Two Ballsbridge office blocks expected to make £6.5 million

WITH relatively few investment opportunities available in the Dublin market, two office blocks in Ballsbridge, Dublin 4, are to be offered for sale in the coming weeks to capitalise on the shortage.

A 23,000-square-foot building at 6 Burlington Road, which will become vacant in 12 months' time, is expected to make about £4 million when it is sold by tender.

In a separate sale, the Irish Public Bodies Mutual Insurance Company is seeking £2.5 million for an office investment at 10/11 Lansdowne Road.

Both buildings will be of interest to private investors who have become more active in the commercial property market over the past two years. Many of the investments sold this year were bought by either individuals or groups of businessmen with the intention of using them as pension funds.

Private investors are being encouraged to acquire property by the lending institutions who are making five-year and 10-year funds available at historically low interest rates.

Willie Dowling of Gunne is handling the sale of the five-storey Burlington Road block, which has on-site parking for 55 cars. The building has raised platform floors but will need to be refurbished at a cost of possibly around £1 million when it is vacated in December, 1997. The block, which is located opposite the distinctive building occupied by solicitors Matheson Ormsby Prentice, would probably rent for £17 or £18 per square foot in the present buoyant market. It will be sold by tender on December 4th.

Meanwhile, Sherry FitzGerald is marketing the 12,764-square-foot Lansdowne Road building occupied by insurance brokers MacDonagh Boland at a current rent of £162,000 per annum. A purchase price of £2.5 million would provide an initial yield of 6 per cent with reversion to 7 per cent following the next review. based on a current estimated rent of £13 per square foot. The next review takes place in 1999 and the lease has 18 years to run. The three-storey building dates from 1979 and has 21 car-parking spaces.

MacDonagh Boland is among the leading insurance brokers in the city and its shareholders include the Smurfit Group.

A portion of the ground floor comprising 2,735 square feet and eight car-parking spaces are let to PA Management Consultants (Ireland) Ltd on terms similar to the head rent.

Meanwhile, agents Finnegan Menton are reporting strong interest in the Bord lascaigh Mhara headquarters building. which overlooks Dun Laoghaire harbour. It is to be sold by auction on November 4th.

The agents are quoting a guide-line price of £4 million for the 37,000-square-foot building and 35 car-parking spaces, which are rented by the semi-State body at £322,000 per annum.

BIM may be among the bidders following an apparent change of policy by the Office of Public Works to purchase some offices occupied by State agencies.