Singapore investor weighs €320m sale of TikTok’s Dublin office

Singapore-headquartered real-estate investment trust Mapletree Investments is understood to be weighing plans to sell the Sorting Office, the 18,766sq m (202,000sq ft) home of TikTok in Dublin’s south docklands. Should the sale proceed, the property is expected to command a guide price of about €320 million – or some €80 million more than the €240 million Mapletree paid when it purchased the office scheme from developer Pat Crean’s Marlet Property Group and its finance partners, M&G Investments, in 2019.

The Singapore Reit’s confidence in the Sorting Office as an investment was rewarded soon after its completion in late 2020 when TikTok agreed terms to lease the entire building as part of its longer-term plan to grow its Dublin-based workforce to 5,000. The Chinese-headquartered social media platform subsequently signed a long-term lease in December 2021 in which it committed to occupy the Cardiff Lane property on the basis of a 15-year lease with 10 years’ term-certain and a rent-free period of about 18 months. The rental level agreed for the office scheme is understood to have been between €55 and €60 per square foot.

The news of Mapletree’s plan to dispose of its interest in the Sorting Office comes at a time of significant market activity for big-ticket Dublin office investments. In June, developer Johnny Ronan’s Ronan Group Real Estate (RGRE) and US fund Fortress Investment Group secured in excess of €500 million from the sale to Blackstone of the European headquarter offices RGRE is developing for Salesforce at Spencer Place in Dublin’s north docklands. Fortress meanwhile is understood be in talks currently with the family office of Zara founder Amancio Ortega in relation to the potential sale of Fibonacci Square, the 34,838sq m (375,000sq ft) of office space RGRE is developing as part of Facebook’s new European headquarters in Ballsbridge.