Q&A

Car-parking: I am a PAYE worker and live in the Dublin suburbs. I am due a windfall shortly of €50,000 net. I am enquiring if individual private parking spaces (say in the Temple Bar area) ever come up for sale and, if so, would they be a reasonable investment to buy and then rent out?

Would they appreciate in value over 10 years? Is there any estate agent or auctioneer doing this sort of business?

Mr J.W., Dublin

There is apparently a business in such spaces, although I couldn't say exactly where they might be available. The Irish Auctioneers and Valuers Institute says a number of its members deal in parking spaces as a separate category property transaction but it does not seem to be mainstream. No one was able to tell me whether they would be available on an individual basis.

Would they be a reasonable investment? That really depends on the price you pay. In general, the value of spaces will rise as the economy grows and the demand on office space rises.

There are a number of companies that specialise in this area but most are in the business of renting spaces off current owners and leasing them to customers. There does seem to be a reasonable market for people who own such spaces and are interested in renting them out only during business hours, but that would appear to mitigate against such people selling their spaces. They are simply getting additional income from them during a period when they themselves do not need them.

One company specialising in the area, Dublinparking.com, is run by estate agent Conor Ó Cleirigh. He says basic demands from clients are for a minimum licence period of six months. People looking to rent spaces generally require easy access and good lighting, he adds.

In terms of the rent you might expect from such a proposition, Dublin city centre spaces currently available on his site are looking for rent of between €1,800 and €3,000 per year.

My instinct is that parking spaces are already pretty well valued at this stage, especially given that the office market is quiet, and you could find yourself with a slot that fails to provide much return on your capital investment.

It comes down to location. Spots in certain locations will always be in demand but they will also be the ones that are harder to purchase.

Furthermore, there is the hassle involved in policing such investments. Presumably, whomever you rent it to will want to know there are measures in place to tackle squatters, etc.

In any case, your windfall would not buy many prime parking spots. You would be taking a high-risk investment route, putting all your money into one option - and a volatile and unregulated one at that.

Ethical banking

With all of the Irish banking scandals, I am increasingly concerned about what my money is being used for. What ethical banking options are available in Ireland? Are there options comparable to the Open Bank and Triodos in the UK? And outside of simple banking, what ethical investment options are possible in Ireland? I have contacted the IFSRA and received no helpful information on this topic.

Ms O.F., email

Ethical banking in Ireland is a different creature altogether to ethical banking in other jurisdictions. Here, when a bank talks about ethics, it generally means that it will treat its customers in a fair and transparent manner. Such commitments are usually made when one or other of the banks have been found to be treating customers and/or the taxman in anything but such a fashion.

Ethical banking in the sense that you refer to has yet to arrive in Ireland. There is no banking option here that would match the example of Triodos or the concept of the Open Bank.

Triodos Bank, for instance, confines its use of customer funds to initiatives which add social, environmental and cultural value - in fields such as renewable energy, social housing, complementary health care, fair trade, and organic food and farming. It is also involved in funding fair trade and micro-credit organisations in developing countries.

The nearest that you are likely to find in Ireland to such a concept is the credit union movement, where the funds deposited by members go to provide loans for other members.

However, even that comes with a health warning for two reasons. First, credit unions appear increasingly to have more funds to hand than they need for the borrowing requirements of members. In such a position, they need to invest the funds and there is nothing to suggest they are any more or less "ethical" than the banks in the investment choices they make.

Second, it is becoming apparent that the credit union movement needs to tighten its method of operating after a recent spate of adverse incidents, perhaps not surprising given the voluntary nature of the organisation.

On the more general issue of ethical investment, there are a couple of packaged options. The first player on the Irish scene was the Friends First Stewardship Fund, which was launched in 1989.

According to its website, it uses both the positive (inclusive) and negative (exclusive) approach in determining investment choices. On the positive side, the fund favours companies that supply the basic necessities of life, conserve energy or natural resources, or provide high-quality products on long-term benefit to the community. Turning to those companies that it excludes, these include enterprises that are known to cause excessive environmental damage, exploit developing countries, exploit animals, produce tobacco or alcohol and sell weapons or pornography.

More recently, Dolmen Butler Briscoe, an independent Irish brokerage, has set up the Dolmen Green Effects Fund. It again uses a blend of including those companies it considers are contributing positively to the environment and excluding firms involved in the activities listed above. With funds of €29 million at the end of July, it is considerably larger than the €12 million Stewardship fund even though it has been in existence for only four years.

Between them, these funds account for just a drop in the ocean of Irish investing but they would both argue that their decision to invest only in ethically screened companies has not hampered performance - and the figures seem to show they are doing reasonably well.

However, what is included and what is not is a subjective game and you would do well to talk to the individual fund managers to ascertain whether they meet your particular criteria.

Please send your queries to Dominic Coyle, Q&A, The Irish Times, D'Olier Street, Dublin 2 or e-mail to dcoyle@irish-times.ie. This column is a reader service and is not intended to replace professional advice. Due to the volume of mail, there may be a delay in answering queries. All suitable queries will be answered through the columns of the newspaper. No personal correspondence will be entered into.