The Cosgrave Property Group has sold 368 apartments it is developing in Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin to Deutsche Bank subsidiary DWS for about €200 million.
The transaction represents the German-headquartered fund’s second acquisition in the Dublin market within the space of a week, and its second purchase at the Cosgrave’s Cualanor scheme in under a year.
Elsewhere in the city, DWS completed the €145 million purchase in recent days of a portfolio of 317 residential units the MKN Property Group is developing. The Prestige portfolio comprises a mix of existing and new-build apartments and houses distributed across four schemes in the north Dublin suburbs of Swords, Raheny, Clontarf and Killester.
While the Prestige portfolio’s €145 million price tag equates to an average of €457,413 per unit, it pales alongside the average of €543,478 DWS is understood to be paying for the final apartments at Cualanor in Dún Laoghaire.
The German fund paid €108 million, or an average of €504,000 per unit, when it acquired 214 apartments at the same scheme in May of last year.
Due for completion in stages between April 2021 and January 2022, the units at Cheevers Court and Haliday House are distributed between two buildings of five and seven storeys incorporating 368 apartments and penthouses over a basement car park.
The portfolio comprises 46 one-bedroom apartments, nine one-bedroom plus study apartments, 248 two-bedroom apartments/penthouses and 65 three-bedroom apartments/penthouses.
Largest transaction
The sale of the units at Cheevers Court and Haliday House represents the largest private rented sector (PRS) or Build-to-Rent (BTR) transaction to have been completed in the Irish market this year.
It is the fourth major PRS deal that Cosgrave has secured through agent Hooke & MacDonald since 2016 at Cualanor, and the neighbouring Honeypark scheme, which it is developing on the former Dún Laoghaire Golf Club lands.
At Honeypark, Tristan Capital Partners, which has its headquarters in the UK, and its Irish operating partner, SW3, paid €72.5 million, or an average of €368,000 per unit, for 197 apartments at Neptune House in 2016, while a year later the German fund Patrizia Immobilien paid €132 million, or an average of €413,000 per unit, for 319 apartments in the Leona and Charlotte buildings.
Hooke & MacDonald declined to comment on the latest sale when contacted by The Irish Times.
The Cosgrave Property Group has led the market in recent years in the simultaneous development of large-scale apartment projects for both PRS and owner-occupiers in Dublin.
In keeping with this twin-track strategy, Cosgrave’s disposal of the Cheevers Court and Haliday House PRS portfolio follows on from its sale to the traditional owner-occupier market of more than 400 houses and 150 apartments at the wider Cualanor and Honeypark development. At Cualanor alone, 96 apartments and 178 houses have been sold to individual buyers.
