Sandyford apartments and site for €80m

A further 270 rented apartments are to be offered for sale in a single lot at a mixed use development at Sandyford in south Dublin which ran into serious financial difficulties when the property market crashed almost seven years ago.

Dessie Kilkenny of Savills is seeking €80 million for the tranche of apartments as well as a site with planning permission for a further 467 apartments and 5,976 sq m (64,324 s q ft) of commercial buildings.

The portfolio is the latest phase of the sizeable Rockbrook Estate to be offered for sale on the instructions of Pearse Farrell of Duff & Phelps who was appointed receiver by Nama and KBC Bank

The Cork-based Fleming Group can trace its misfortune to its decision to spend a formidable €245 million on assembling a site of 11.2 acres opposite the Luas station towards the end of 1995. Most of this– €165 million – went towards the purchase of the 7.7 acre former Allegro site which had changed hands eight years earlier for a mere €15.8 million.

Several parts of the Rockbrook scheme have already been sold on including 63 apartments which were bought last year by Ires REIT and the half-built Sentinel Tower, which was knocked down to the Comer Group for €1 million in 2011.

The 270 apartments now going on sale form part of 490 residential units in all, which are in constant demand in the rental market because of their easy accessibility via the Green Luas line, several bus routes and the M50 and N11 motorways.

The apartments going for sale are virtually all let and comprise 46 one bedroom units, 203 two-bedroom homes and 21 with three-bedrooms. Most of the units come with their own balconies and car parking spaces.

The residential units are producing a rent roll of €4.15 million per year with potential to increase that figure in the coming months. One-bedroom units are making €1,136 per month with some increasing recently to €1,250.

Average two-beds have also been moving up from €1,308 to €1,450 while some three-beds have gone from €1,655 to €1,850. The apartments are in two blocks, Grand Central and South Central, over ground floor retail units known as the Boulevard. There are three levels of basement car parking.

More than 60 per cent of the overall commercial space (4,459 sq m/48,000 sq ft) is already let to EZ Living and producing a rental income of €183,000. New owners can expect a further €270,000 when the balance of the space is let. As things stand, the initial yield will be about 5.2 per cent after standard purchasing costs are taken into account.

Mr Kilkenny said that with the current shortage of housing units in the Dublin area he was convinced that whoever buys the Rockbrook Estate would avail of the current planning permission and proceed with the development of a further 467 apartments at the Sandyford site.

The permission, which runs until July 2016, also allows for the development of a further 5,967sq m of commercial space and associated basement car parking.