The 12 Deals Of Christmas: A Game Of 2 Halves
The top 12 Irish real estate deals of the year tell a story of a year in two acts, with the second half of 2024 dominating the major transactions after the deathly quiet of the first quarter.
As a result, at the end of Q3, total transactions of €1.3B were down at 2013 levels, and €599M of those transactions — nearly half of the three-quarter total — concluded in the third quarter.
Should the prospective deals expected to complete before year-end see the ink dry on the paper, total volumes for 2024 will comfortably exceed €2B, an increase from the €1.85B total of 2023, but still well below the 10-year average of €4B.
Our tale also has its very own unlikely comeback kid — retail, which has accounted for around a third of all deals. While Blanchardstown hadn’t quite signed on the dotted line before publication, the anticipated deal is the only one to top €500M. It is far from the only shopping centre or retail park transaction and also means our festive dozen are spread across Ireland, not just Dublin.
The year started with higher interest rates, stubborn inflation and a debt market tighter than the Christmas drip feed of Guinness to pubs. Yet as the year unfolded, pressures eased and Ireland’s resolute economy created a positive backdrop lacking in most European markets.
The best may not yet be here, but the worst appears to be behind the market, as is political uncertainty after the November election broadly maintained the status quo, in contrast with a multitude of international election results.
Notable deals that haven’t made the list include the €37.3M sale of 40 Molesworth Street to Deka Immobilien, the first prime office building to trade following several months of inactivity, with the added upside of renewal of interest from a core German fund, plus the €38M Hamilton Gardens residential deal.
An €80M deal could yet be reached before year-end for the North Dock One and Two office buildings in Dublin 1, which CBRE had initially been seeking offers in the region of €130M for on behalf of the National Asset Management Agency and Oaktree Capital. If it crosses the line, it swings in at No 3 on our list.
With data compiled with the help of the Dublin offices of JLL, CBRE and Colliers, here is our annual look at Ireland’s top 12 real estate deals of the year.
12. One Warrington, Dublin 2, €40.5M
Offices don’t feature highly on our list but accounted for 23% of turnover across 11 deals in Q3, all for secondary office assets, with the second-largest office deal seeing a private Irish investor acquiring One Warrington in Dublin 2 from Irish Life for circa €40.5M in a deal brokered by JLL. Irish Life had weighed up a sale worth around €55M in late 2022, having acquired the building for circa €42M in 2014.
11. Letterkenny Retail Park, Killarney, €40.5M
The first of numerous retail listings comes after an investment firm founded in Bahrain purchased Letterkenny Retail Park as part of a double acquisition earlier this year. Investcorp purchased 263K SF in total in Letterkenny across two properties, Letterkenny Retail Park at €40.5M and Deerpark Retail Park in Killarney.
10. Shackleton Park, Lucan, €42M
TPG Angelo Gordon and Carysfort Capital secured about €42M from the sale of 104 fully let apartments at the Shackleton Park scheme in Lucan, County Dublin, to German investor KGAL’s Core 5 Life fund.
9. Mahon Retail Park, Cork, €47.3M
Corum Asset Management purchased Mahon Point Retail Park, adjacent to Mahon Point Shopping Centre, from Iput. The 157K SF retail park comprises 10 units that are fully occupied by tenants including B&Q, PC World and Argos. It has 600 parking spaces. Cork-based O'Callaghan Properties developed the retail park in 2006.
8. Blackpool Shopping Centre and Retail Park, Cork, €48M
In September, pan-European real estate fund manager Patron Capital acquired Blackpool Shopping Centre and Retail Park in Cork from Värde Partners. The acquisition was made in partnership with Lugus Capital, the Ireland-based real estate investment platform. Funding for the acquisition came from Patron Capital’s €860M value-add-focused seventh fund. The 320K SF Blackpool Shopping Centre and Retail Park is 2 kilometres north of Cork.
7. Nursing Homes Portfolio, €56.7M
In the only healthcare deal in the top 12, three properties were sold on a sale-leaseback basis by the Irish arm of France-based Emeis, formerly called Orpea, to Healthcare Activos for €56.7M. The recently constructed nursing home buildings are in Portmarnock, Portlaoise and Kilkenny.
6. Connaught House, Dublin 4, €64M
As the biggest asset in the 11-asset RGRE portfolio put up for sale by Allied Irish Banks and Bank of Ireland, Fine Grain Property agreed to buy the 117K SF Connaught House for a price understood to be in the mid-€60M range after MM Capital failed to advance to exclusivity on a deal. Located on Burlington Road in Dublin 4 and handled by JLL and Cushman & Wakefield, occupiers include Macquarie Aviation, Groupon and Alkermes. It produces rent of circa €7M a year, with a weighted average unexpired lease term of 4.5 years. The deal represents around half the €125M valuation ascribed to the portfolio in 2022.
5. Ashbourne Business Park, Meath, €70M
With the acquisition of a new logistics centre in Ashbourne, County Meath, Deka Immobilien made its first logistics investment in Ireland. The two properties encompass a total rental area of nearly 360K SF. Completed at the beginning of the year, the properties are in Ashbourne Business Park in the northwest of Dublin. The transaction included two standalone buildings with modern warehouses, office space, staff rooms and a delivery yard, and it was carried out as part of a sale-leaseback for the Deka-ImmobilienGlobal fund.
4. Jameson Orchard, Malahide, €70M
The largest deal of the second quarter involved the sale of 136 residential units at Jameson Orchard, Malahide, County Dublin, to Orange Capital Partners for a price in the region of €70M. It was one of only three multi-unit residential deals in the first half of 2024.
3. Scape Dublin, Dublin 2, €79.5M
U.S. real estate giant Hines acquired Scape Dublin, a purpose-built student accommodation asset in Dublin 2, in September from Scape Living on behalf of Hines' core-plus fund, Hines European Property Partners. The 298-bed student accommodation facility opened in 2020 and is being rebranded Aparto Dublin Stephen’s Quarter, and it became the firm’s sixth PBSA asset in Dublin.
2. The Square Shopping Centre, Tallaght, €130M
A deal for shopping centre The Square in Tallaght was reached in late September for €130M, just over half the €250M paid in 2018 when it was acquired from NAMA by previous owner Oaktree. The acquisition of the 578K SF scheme by Eagle Street Partners came around two months after the company was selected as the preferred bidder. The sale was prompted by the retail complex being put into receivership. The deal included control of 118 of The Square’s 160 store units, plus a 13-screen cinema and more than 2,400 car parking spaces.
1. Blanchardstown Centre, €560M
Appropriately enough, the biggest deal of the year was for a retail asset. U.S. investment bank Morgan Stanley financed Strategic Value Partners' circa €560M acquisition of Blanchardstown Centre in Dublin, Ireland’s biggest mall, with a loan of about €400M. While it is a huge deal, in 2016, Blackstone paid €950M for Blanchardstown Centre from Stephen Vernon’s Green Property, making it the most valuable sale of a single property in the state's history. But by late 2020, it had sold to Goldman Sachs for around €750M. The proposed disposal of Blanchardstown was understood to have had a guide price of €650M to €725M when it first came to market last summer, with Eastdil Secured and CBRE handling the sale. The 1.1M SF Blanchardstown Centre consists of more than 180 shops, a nine-screen Odeon cinema, two external retail parks, external retail units and eBay's headquarters.
