Beacon scheme finalised – 9 years later

Construction of apartments in the Beacon South Quarter in Sandyford, south Dublin, has finally been completed, nine years after the scheme was first launched, and almost all of the units have been rented out.

The development, which is also home to a shopping centre and children’s museum, Imaginosity, was launched to great fanfare in 2005, when two-bed apartments were asking between €350,000 and €450,000. When the next phase was launched, in February 2006, 200 apartments were sold within 24 hours, with two-beds creeping up to €470,000. The market then dropped and the unfinished scheme became an eyesore reminder of the country’s shift in fortune.

The developer, Landmark Enterprises, went into receivership in 2010, and a huge tarpaulin, designed to replicate an actual apartment building, was draped over the skeletal structure until Nama agreed to fund its completion in 2012 with a loan of €10.3 million.

Construction started last year and the last part, The Gates development, has now been finished with 82 of its 85 one-, two- and three-bed apartments already rented out. According to Simon Coyle of Mazars, the Nama-appointed receiver, it is achieving rents of about €1,450 to €1,500 for two- bedroom properties in the development.

He said it is the receiver’s view “at the moment” to rent the units, but could foresee a sale in the future, although this would likely be to an industry investor rather than a sell-off of individual properties. No properties have been set aside in The Gates complex for social housing.

In 2011, Nama sold a finished block of 58 apartments in Beacon South to the voluntary housing organisation Clúid.

There has been a number of recent block sales in the area, with property investment fund Hibernia Reit paying €67 million to acquire a bundle of assets, including 213 partly-completed residential units at Wyckham Point in Dundrum.