Ires Reit, the State’s largest private-sector residential landlord, has decided not to proceed with a deal to buy the apartment block Two Three North in Clongriffin.
In March, a joint venture between Tristan Capital Partners and Rick Larkin’s Twinlite put the 282-unit block up for sale at a guide price of €117.5 million.
The guide price for the property, brought to market by joint agents Hooke & MacDonald and Knight Frank, equated to an average of almost €417,000 per apartment.
Property market sources close to the deal have told The Irish Times that Ires Reit was in pole position to acquire the Clongriffin apartment block.
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The deal was at a contract stage and close to being signed, but the company had decided against proceeding with the transaction.
Ires Reit could not be reached for comment. A representative for Twinlite declined to comment and Tristan Capital Partners did not respond to a request for comment.
In recent years, following the appointment of Eddie Byrne as chief executive, Ires Reit has focused on cost control and selling off certain properties in its portfolio.
In August 2025, the company announced it planned to begin adding homes to its stock of around 3,600 homes in Ireland. At the time, the company had not closed any new deals to add stock to its portfolio since January 2022.
In February, it acquired 77 residential apartments for about €31.8 million after it entered a forward purchase agreement with Westar Homes Limited for units in Naas, Co Kildare.
The listed firm was in advanced negotiations to add further homes to its portfolio through the deal with Tristan Capital Partners and Twinlite until it decided not to proceed.
The block put up for sale by the joint venture was developed alongside the 376 apartments at One Three North.
The 282 units in the Two Three North portfolio comprise a mix of 236 private rented sector apartments and 46 units let to Dublin City Council on a 25-year lease, with more than 21 years remaining.
It is understood completion of the deal for the apartments by Ires Reit was put on hold in recent weeks after it emerged that UK firm Barings Investment had made five proposals to the company about a takeover since early August.
On Monday, the board of Ires Reit confirmed it has agreed to accept an all-cash offer of €731 million from Barings Investment for the Dublin-listed company.
The takeover offer accepted from Barings will see shareholders receive €1.386 per share in total, including an offer price of €1.3651 plus a 2.09 cent dividend.
Ires Reit said the deal values the entire issued, and to be issued share capital, at about €731 million.
Twinlite and Tristan Capital’s proposed disposal of Two Three North has come four years after the pair also readied the sale of 376 apartments at One Three North.
That portfolio, which was marketed with a €200 million guide price, was the subject of strong interest from potential purchasers, but the sale process was abandoned in the face of a series of interest rate increases by the ECB.
