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.
Purpose Built Student Accommodation
StoneyBatter Place, Dublin 7 German-headquartered property investor Commerz Real has acquired Stoneybatter Place, a 142-bed student accommodation complex near Technological University Dublin’s main campus at Grangegorman. While the price paid for the portfolio has not been disclosed, an examination of the Property Price Register shows two sales with a combined value of €31.2m being recorded for the Stoneybatter Place development on August 5th. Commerz Real purchased the scheme, which is almost fully leased, from Harrison Street Asset Management for its Institutional Smart Living Europe Fund. Students pay between €300 and €380 a week to rent bedspaces at the complex, plus utility fees of €48 or €65 a week depending on the type of unit they occupy. News of the deal comes just over nine months on from Commerz Real’s €22.35m purchase for the same fund of the nearby Swuite Dublin student residential scheme from its developer-owner, the Iveragh Group. Completed in 2018, this has 128 beds along with common areas that include a lounge, study room and a café. In addition to its two properties in Dublin, the fund’s portfolio has three residential complexes located in Frankfurt am Main, Seville and Vienna respectively. The Irish Times, 24th August
Hospitality
Earlsfort Terrace, Dublin 2 Archer Capital is preparing to sell the Conrad hotel, with an asking price of €130 m. The company has appointed CBRE and Eastdil to handle the sale of the hotel, which sits opposite the National Concert Hall. Archer Capital, which is owned by affiliates of APG Asset Management, one of the world’s largest pension investors, and GIC, the sovereign wealth fund of Singapore, bought the Conrad in 2019, for €115m. The company also bought the nearby Shelbourne hotel in 2024 for €260m. In April, the Conrad was granted planning permission by DCC to increase the number of floors to ten by adding an eight-storey extension over existing event space. It had sought to increase the number of rooms from 192 to 308. The Sunday Times, 22nd August
Ormond Quay, Dublin 1 JLL has been appointed the selling agent of The Morrison, which is expected to have a price tag of more than €90m. The Morrison is owned by Zetland Capital, a London-based private equity firm. Zetland Capital purchased The Morrison for close to €68m in 2021. The hotel was reported in late 2024 to be back on the market. The Sunday Times, 22nd August
Store Street, Dublin 1 Plans for the development of a 130-bedroom hotel near Dublin Connolly train station have been approved. MY Talbot Properties Limited was granted permission from An Coimisiún Pleanála (“ACP”) for the hotel development, which had been granted permission by Dublin City Council (“DCC”) in February of this year, and provided for the demolition and reconstruction on 13 to 18 Store Street for a hotel spanning six to eight stories. The proposed development includes a bar and public reception space at the ground floor, as well as a plant room and welfare facilities. ACP approved the proposed development, documents filed on Thursday show, subject to 19 conditions. The developer is required to pay the planning authority a financial contribution of approx. €380,000 in respect of “public expenditure and facilities benefiting development”, in accordance with DCC’s development contribution scheme. Furthermore, the developer must pay a contribution of approx. €120,000 to DCC in respect of the Luas “cross city scheme”. Another condition attached to the permission was that no advertisement signs, structures, banners, flags, etc. are allowed to be displayed on the building or on the window without a separate planning permission. The Business Post, 20th August
Whitehall, Dublin 9 Plans to build a funeral home at the former Regency Hotel in North Dublin have been blocked by ACP. The hotel was renamed The Bonnington Hotel in 2017 following refurbishment. The group first applied for permission for change of use from the existing vacant restaurant to a funeral home in February of this year. Permission was refused by DCC at the end of March, was appealed by The Bonnington in April, and was refused permission by ACP just last week. In its refusal, ACP said the proposed use as a funeral home was “non-permissible” for the site, which is located on lands zoned for “sustainable residential neighbourhoods” – zone 21. ACP also denied the change of use on parking grounds. It said the hotel failed to provide sufficient information on “car parking management”, and “failed to demonstrate that the proposed development would not result in unacceptable levels of overspill car parking in adjacent residential areas”. The Business Post, 21st August
Kinsale, Co. Cork Old Head Golf Links is set to expand after receiving planning permission for new bedrooms and modified guest facilities ahead of next year’s Ryder Cup. Ashbourne Holdings Ltd has been given the green light to add eight new guest bedrooms to the course. In addition to the new guest rooms, the golf course also received retention permission to reduce the size of a previously permitted members bar area. The Old Head Golf Links is built on a 220-acre diamond of land jutting two miles into the Atlantic Ocean in Kinsale. Most recent accounts filed by Ashbourne Holdings Ltd show the company’s turnover rose to €14.9m at the end of 2024, up from €12.8m in the previous year. The group’s operating profit also rose in 2024, increasing by 39% to €5.1m. Four of the new bedrooms will be located within a single-storey extension, replacing a previously permitted roof garden, while the other bedrooms will be located on a site previously earmarked for a spa and pool. The Business Post, 24th August
Office
