AROUND THE BLOCK

A round-up of news from the market.

All eyes on council's response to plan for listed bank HQ on Baggot St

ALL EYES WILL be on Dublin city planners in the coming weeks to see how they deal with a somewhat sensitive planning application to enlarge the newly listed Bank of Ireland headquarters on Baggot Street.

The business consortium headed by Derek Quinlan and Paddy Shovlin, which bought the landmark building two years ago for €212 million, wants to increase the office space by almost 16,000sq m (172,224sq ft) to bring it up to 37,295sq m (401,443sq ft).

The planning application is being seen as a test case because the Scott Tallon Walker office block, dating from 1975, is one of the few contemporary buildings among the 8,500 listed buildings in Dublin. Most are either Georgian or Edwardian but they also include Michael Scotts Busárus, PJ Carrolls cigarette factory in Dundalk and the Goulding Summerhouse in Enniskerry.

A source in the Quinlan/Shovlin camp says the proposed changes were designed with the listing in mind and they would be working closely with the planners "to ensure we deliver the optimum solution". This they hope to do by increasing the height of Block A from nine to 11 storeys, adding another two floors to Block C to bring it up to six and raising Block B from five to six storeys. Permission is also being sought to provide an eight-storey, 5,420sq m (58,340sq ft) extension to the northern facade of Block A and to make alternative use of 87 car-parking spaces in the basement once the parking capacity has been reduced to 121.

With the three blocks currently set around a central plaza, the owners are also planning to link up the buildings with a new glazed atrium ranging in height from six to nine storeys to accommodate a gallery/exhibition area, reception and landscaped gardens.

Finally, they also want to replace the present dark double glazed window panels with a high performance double glazing.

The bank HQ and a large number of bank branches around the country were sold by both Bank of Ireland and AIB at the height of the property boom. With the Quinlan/Shovlin group now getting a yield of only 2.8 per cent on the Baggot Street building, they will obviously be hoping that the bank finds a new head office quickly, even before its various break options after year five. It is shortly to sign up for a new back office along the north city quays and has also shortlisted a number of sites on the southside for a front office.

Borrowers discover what the banks really think

BANKS, AS ever, act to protect their posteriors. So they should in the wake of the massive losses by their US colleagues on sub-prime.

But banks are not taking at face value the sale price of properties, as agreed between vendor and buyer.

Instead, they are increasingly inserting their own valuer's figures, adding a new meaning to the word "caution".

Recent applications for mortgages have been shocked to have the lenders come back to them with a lowered value, about 15 per cent off the agreed purchase price. Unfortunately, all too true, but it's hard to blame the banks when agents have been inflating sales prices above the actual figures - in some cases by more than 15 per cent.

As banks lower the value of properties to what they believe is the real market value, a new definition has entered the lingo, courtesy of FG's Enda Kenny, who calls them the "new mortgage poor".

At least, "them/us" have mortgages, which seem increasingly hard to get, at rates that seem any way favourable in the current climate. Never mind what the lenders are publicly saying, in real terms for first-time buyers, loans will cost around 6 per cent at 80 to 90 per cent of (the reduced) value. Investors will be lucky to get loans of up to 60 per cent of the value.

Lavish Riviera launch but will Irish buyers be on board?

THERE WAS little talk of le credit crunch or recession last week on the Riviera at the lavish launch of Le Provençal, a swish seaside redevelopment being sold off plans in Juan-les-Pins where apartments start at €2 million and rise to €40 million.

The lavish scheme is being built by UK developer Cyril Denis who hosted a lavish beach party to launch the sales campaign, where we spotted Michael Fingleton of Irish Nationwide mingling with local worthies, and enjoying a break from the dire economy at home.

Buyers from economies that are still booming - Russia, India, the middle and Far East - are expected to be interested in buying a swanky pad in the scheme where the top price is close to €40 million, along with some English, maybe even Irish, buyers. Agent Savills is eager to get the mix right - for which read, we don't want one nationality to dominate.

Russian media debated whether a wealthy person would cross the road to go to the beach (the scheme is a minute's stroll from its own private beach); others wondered why you wouldn't buy a huge villa in Cap d'Antibes if you had that sort of money. A Russian journalist answers the question - security. (See this week's  Talking Property). Will Irish buyers compete for a pad in Le Provençal? Time will tell.

Meanwhile, Côte d'Azur-based Irish agent Hilary Larkin - who formerly traded as Côte d'Azur Property Connections, now as Hilary Larkin Properties - will be showing properties she has for sale at her French property open day this Saturday, July 5th, from 10am to 5pm at the Remax offices in Parkland Office Park, opposite the Ramada Hotel on the Southern Cross in Bray. Now concentrating on finding properties for buyers, she has apartments from under €200,000 to villas for over €3m.

[ www.HilaryLarkin.com ]

Anyone for this year's Irish Times/IAVI tennis tournament?

WITH WIMBLEDON in the air, Round the Blockwould like to remind property folk of another event in the sporting calendar - the upcoming Irish Times IAVI annual tennis tournament.

This takes place on August 27th in Lansdowne Tennis Club before estate agents limber up for the autumn selling season.

The tournament is open to teams from estate agency firms across the country.

All you need is a decent serve and some clean whites. For more details contact Valerie Bourke at the Irish Auctioneers and Valuers Institute (IAVI). Tel: 01-661 1794.

Atisreal hiring on all cylinders

Good to her that at least one agency in town is actually hiring, rather than downsizing.

Atisreal's 25-strong Dublin office is looking to recruit a handful of chartered surveyors, to expand its commercial business in Fitzwilliam Place.

Part of the Atisreal International Group, the Dublin office is looking to beef up its professional services and property management departments, and it's also looking for an office co-ordinator.

Obviously the benefits of working for a subsidiary of BNP Paribas, one of the top global financial institutions, has its advantages.

Prices still on the way up . . .  in Scotland

WHILE UK house prices are plummeting, those investors who plunged on residential schemes in Glasgow and Edinburgh will be glad to hear those cities have bucked the trend.

Apparently, there has been a 1 per cent increase in Scottish house prices in the past six months. Those - who some years ago thought to buy a basic unit for a student offspring or sibling while the going was good - have been vindicated.