Central Dublin property prices to soar 25% by 2028, study finds

Residential property prices in central Dublin will soar by 25 per cent to a median of €476,000 by 2028, a new study for Dublin City Council has found. The Business Post reports that the comprehensive housing need and demand assessment by KPMG Future Analytics for the council, found the average price of a home will increase from €437,868 to €575,251 between 2021 and 2028.

The report, which is a first-of-its-kind analysis of the capital’s housing market, found the median home price would rise from €378,403 to €476,760 in the same period. It also showed that 75 per cent of the homes in central Dublin will be priced above €367,252 in 2028, compared with €291,487 in 2021. The median price point, which shows the midpoint of a frequency of price distribution, is judged to be a better barometer than average prices by housing analysts.

Donohoe warned over zoned lands tax proposal  
The Sunday Independent reports Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe was warned that any plan to tax land that was being used for farming even though it had been zoned for housing development was likely to be "politically sensitive". Department of Finance records show the Department of Housing wanted to exclude such land – where it had been later rezoned for redevelopment or regeneration – from the Government's plan for a zoned lands tax.

However, the paper reports both Revenue and Department of Finance had “significant reservations” about this exemption and how it might hamper the availability of badly needed development land in future.

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Microsoft calls on CRU to weed out 'speculative' applications  
Microsoft has called on the energy regulator to weed out "speculative" data centre applications and to introduce "Dublin-specific" solutions to the power supply crisis facing the country. The Business Post also writes that as part of the US tech giant's submission to the Commission for Regulation of Utilities public consultation on data centres, it said priority should be given to new data centres that are "real, shovel-ready" and have proper business cases that will foster employment and innovation as opposed to "speculative" projects.

Microsoft also said the regulator needed to introduce incentives for power companies such as guaranteed higher electricity prices or increased capacity payments to encourage investment in new power plants in the Dublin area.

BoyleSports buys Tully Bookmakers  
BoyleSports has bought out Tully Bookmakers, adding 10 shops to its retail network. The Business Post reports the bookmaker was one of Ireland's largest independent operators and had traded for more than 40 years.

Subject to competition authority approval, BoyleSports, Ireland’s largest independent gambling operator, will add the Tully business to its existing shops, bringing its ownership to almost 300 outlets in Ireland. It has 67 betting shops in Britain. The company would not disclose the pricing around the Tully deal, which also includes its phone-a-bet business.

Goldman Sachs sells two Irish shopping centres  
Goldman Sachs, the American investment bank, has sold two of its Irish shopping centres in deals worth about €50 million, the Sunday Times writes. Property Developer Ardstone paid €30 million for the CityWest shipping centre in Dublin and an adjoining site with planning permission for 300 homes. Cork-based property investor and developer Urban GreenPrivate paid about €18 million for the Bridgewater shopping centre in Arklow, Co Wicklow.

BOI takes aim at ESG investments  
The investment chief at Bank of Ireland's staff pension scheme has taken aim at green and ethical investing, claiming that pressure to "buy windmills and sell coalminers" is the biggest risk facing investors. The Sunday Times reports Paul Droop, who has managed the bank's €8 billion pension fund since 2011, also rejected shareholder activism on environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues.

“I wouldn’t dare tell a company how it should be run, they are the experts,” he said. “Rather than tell a board how to behave I would rather have them compete.”

The rise of ESG investing, driven mainly as a response to climate change, threatens to distort investment outcomes, he warned, especially when investors are propelled towards the same types of companies. “This type of behaviour leads people to buy overpriced assets and sell underpriced ones, which isn’t very good risk management,” he said.