 18 months, but not all of these are open or have even been built. Data published by the Sunday Independent last week showed more than 3,300 patients waited in hospital to access supports in the first four months of this year. Almost half of them (48%) were waiting to enter residential care. In extreme cases, people were left waiting for more than a year. The Sunday Independent, 9th August