Your 10 at 10: Top Construction and Property Stories From the Week

Your 10 at 10 –

Some of the most noteworthy construction & property stories from the last week, as compiled by the team at Construction Network Ireland.

(Have a story you think should be covered? Contact editor@constructionnetworkireland.com)

1.

Wasn’t life simpler when all we had to be petrified about was the impact of Brexit?

This week one of President-elect Donald Trump’s most senior economic aides again warned that Ireland’s economy is in the cross-hairs.

Trump economic adviser Stephen Moore has repeatedly said over the past week that Ireland is one of the countries that is being targeted by the stated policy of slashing US corporate tax rates  from 35 per cent to 15 per cent.

Moore told a number of news outlets, including the BBC, that once it is implemented he expects that “a flood of companies” will leave Ireland.

Whether US companies will fall over themselves to return to a Trump led US, which looks to be an economically and socially precarious landscape, remains to be seen. Ireland Inc should still consider this an orange warning from ‘The Donald’.

2.

US developer Hines looks like it is the top bidder for the Ziggurat owned Montrose Student Residence and is reported to have paid €41.5 million for the state of the art student residences in the shell of the former Montrose Hotel.

You may also be interested in Matthew McAdden’s recent interview with CNI – McAdden’s Fusiliers

Ziggurat picked up the Montrose at the bottom of the market and launched the first purpose built modern student residences in what was a then under-developed market. The building in Montrose has a rent roll of €2.91 million according to Savills.

Ziggurat is at advanced stages of development on student residences in University towns and cities across the country, including Dublin, Cork and Galway.

3.

The ESB and Coillte have announced that they have secured funding for a €64 million wind-farm in Cork, which they say will generate enough energy to supply 17,000 houses.

The project originally received planning permission from An Bord Pleanála in 2013 and ESB and Coillte have now announced that they will finance the development with long-term debt from Bank of Ireland.

The new windfarm will be situated near Charleville in Cork, on Coillte land in the Ballyhoura mountains.

4.

Insulation supremo’s Kingspan announced on Monday that the company hopes to deliver full-year 2016 profits of €335 million, which is a whopping 30 per cent increase on the figure in 2015.

The estimates are based on exchange rates remaining stable and the weather variability of the 4^th quarter. The weakened sterling against the euro has already eaten into potential profits.

The company said that sales in the nine months to September 30th were €2.27 billion, a 13 per cent increase on the same period last year.

5.

Transport Infrastructure Ireland Chief Executive Michael Nolan has again warned the government that it is not spending enough on the country’s road network.

On Wednesday Nolan told the Oireachtas Transport Committee that the cost of fixing roads once they are damaged could be double the cost of just maintaining them in the first place.

At present the government’s infrastructure plan aims to build eight national road projects, along with five other major projects, but most are not due to start until 2019.

Under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) programme, three new roads are currently under construction – the M17/18 Gort to Tuam motorway, the N25 New Ross bypass and the M11 Gorey to Enniscorthy motorway.

6.

It comes as no shock to anyone involved in the industry, but costs in construction are on the rise according to the Ulster Bank Construction Purchasing Manager’s Index.

The index, which tracks changes in construction activity, reached 62.3 in October, up from 58.7 in September indicating increased activity in the sector.

7.

Two years after the announcement that there was to be a major development at the former Beamish & Crawford site in Cork, there is still no sign of the promised Events Centre.

The venture was first announced in December 2014 and a 6,000-seat events centre was to be built on South Main St as part of the €150m Brewery Quarter regeneration of the entire site.

The latest reports show that the  internal design of the centre still isn’t finished, final costs are yet to be agreed, and there is as yet no sign of construction starting.

The centre has €20 million of state-aid promised towards it – not small beer.

8.

Landowners are giving short shrift to Irish Water and its plan to build a €1.2 billion, 170km pipeline to take water from the Shannon and bring it to the greater Dublin area.

Irish Water says that it is confident that it will get agreement from 500 landowners, but a significant number of the landowners disagree with the quango’s assessment.

The utility says that the move is necessary as the capital’s population is set to grow from 1.5 million to 2.1 million by 2050.

9.

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) confirmed yesterday, as if it needed to, that property prices are increasing in Ireland.

No surprises there then. Prices in Ireland are up 7.3 per cent year on year up to the end of November.

In a comment on the statistics, Dr John McCartney who heads up research at Savills said that investors were the cause for most of the increase – with younger people unable to afford to buy, the subsequent increase in rents has made Ireland a lucrative market for investors.

And finally…

10.

We started this weeks round-up with Trump, and we will finish with Trump. Now that the election is over, The Guardian has turned its attention to the building of Donald’s wall – the one in Doonbeg, that is.

Trump International Golf Links, formally known as Doonbeg Golf Resort, was picked up for a song by the Trump organisation not that long ago.

As the newspaper reports, President-elect Trump has repeatedly rubbished long established scientific research on climate change as a conspiracy theory put about by the Chinese government and looks set to appoint someone of similar views as head of the US Environmental Protection Agency.

The Guardian points out, however, that the wall that the Trump organisation wants to build beside the Doonbeg resort is necessary due to rising sea levels, caused by climate change.

In this ‘post-truth’ era, the hypocrisy will probably not even get a mention in the US.