Bank of Ireland’s Munster HQ to be offered for sale for €13.5m

The Munster headquarters of Bank of Ireland at 32 South Mall in Cork is being offered for sale with a guide price of €13.5 million, offering a yield of 5.82 per cent.

Attractively, the entire building is let to Bank of Ireland, which will remain as a blue-chip tenant on a full repairing and insuring lease with an unexpired term of more than 10 years.

The lease benefits from five-yearly, upwards-only rent reviews. The current passing rent is €864,879.35 per year.

The property is a five-storey office building extending to 26,683sq ft, with the site extending to 0.26 acres (0.1 ha). Accommodation includes a retail banking hall at ground-floor level, with four floors of modern office accommodation overhead.

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South Mall has been home to the Munster headquarters of Bank of Ireland since the 1970s, and is one of only two Bank of Ireland branches remaining in the city centre: the second branch is on Patrick’s Street.

The South Mall is at the heart of Cork’s, central business district, occupying a prime corner position with frontage on to the Mall and Parliament Street. The immediate area is home to several international tech and finance occupiers, including AIB, KPMG, Apple, Huawei, PwC and Deloitte.

The famous English Market is within a five-minute walk of the property, along with a host of popular hotels, bars, cafes, and restaurants, including the Imperial Hotel. Kent Station and the Parnell Place Bus Station are within a 10-minute walk.

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There is a population of 210,000 in metropolitan Cork, which is the Republic’s second largest city, with just over 540,000 people in the county. The city is the main commercial, retail and education centre in the south, and has an enviable track record of attracting significant multinational investment.

Cork also continues to be the top Irish city outside the capital for property investors. The most significant deal so far this year was the acquisition of One Navigation Square by French property fund Corum Asset Management for a reported €60 million.

No 32 South Mall underwent a substantial programme of upgrading and modernisation works in 2008, and is now one of the most impressive buildings in the area.

Michele McGarry, head of capital markets with Colliers; and Maurice Cohalan, of Cohalan Downing, who are handling the sale, believe the long unexpired term and blue-chip covenant of Bank of Ireland will be of particular interest to investors.

Given negative interest rates being charged on deposits, the agents are expecting strong interest from local, private and institutional investors. It is, they say, “an excellent opportunity for the investor to acquire a trophy asset in Cork city centre”.