Property price rises slow; Heathrow caps; and Central Bank Plaza close to completion

House price inflation slowed for the second consecutive month in May amid signs the market may be cooling in the face of higher living costs, writes Eoin Burke-Kennedy. Prices are still rising — by 14.4 per cent per annum — but that is down on the April figure of 14.5 per cent, with homes outside Dublin seeing stronger growth.

Irish travellers to London and onwards to long haul destinations eastbound face some uncertainty as Heathrow airport put a 100,000 cap on passengers coming through the airport. Both Aer Lingus and British Airways which operate routes there from Dublin are assessing their position, writes Barry O’Halloran.

Developer Hines’ Irish boss Brian Moran says Covid means it is likely to do well if it can simply “wash its face” on the investment in the old Central Bank site on Dame Street. But, he tells Ciarán Hancock., he expects the building to become one of the must visit locations for visitors to Ireland in the future.

A worker who began operating from home on doctor’s orders when Covid-19 hit but was ordered to turn in his laptop, phone and company car when he complained about a pay cut has been awarded over €41,000 for unfair dismissal. S|tephen Bourke reports.

The euro diced with dollar parity on Tuesday, plumbing new 20-year lows, but when push came to shove traders rallied to the currency in the face of a mountain of derivative trades, How long that can last is a moot point. As one analyst noted: “For all intents and purposes, it effectively reached parity [yesterday].”

A bar manager has had nearly €7.4 million in debt written off as part of a court-approved personal insolvency arrangement. Oliver Flynn (59) got into difficulty with boom era property investments but most of the €7.7 million he owed was unsecured, with those creditors recovering just €9,800 under the debt restructuring scheme.

Wholesale gas prices surged again on Tuesday as politicians fretted over how long the vital Nord Stream 1 pipeline might be out of service. Cliff Taylor reports that prices jumped 4.5 per cent to approach the record levels reached after Russia invaded Ukraine in February. Gas is now priced at €172 per megawatt hour on European markets, up from the €80-€100 level at which futures were trading between May and mid-June.

It seemed a timely moment for London-based energy broker Arraco Global Markets Group to set up an EU hub in Dublin, having secured a licence from the Central Bank.

A new ESRI study shows small and medium-sized business took a knife to staff budgets as Covid hit, cutting spending by 20 per cent in that side of the business. Colin Gleeson reports.

Plans for a 14-storey, 162-apartment build to rent development ran into the ground as An Bord Pleanála decided the scheme would be overbearing and out of kilter with its location in Dublin’s Prussia Street. It was a bad day for the developer, writes Gordon Deegan, as its plans for a separate 130-unit development next to an asphalt plant in Clondalkin was also turned down.

Mainstream Renewable’s Norwegian controlling shareholder is merging the Irish business with its other offshore company to create a business with a renewables portfolio of 27 gigawatts, equivalent to more than five times peak Irish demand.. Joe Brennan reports

Martin Wolf takes a look at how quickly inflation can become embedded in an economy and the headache that will involve for policymakers as voters feel the pinch.

In Commercial property, Ronald Quinlan reports that Luxembourg-based real estate investor REInvest Asset Management S.A. has made its first investment in Ireland, paying €65 million for a prime office building in Dublin city centre.

And the sale of a site at Dundalk North Business Park has cleared the way for what appears to be a major logistics hub on the site.

Finally, Barings, one of the world’s largest real estate investment managers, has upped its involvement in the Irish market, coming on board as senior lender on a €70.1 million facility for the JMK Group secured against the Holiday Inn Dublin Airport Hotel.

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