New Maple apartment complex will boost supply in Sandyford

Supply in the over-heated rental market may be partially addressed by the construction of 68 new apartments at the Beacon South Quarter development in Sandyford, Co Dublin. Built by Ires Reit, a subsidiary of Canadian fund Capreit and one of Dublin's biggest landlords, the 68 apartments in the new "Maple" development on Bracken Road in Sandyford will be let on the open market, with an expected completion date of the second quarter of 2017.

The development consists of four one-bed, 55 two-bed and nine three-bed apartments, and Walls Construction has been hired as general contractor. Ires Reit is expecting a gross yield of 8.5-9 per cent on the new apartments and it is being funded under the company’s recently arranged €250 million credit facility. Ires Reit said in its recent investor update that it can build these new apartments at cheaper rates than the market, given that it already has significant infrastructure in place.

While the property investor has said in the past that it hopes to “design and build” its own rental units, which would differ from apartments built to be sold, The Maple is being constructed under an old planning permission which was in place before it acquired the site, and therefore will be similar to the existing completed stock in the development.

Putative tenants should expect rents upwards of €1,400 a month, at the address opposite Beacon Hospital and adjacent to Ires-Reit's Beacon South Quarter development, where it has 225 apartments available to rent at an average monthly rent of €1,479. It is also close to the investment company's Grand Central, South Central and Forum developments and, once the apartments are constructed, Ires Reit will have some 636 apartments on the rental market in Sandyford.

Ires Reit also has plans to build about 470 new apartments at the nearby Rockbrook development. While the investment company postponed the planning process of these new units until the introduction of new planning regulations last December, which allow for the construction of smaller apartments, it says it is in the process of preparing a planning application under the revised regulations, which, it expects, will mean “lower development costs”.

Across Dublin, Ires Reit has a portfolio of more than 2,000 apartments and has become one of the country’s largest residential landlords. At the end of 2015, its average rents were €1,372 a month, up by 10 per cent on the year.