Cherrywood, Dublin 18 Outsurance has almost doubled its office space with a new expanded facility in Cherrywood. The group has expanded its current 19,000 sq. ft office to 36,000 sq. ft in order to accommodate its workforce. Outsurance entered the Irish market in 2024, having previously operated in South Africa and Australia, and began with a workforce of 70 people. In June 2024 it committed to growing its headcount to 300 roles over the course of the following three years to 2027 as part of an overall investment of €160m. In June the Business Post reported that the South African insurance company had pumped another €10m into its Irish subsidiary. The additional funding brings to €110m the amount of share capital invested in the Irish arm to date. The company reported insurance revenues of €4.9m in the year ending 30 June 2025, up from the €23,220 recorded a year earlier. The Business Post, 20th August
Sir John Rogerson’s Quay, Dublin 2 Iput has agreed more than 22,000 sq. ft of lease renewals and new lettings at its Two Riverside office building. Interpath has renewed its lease for the 10,200 sq. ft of the penthouse floor at Two Riverside for a further five years, extending the agreement due to expire in December 2026. Separately, an unnamed e-commerce platform has taken 12,000 sq. ft on the building’s fifth floor. To date, Iput has agreed 37,000 sq. ft of lease renewals and 30,000 sq. ft of new studio lettings across the 73,000 sq. ft building.Other occupiers at the building include Beauchamps LLP and a leading global online travel and technology company.A further 6,000 sq. ft is currently available to lease. Two Riverside has been upgraded to include a redesigned reception, a Technogym-equipped gym, a landscaped rear courtyard and end-of-trip facilities. The Business Post, 24th August
Residential / Development
Tallow, Co. Waterford Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg and his wife have purchased Strancally Castle in Co. Waterford. It is estimated the luxurious estate could have cost between €20m and €30m in light of the full restoration undertaken over the past 20 years. The couple had bought the gothic-revival style house and its 440-acre estate several weeks ago. It is located close to Ballynatray House along the River Blackwater. Facebook and Instagram parent Meta employs approx.1,500 people in Ireland, with its international headquarters based in Dublin. Last month, the social media giant delivered Q2 revenue of $60.80bn, up 28% year-over-year. The Business Post, 20th August
Nationwide The building of 3,028 new homes was commenced in July – an increase of 169% on the same month last year (1,125) – according to figures published by the Department of Housing. Of the new commencements last month, over half (1,612) are houses being built as part of multi-unit developments, 1,004 are apartments, with the remaining 412 made up of one-off houses. The department said that since the beginning of 2026, 18,974 new homes have been commenced, which is up 152% from the 7,539 homes commenced in the first seven months of last year. The data show it is also the second highest number of new-home commencements for the period, since recording began in 2014. Just over a quarter of July’s commencements are in Dublin. Figures published earlier this year by the Central Statistics Office showed that between January and March, 7,856 new homes were built – a rise of a third on the same three months in 2025, and the highest number of first-quarter completions since 2011. However, for the second quarter of the year the number of new home completions – at 8,823 – was down on the same period in 2025. RTE.ie, 20th August
Nationwide The first half of 2026 marked a significant rebound in Ireland’s development land market, with transaction volumes reaching €478m across 40 deals, up nearly 80% on the same period in 2025. The average deal size increased substantially to €12m, driven by a number of large-scale transactions in Dublin and the wider Greater Dublin Area (“GDA”). Investor and developer demand remained firmly focused on residential and mixed-use opportunities. Residential land transactions generated the highest turnover at €228m, accounting for 22 deals, while mixed-use sites contributed a further €205m from just eight transactions. Market activity was heavily concentrated within the GDA, which generated €409m, or more than 86% of total turnover recorded nationally. This dominance was underpinned by several landmark transactions, including the sales of Camden Yard (€90m, acquired by DCC), Merchants Yard (€90m, acquired by a Live Nation consortium) and Lands at Edmondstown in Dublin 16 (€70m). Deals exceeding €50m accounted for €250m of total turnover from only three sales, while the €1m to €5m segment remained the most active by volume, recording 20 transactions. This bifurcation reflects a market where capital is increasingly targeting either prime strategic opportunities or smaller, lower-risk sites capable of supporting near-term delivery. Development Land H1 Report, Cushman and Wakefield
Other
Nationwide The planning regulator has warned South Dublin County Council it “risks frustrating the implementation of national housing policy” and undermining the delivery of housing targets, by failing to rezone enough lands for new homes. Councillors in June voted against rezoning lands at St Edmundsbury in the Liffey valley near Lucan; Finnstown Castle, between Lucan and Adamstown; and Coldcut Road, south of the Liffey Valley shopping centre. The council’s chief executive had proposed rezoning the three sites, which combined could accommodate more than 1,700 homes, following an edict last summer from Minister for Housing, all local authorities must provide significant additional land for housing. The Finnstown Castle lands, most of which are owned by Adamstown developer Maplewood, and Coldcut Road sports club’s lands are currently zoned as “open space”. However, the St Edmundsbury lands are zoned as “high amenity” due to their environmental and natural amenity value. More than 1,600 submissions were made to the council opposing the St Edmundsbury rezoning, with Lucan locals suggesting the lands should instead form part of a Liffey valley park. In a letter to the council, the Office of the Planning Regulator said the councillors’ decision to block rezoning did not comply with the Minister’s direction or the National Planning Framework and should be reversed. The Irish Times, 24th August