Buy-to-let a growing trend at high end of Dublin market

While average house-hunters in Dublin struggle to find suitable properties to buy or rent, at the upper-end of the market properties costing more than €1 million are being snapped up and, curiously, placed on the rental market.

On Northbrook Road, one of Ranelagh’s most coveted tree-lined roads, two neighbouring properties on a short terrace of three houses both sold within the last year, only to be put straight onto the rental market by their new owners.

The imposing two-storey-over-basement Victorian house at 3 Northbrook Road, requiring updating, sold in August 2013 for €1.89 million and was offered for rent a week after the sale closed, seeking €4,000 a month.

The adjoining house at 2 Northbrook Road, sold this July for €2.45 million, well above its €2 million AMV. The luxurious home was put on the market by Hopkins Ward Estate Agents for €5,500 a month unfurnished in August 2014 before being rented less than three weeks later.

In nearby Rathmines, 53 Palmerston Road was sold by Turley Property Advisors on behalf of Nama in January for slightly over its asking price at €1.87 million. The mid-terrace Victorian extends to about 371.6sq m (4,000sq ft) and marries the original period home with a modern glass-box extension and top-end Celtic Tiger features. Two months after the home’s sale had gone through, it was offered to let at €6,000 a month before being reduced in April to a slightly lower €5,500, at which point it got a tenant.

On the south end of the same stretch of road, but bearing an even more prized address, Sleepy Hollow at 5A Temple Villas was brought to the rental market by Sherry FitzGerald seeking €5,500 a month. The detached redbrick home, which Lisney got €3.15 million for in 2007, appeared on the property price register at €2.019 million in October 2013 in what looks to have been a private sale.

While unusually small for Temple Villas at about 204sq m (2,200sq ft), the house is luxuriously appointed with fine finishes and offers a high-quality rental in an area achieving among the highest prices in Dublin. The three-bed home was snapped up within weeks of coming up for rent.

Unsurprisingly, the trend is as prevalent in Dublin 4 as it is in Dublin 6, where numerous homes have been bought and rented out immediately. The Edwardian home at 2 Ailesbury Park, on three levels, sold in June for €1.8 million. It was placed on the rental market four weeks after the sale closed at €4,750 per month.

The house found a renter through Beirne & Wise agents within a month, despite its less than perfect decor, which can hinder any home’s rentability – especially at this price level because renters are concerned with the immediate condition of the property as opposed to the “potential” that buyers are paying top whack for.

Around the corner on Shrewsbury Road, Dublin city’s most expensive address, Killowen, was sold in January through Sherry FitzGerald for €4.5 million – about 10 per cent under its asking price of €4.95 million.

One week after the sale had closed, the property re-appeared on the market through Sherry FitzGerald – again, this time for rent at €5,000 a month. The 1980s home extends to nearly 363sq m (3,900sq ft) of interior space with private 0.7 acre gardens which surround the house.

Leaving Dublin city and the ever popular leafy streets of Dublin 4 and 6, 1 Willow Terrace in Blackrock sold for €1.6 million in February. It is in a beautiful terrace of four houses surrounded by the grounds of Blackrock College to the rear, Willow Park School to the front and accessed from the busy Rock Road.

This house has sea views and has, according to letting agent June McConnell Lettings’ advertisement, been “recently refurbished throughout”. First brought to the market at €8,000 a month, the property has since been reduced to €5,700.

Finally in Killiney, Gorsefield on Glenalua Road has sold not once, but twice, in a short period – first in October 2012 for €740,000 and later in October 2013 for €1.085 million following some refurbishment works.

It was rented out in August by Morrison Estates after the property first emerged on the rental market in June asking €5,000 a month, some eight months after it was bought for the second time.

Every property listed above was advertised with a lease term of one-year minimum, suggesting none of the new millionaire owners are in any rush to take up residence at their newly acquired trophy homes.

The two most likely scenarios are that the buyers may be ex-pats who left Ireland for greener and more lucrative pastures since the demise of the Celtic Tiger, who are now seeking to re-establish a base here with a view to returning in the future.

Alternatively, they may be investors banking on tax-free capital appreciation thanks to the current Capital Gains Tax exemption.