Industrial And BTR Deals Heat Up Irish Investment Market
Ireland’s investment sector has hotted up with three industrial deals and two build-to-rent transactions adding a flourish to the country's real estate market at the end of April.
Iput has made a big bet on logistics development with the acquisition of 188 acres of land at Killamonan, Cherryhound Interchange in north Dublin. The newly acquired site is located less than a 20-minute drive from Dublin airport, off the M2 and close to the M50 orbital motorway.
Importantly for Iput, the new land lies adjacent to the 64-acre Cherryhound site that it acquired in 2021, where it intends to seek planning for its Nexus Distribution Park.
With the latest purchase, the combined sites will have up to 2.4M SF of potential logistics space, doubling Iput’s industrial portfolio to 5.5M SF.
M7 Real Estate also splashed €19M on a portfolio of Dublin industrial sites with a total space allocation of 152K SF. The 7.1-acre site known as the Cookstown Collection is located in Tallaght, Dublin 24, and includes seven properties. The site had previously formed part of an unsuccessful planning application for a 1,100-home BTR scheme.
German investor Union Investment has also waded into Ireland’s logistics market with a €129M purchase of a new warehousing and distribution facility developed by Penney’s in Newbridge, County Kildare.
The new centre comes with 695K SF on a 38-acre site. When completed it will also include 5.6 acres of landscaping.
Knight Frank, A&L Goodbody and Dress & Sommer advised Union Investment on the purchase.
In the build-to-rent market, Round Hill Capital and Quadreal cemented their confidence in the Irish property market by upping the investment in their joint venture to €575M.
The €200M additional commitment will be used to forward fund the purchase of high-quality multifamily rental assets across Ireland, focusing on apartment blocks in the country’s main cities, including Dublin.
The duo entered into a partnership in 2018 and have already paid out approximately €375M to acquire rental assets across Dublin.
This includes the acquisitions of Bridgefield in 2018, Blackwood Square in 2020 and Carriglea in 2021, delivering a total of 868 high-quality apartments for private rent, with construction works expected to be completed for both projects by Q3 2024.
Another notable residential deal last week saw Eagle Street Partners Group snap up a 5.2-acre site from Irish housebuilder Glenveagh Properties.
According to the Irish Times, Eagle Street is understood to have paid €60M for the scheme, which comes with planning for 554 homes across nine apartment blocks.
