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.
According to the latest statistics from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) property prices in Ireland were up by 7.2% in the year to August, compared with an increase of 6.5% increase in the year to July.
The increase means that inflation in house prices was rising before Minister Coveney confirmed the government’s €50 million incentive scheme for new buyers.
The scheme is a start in incentivising some first-time buyers to get onto the market and purchase new homes, but unless the difficulty in developing those new homes is addressed, it is likely to fail.
2.
The Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) announced this week that it is to develop a mammoth 400 bedroom hotel connected to Terminal 2. The new hotel will be one of the largest in the country by the time it is built, and will employ 250 people.
The newly announced DAA backed hotel will be Dublin Airports fourth hotel, following closely on the news we reported last week that CG Properties, is to build a second hotel at Dublin airport, on a site that is adjacent to the Radisson Blu.
The addition of a terminal linked hotel is a good move by the DAA, as research shows that terminal-linked hotels significantly outperform non-terminal-linked properties, in both room rates and occupancy levels.
The airport dealt with 25 million passengers last year, a record number, and the airport is rapidly becoming a hub for flights from Europe to the US, Middle-East and Asia.
The addition of a hotel on-site is likely to boost passenger numbers further as it will increase flexibility for consumers looking for connecting flights.
The DAA said that a further 150 jobs will be created during the construction phase.
3.
Good news for young entrants to the industry this week, as PM Group announced plans to hire 500 graduates over the next five years as part of a plan to expand it’s US and Western European operations.
The company says that about half of the jobs will be based in Ireland. The company offers solutions to clients in design & architecture, construction and plant-management services for large scale building projects.
The company, based primarily in Dublin and Cork, currently generates 45 per cent of revenues in Ireland, 20 per cent in the UK, 10 per cent in Asia and the rest from mainland Europe and the US.
The company announced that profits for 2015 were up 21 per cent on the previous year to €10.9 million, on revenues of €297 million.
4.
The Jervis Shopping Centre is to get a major shake-up with a new flagship Topshop store to be opened by the Arcadia Group, replacing a number of smaller stores it had in the shopping centre located on Dublin’s Henry St.
The new shop will replace Arcadia’s current shops, which include Miss Selfridge, Burton, Wallace, Topman, anda considerably smaller TopShop.
As well as stimulating footfall with the new flagship Topshop, the revised floor plan will free up some prime retail space in the store.
5.
It seems not that long ago that Ireland was being bailed out by the banks, but now Minister for Finance Michael Noonan is making a pitch that Ireland should be the new home of the European Banking Authority (EBA).
The EBA is one of a number of London-based EU institutions that are eyeing up new, more welcoming homes in the post-Brexit environment.
While they will need office space and homes for 159 staff and their families, the ability to attract more financial institutions in the long term is the major hope for the Department of Finance.
6.
The Grafton Collection, which had been for sale with a guide price of €40 million seems to now be sale agreed and if the reports are to be believed, the Grafton St properties have topped all pre-sale estimates.
Sources say that US real estate giant Hines is willing to pay a whopping €55 million for the properties, blowing all other bids out of the water. The properties currently have an annual rent roll of €1.95 million per annum.
7.
In a briefing on the property market this week financial advisors Davy said that it believes that output in the Irish property market will not meet demand until 2020, and to do so would require the market to double between now and then.
In the briefing it noted that Ireland’s housing market is “highly illiquid”, particularly in comparison with our nearest neighbours.
“In the UK, housing market transactions in 2015 equaled 1.2 million, accounting for 4.3% of the housing stock. So the average home is sold once every 23 years… However, in Ireland, transactions comprised just 2.4% of the housing stock, suggesting that at current rates the average home is being sold just once every 40 years.”
8.
Irish property veteran Stephen Vernon was named EY Industry Entrepreneur of the year on Wednesday.
Vernon is the chairman of Green REIT, which he leads along with another industry veteran Pat Gunne. Green REIT was the first real estate investment trust in Ireland, and Green REIT currently owns approximately €1.2 billion of property with an annual rent roll of €65 million.
Green REIT recently sold the Blanchardstown shopping centre to US group Blackstone, one of the largest deals of its type in the state’s history.
9.
Foreign Direct Investment continues to fall in Northern Ireland following the vote by the UK as a whole to leave the EU, according to a survey of property professionals in Northern Ireland by the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors.
While the survey showed confidence in the province that there would be a recovery of rents in the short term, the lack of clarity surrounding the fallout from the Brexit vote means the long-term forecast is still extremely uncertain.
And finally…
10.
The transcripts from the first meeting between Seán Dunne and the official tasked with overseeing his Irish bankruptcy, Christopher Lehane, which took place in June 2016, have been lodged with the Examiners Office in Dublin and reported on by the Irish Times.
Apparently, Lehane was unhappy with the level of cooperation from Dunne, and the exasperation leaps off the page in one reported interaction between the two, where Lehane said that he did not believe that Dunne was residing at the address he had given in Greenwich, Connecticut.
“I need to know where you actually live,” Lehane said.
“My principal place where I reside, live and work is America,” Dunne replied.
“America?” said Lehane. “So I have to write to America?”
The whole article is well worth a read – you can see it here.