Investors swoop on apartment complex

A Dublin auctioneering firm sold 57 city centre apartments worth £13 million in less than six hours yesterday.

Hamilton Osborne King said it placed an advertisement in yesterday's edition of The Irish Times and by 3 p.m. customers had bought every available apartment and parking space, at Trinity Plaza on Tara Street.

The one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments ranged in price from £155,000 to £250,000, with another £30,000 for a parking space. All apartments in the block came with a significant tax reduction under the Section 23 provision.

"Section 23 is the big draw and also that it is such a central location - 100 metres from Trinity College and very much rentable," said Mr Ronan O'Driscoll of Hamilton Osborne King. He said "less than five" of the apartments had been bought by people who intended living there themselves.

Section 23 is intended to help revitalise designated urban areas by encouraging investment in rental sector properties. In their taxes, buyers are allowed offset 80 per cent of the purchase price of an apartment against rental income.

But the rental income need not come from the Section 23 apartment; it can be derived from any property owned by the same person. The only restriction is that a Section 23 purchaser cannot sell the property for a period of 10 years without losing some of the tax write-off.

Mr O'Driscoll said Trinity Plaza represented one of the last chances for property investors to use the Section 23 provisions.